Wout van Aert had a tough few first days at the Tour de France but on stage 4 he showed the best level of himself. Whilst he was not able to keep up with the very best on the ultra-steep Saint-Hilaire climb, he finished shortly after. However, he is seriously considering not going for a result in the time-trial despite it.“I was good, but not exceptional enough,” van Aert said in a post-race interview, as reported by In de Leiderstrui. “I just had to let go on that last climb, but it’s a step forward. Pogacar and Vingegaard were still ahead of that group, so you know it’s not going to slow down.”Team Visma | Lease a Bike seemed to have hit the front at the right time on the approach to Rouen and van Aert was in the wheels, indicating that he was having ambitions to go for the stage win. In the final ascent however UAE went all-out and created big differences. Van Aert had to stay in one of the chasing groups.
“Everyone was completely broken at the top, so I already knew I wouldn’t be able to come back. But with Matteo and Jonas up front, it was still a good day for us as a team,” he assures.
Van Aert himself rode to an 11th spot on the day – nevertheless arriving earlier then serious GC contenders like Enric Mas, Primoz Roglic, Florian Lipowitz, Carlos Rodríguez and Enric Mas on a finale that seemed to suit the climbers better. So the Belgian is hitting good form and the time-trial is a good opportunity to finish amongst the best, but he does not believe a victory is possible and so he ponders if it’s worth burning important energy to chase a minor result.
“I still need to think about it, because there are two more tough days coming after. In the past, I would always go full gas in a time trial, but I have to be realistic – I’m not going to beat Remco anyway. But we’ll see what happens,” he concluded.