Wout van Aert grows every day without seeing where his barrier is as long as the high peaks do not hinder his pedaling. He is a cyclist who knows how to succeed in a time trial, as happened this Wednesday in Paris-Nice and as he already did in the specialty stage in the last Tour. He is a runner who, beyond the duels with his irreconcilable Mathieu van der Poel, conquers the cycling universe wherever he wants to. His last feat, a victory against Primoz Roglicin what has meant a double against the ‘chrono’ in the ‘race of the sun’ and with Christopher Laporte installed in the third place of the general.
Now the French route is already entering a more complicated territory and one that should benefit much more Roglic than Van Aert. In fact, the Jumbo team doesn’t care who wins, but they are proud of Van Aert, a star in the mud of cyclo-cross, capable of winning any classic regardless of the track it has and the only one who has shown on a Tour, outside of a jersey yellow, which can prevail in the mountains, in the time trial and in the final sprint on the Champs-Élysées to safeguard the legend of his compatriot Eddy Merckx in the face of the threat of Mark Cavendish to take away the record of victories in the French round.
In a ‘chrono’ of 13 kilometers. where the hardness of the last 700 meters stood out, Roglic He looked for victory with enormous power in the last meters after a somewhat discreet start. He finished second because Van Aert he exhibited all his class to score the triumph and then announce that he was putting himself at the service of his Slovenian leader in what remains of Paris-Nice. They both maintain a comfortable advantage over the rest of the rivals, all of them more than a minute apart except Simon Yatesat 49 seconds, after covering a magnificent time trial. Van Aert so far he has not moved from the podium of each stage: third, second, third and first. Simply sensational.
