Wout van Aert will soon be heading to the Tour de France, his team Visma-Lease a Bike announced earlier this week. The question now is in what form it will be there. And apparently no one can give a definitive answer to that.
Benoot is also in the dark
That is also the case with Tiesj Benoot. “The question of ten million. I find it very difficult to estimate it,” he says in Het Laatste Nieuws. However, he has been on an altitude internship with him. “When we train together on an altitude internship, it is not racing like during a mountain stage in the Tour.”
“It’s not like we’re testing each other to see who’s the best. Moreover, when Jonas completes an interval of three times ten minutes at full speed, I do not see him busy. I can’t predict how good they are. Neither do Wout and Jonas themselves. Every athlete coming out of an injury is insecure. Only after the first weekend will we be able to estimate how good they are.”
Not great
According to some, Visma-Lease a Bike would consciously put up a smokescreen over the form of Van Aert and especially Vingegaard. Laughable according to Benoot. “Isn’t that funny? If you say you’re good, they think you’re arrogant or have a big neck.”
“If you say that you are the underdog and the favorites are riding elsewhere, they think you are throwing sand or playing hide and seek… You don’t believe that we as a team are deliberately spouting fog, do you?”
Ultimately, Benoot clearly states that Van Aert is not at the top of his game. “You saw how Wout rode in the Tour of Norway, right? He just wasn’t himself there. He is not at the level he can normally reach. Wout has made progress in recent weeks, but is not at the level of last year and certainly not at that of two years ago.”
