The jury was still out on the wisdom of Wout van Aert's unconventional Classics preparation after E3 Harelbeke, where his challenge was impeded by a crash on the Paterberg. Wednesday's Dwars door Vlaanderen should offer a firmer indication, even if Van Aert knows the Tour of Flanders will be the true arbiter.
The reasoning behind Van Aert's 2024 schedule is well-known at this point. He has won Milan-San Remo, Strade Bianche, Amstel Gold Race, Gent-Wevelgem, E3 Harelbeke, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne over the years, but that hefty one-day haul still doesn't quite suffice to please his demanding constituency.
For a Belgian rider of his gifts on the cobbles, victory at the Tour of Flanders must feel like an obligation. That mission seems all the more imperative given that his old rival Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has clocked up two victories at the Ronde and leads Van Aert 4-1 in Monument wins.
Van der Poel, so crushing in Harelbeke and still impressive in defeat at Gent-Wevelgem, will not be among Van Aert's competitors at Dwars door Vlaanderen, though the Visma-Lease A Bike man will measure himself against several others with designs on the Ronde podium, including Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-rek), Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost).
Most eyes, however, will be trained firmly on Van Aert, who this year eschewed Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo in favour of a three-week training camp atop Mount Teide. He arrived in Belgium just two days before E3 Saxo Classic, where his fall on the Paterberg offered mitigation for his eventual third-place finish.
Van Aert had looked less sharp than Van der Poel in the early skirmishes, most notably on the Taaienberg, but that didn't necessarily mean the Dutchman was going to drop him in the finale. After his crash, meanwhile, Van Aert burnt off the chase group on the Kwaremont and put up a spirited solo pursuit of Van der Poel before eventually succumbing on Karnemelkbeekstraat.
When Van Aert faded in the closing kilometres, one wondered if the injuries sustained in the crash were more severe than first thought, but those fears were soon allayed when he posted details on Strava of a 180km training ride the following day. "Nobody has ever recovered immediately after a fall, but Wout's injuries aren't too bad," directeur sportif Maarten Wynants told Het Laatste Nieuws.
Visma
The overall health of Visma-Lease A Bike's Classics unit is a greater concern. Christophe Laporte has already been ruled out of the Tour of Flanders through illness, while Dylan van Baarle is also a doubt after it emerged that he would be too ill to ride Dwars door Vlaanderen.
Tiesj Benoot, meanwhile, suffered a crash at E3 Harelbeke, while Matteo Jorgenson had the misfortune to fall, albeit without consequence, after crossing the line in fifth place. For good measure, Omloop winner Jan Tratnik crashed out of Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday, prompting Het Nieuwsblad to talk of the "curse of Mount Teide."
Jorgenson, Benoot and Tratnik are all fit enough to line out alongside Van Aert on Wednesday, however. On the evidence of his fine E3 display, Jorgenson should be to the fore here, and Visma will hope the race to Waregem can reignite a Classics campaign that lost momentum over the weekend. Then again, the Dutch squad won E3, Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen last year only to fall short at the Ronde and Paris-Roubaix.
For Van Aert, therefore, Dwars door Vlaanderen is a means to an end rather than an objective in and of itself. He is the logical favourite to win, of course, but the race features on his calendar as a final warm-up for the Tour of Flanders, nothing more. The point was illustrated when Van Aert revisited his disappointment at falling short at least year's Flanders and Roubaix in an interview with Belgian magazine Humo published on Tuesday.
"I missed out on a big win too often last year, and that always led to frustration," said Van Aert, who added that his reduced cyclocross calendar this past winter was a reaction to how last season played out.
"I never got to my best level throughout the season, and that frustration built up to such an extent that I needed more time for myself. The team also said: 'We are not going to let you race with a knife to your throat from mid-December.' That was the right decision. The frustration is gone, the batteries are recharged."
Whatever he says about his frustration, Van Aert knows that criticism is never far away. It seems to come with the territory for a man of such dextrous talent, amplifying every time he misses out on a Monument or a world title.
"It hasn't worked out a few times already, so that makes me an underdog," Van Aert said of the Classics. "Some people like that and are fans of me because of it. Others are disappointed and criticise. If Tom Boonen or Rik Van Looy give an interview, I don't have to read it to know what it says. No one is immune to criticism, including me."
Victory at Dwars door Vlaanderen won't alter that reality, of course, but Van Aert's first appearance in the race since 2018 is a crucial element in his Ronde preparation: a tweak in his build-up that might yet change his Monuments narrative.
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