“I feel a bit tired,” said Wout van Aert beforehand. Even with that fatigue, it went very well.
After a slightly lesser start, Van Aert moved in one jerk towards conductor Mathieu van der Poel, who soon noted a first mistake on his sheet.
The Belgian champion then gently opened his offensive, Van der Poel corrected for the first time.
But the torque time trial came to an end before the end of the third lap: Van der Poel’s front wheel locked up, Van Aert gave up after a short delay.
Van der Poel was lost after his mistake, the unchained Belgian champion had left for a lonely boxing match of 40 minutes.
With the fingers in the nose and without bulging out. His lap times also remained razor sharp at the end of his Sunday walk in a festival atmosphere.
Van der Poel, in the company of Laurens Sweeck and Michael Vanthourenhout, wisely did not insist anymore.
In the last quarter he still found his second breath, but it all happened clearly in the shadow of the man of the season, today’s last winner in his Belgian jersey.
