2024-03-22 19:00:51
His face marked by the cold and the rain and his eyes vacant, Wout Van Aert looked like a bad day after his arrival. Without dwelling on the performance of his eternal rival, Mathieu Van der Poel, he tried to find something to positive about his third place which he sought after his fall in the Paterberg which destroyed his ambitions, but which he assumes full responsibility.
Without your fall, do you think you would have been able to follow Mathieu Van der Poel’s decisive attack?
Yes, it was decisive for the rest of the race, there is no doubt about it. It took a lot of strength for me to fight after this incident, I found myself alone behind Mathieu when I started chasing him. For a moment, I felt like I could come back, we were equal, I wasn’t losing any more time and I was even gaining some back. My intention was to take it again on the penultimate difficulty (the Karnemelstraat), I felt really good until then. He didn’t miss much, ten seconds I think but it didn’t work, I couldn’t impose the same pace anymore.
What exactly happened on this fall?
It was a mistake on my part, it was totally stupid. I had felt for some time that Mathieu was up to something, I couldn’t leave too much distance between him and me. I wanted to jump on a cobblestone to gain a position behind him, but I found myself stuck with my wheel on the shoulder. I only have myself to blame. I thought it was nothing but the fall was heavier than I imagined, my right side hurt, my elbow and hip were sore. It was not ideal to imagine winning today, especially against an opponent like Mathieu who was very strong and who deserved his victory.
We didn’t see you sprint for 2nd place against Jasper Stuyven, why?
In fact, I was almost happy that Jasper joined me at the end and that I could stay on his wheel to reach the finish. I didn’t even think about the sprint, without it I wouldn’t have made a place on the podium. Given the conditions, this was the best possible result. We expected to see Mathieu as strong today, so it was difficult to do much better. »
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#Wout #Van #Aert #blame