At the beginning of the Tour de France, Visma-Lease a Bike were playing down Wout van Aert's chances of stage victories – but that could be about to change after the Belgian returned to the big stage by winning the sprint for third on the opening day.
Before the 2024 Tour rolled out of town in Florence, Van Aert told the media that he had never arrived at the race "in such poor form" after breaking his sternum, collarbone and seven ribs at late-March's Dwars door Vlaanderen.
Yet by the shores of Rimini on Saturday, the Belgian led home the remnants of the peloton behind stage one winner Romain Bardet and his dsm–firmenich PostNL teammate Frank van den Broek.
A visibly emotional Van Aert burst into tears at the finish after missing out on the yellow jersey by only a handful of seconds, later saying it was a shock to him to be competitive on day one.
"It's really satisfying to show this again," he said. "Obviously it's a pity I came up short on the win but [from] where I came from, I never expected to be here on this level. It feels really good."
Speaking outside the Visma-Lease a Bike team bus in a sweltering Cesenatico ahead of stage two, sports director Frans Maassen indicated that Van Aert would have his own opportunities in the race, but that his central ambition was getting reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard on to the podium in Nice in three weeks' time.
Maassen said: "Of course, we are looking to chase opportunities. But the main goal is to have Jonas always in the best possible position and get any help which is needed to him and that's simply it.
"When he feels okay, then Wout is the kind of guy who can say, ‘okay, I go for it’ and maybe [Christophe] Laporte can help him if everything goes okay. Of course, we want him [Van Aert] to win a stage, but we have to look at it day by day."
Van Aert has only ridden five race days since his injury in the spring, but he recovered well enough to make the Visma Tour team.
"For us it not really a surprise that Wout took third [in Rimini]," Maassen added. "This is because we know that he is just an excellent rider.
"During the stage he said, 'boys, I'm feeling really good, let's go for it as I think I can win the stage' so that gave a lot of motivation to everyone for the days to come."
His eye-catching performance on the Tour's opening weekend is a reflection of his work in the past month, Maassen said. "We knew his shape on the climbs wouldn't be that good, like when he won, for example, on Mont Ventoux [at the 2021 Tour], but he did a really good job working in Tignes at our altitude camp [in June] to get into a better shape after the Tour of Norway [where he] was not good enough to compete with the best in the Tour.
"He made another step and he's always good in the heat. He's just an exceptionally good rider as we all know."
