Eyewitness – Tactical blunder turns Wout van Aert and Visma-Lease a Bike's 'perfect' day at the Classics into a nightmare

12 months ago, an audible gasp rang out throughout the press room of Dwars door Vlaanderen as Belgium's home star Wout van Aert lay on the ground crying out in agony, having broken several bones and had his Classics season ended in the high-speed crash 67km from the finish. Fast forward to today, and that same gasp was let out by the thousands of Belgians at the finish in Waregem as they watched their hero suffer a similar nightmare, but this time in losing a Visma-Lease a Bike three-against-one in the sprint to Neilson Powless.

I was standing at the mixed zone ready to try and speak to whichever of Van Aert's team companions in the four-man move finished outside of the podium, with several questions primed about what such a positive result at Dwars means for Sunday's Tour of Flanders, especially considering their relatively poor results at E3 and Gent-Wevelgem. 

After all, it had been a near-perfect display from the Dutch team until the very last hundred metres. They'd scorched away from the peloton with Edoardo Affini leading out Tiesj Benoot, Matteo Jorgenson and Van Aert before the Berg Ten Houte, soon catching others who'd broken away in what looked set to be a dominant win as only Powless could follow them. 

My plans were changed in a flash when what seemed like a certain victory for Van Aert turned into the ultimate disappointment for Visma-Lease a Bike. Powless had come around him, seemingly with ease, and all the positive questions were flipped on their head. What went wrong? What was the plan in the sprint? Why did neither Matteo nor Tiesj attack in the final 10km?

Van Aert, Visma's long-term leader in the Classics, took full responsibility, of course, revealing that it was his decision to go only for him in the sprint and use the other two to keep the gap. He admitted he was selfish, that he wanted it too much after all the criticism and bad luck he'd endured. But that ended up leading to his downfall.

"I was just too selfish in the final, I wanted this victory so badly, especially after all the criticism I've been through and all the bad luck last year," said a visibly and audibly upset Van Aert. 

"I would say for once I was thinking about myself. It was almost the perfect scenario coming to the line. I just wanted no chance that we messed around and that one of my teammates won this race and that's a huge mistake."

As journalists from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK lined up outside the Visma team bus for a team reaction, you'd have thought Visma had won the race. Soon, an expectedly disappointed Visma Head of Racing Grischa Niermann emerged from the bus and knew what we'd all come to ask him – what went wrong?

"Wout was confident in his sprint, but in hindsight, I should have decided that we would attack one by one to drop Powless," said Niermann into VRT's microphone, trying to take the responsibility away from Van Aert.

"Because in this way, it was, of course, on a plate for him. That can happen, but I see it as my mistake and my responsibility to overrule that. We should have attacked, and I decided not to. Of course, I'm disappointed because it was a great race until that final kilometre.

"This is also an extension of the past few weeks. It was super beautiful, and we enjoyed it, but I'm not feeling well after this ending."

Last year, Niermann had to confirm to the press how Van Aert's Classics were over following his brutal crash. This time around, he didn't have to say it, but losing the sprint in the way he did felt as though the result was the same. How could he bounce back from this? 

The Wout van Aert of old would have won this sprint against Powless 9 of 10 times. But perhaps both the physical toll of that brutal crash last year, alongside the injury he sustained to his knee in a crash at the Vuelta, not to mention the mental pressure he's been under for failing again at these races, have done the damage. 

Van Aert was despondent as he was forced to do his media duties having finished second, and tell each of the various media outlets waiting to ask him the same questions. Third place Benoot was also there and telling a similar story, one of disappointment, but he too had fallen into the trap of wanting so desperately for Van Aert to win. 

As one of his closest friends on the team and having spent three more lonely weeks at altitude in preparation for the Classics, it was understandable why the gamble for the sprint was bought into by Benoot and Jorgenson, but they couldn't hide an overwhelming emotion of regret.

"We just wanted Wout to win, and we made the wrong decisions," Benoot told Cyclingnews and Daniel Benson's Substack. 

"It is what it is; we are second, third and fourth, but we deserved the win – Neilson also did, of course, but we should have finished it off.

"I think I wanted Wout to win more than myself, especially after what he has been through here and later in the season, so that made us vulnerable."

I saw Jorgenson arrive back at the team bus, having done his media duties and told a similar story to Benoot. He, too, gave no illusion that today was anything but a blunder for Visma, with all three of them underestimating Powless against Van Aert. 

"We did a beautiful race up until 10km to go, and we decided to go for the sprint with Wout. It was the wrong decision, we can be honest about that, and we also underestimated Neilson, so really chapeau to him and congrats, that was a great sprint," said Jorgenson in the mixed zone.

There were shades of Ian Stannard's famous Omloop Het Nieuwsblad victory back in 2015 when he too emerged victorious from a three-against-one assault from one of the Classics' top teams – Etixx-QuickStep. Powless couldn't believe he'd done it, especially in the company he was in, but Jorgenson said he knew his American compatriot had this in him. 

"No, I wouldn't say it's so much of a surprise. I know him; I know how fast he is. [Neilson] is super explosive," said Jorgenson, before again focussing on how much of an error was made. 

"Wout and also the car decided to go for the sprint instead of attacking. This is a decision we made because we weren't super confident with the gap we had at a certain point. 

"Neilson was helping the whole time, and we were quite nervous with the headwind on the final lap and the group coming from behind. We decided to use Tiesj and I and gamble with Wout, but like I said, it was the wrong decision."

With all this said, I don't think Visma-Lease a Bike should be counted out completely for the Tour of Flanders on Sunday, however, if they wanted to put their name amongst the Van der Poel's and Pogačar's of the world, as Pedersen did by dominating Gent-Wevelgem solo, then they simply had to win today. 

It's hard to look at it properly now, but Benoot did shine some light on a dark day, as Visma "could execute the plan that we wanted to do in the hilly zone", which could be crucial to get away from the two favourites mentioned above. That seems like Van Aert's only hope of winning Flanders for the first time in his career now.

"We did what we wanted to do and just went away with three riders. I think if we tomorrow, Friday and Saturday look back on this race, we will get more confidence than maybe at this moment."

Another year passes, and another nightmare has come to haunt Visma-Lease a Bike and Wout van Aert at the Classics.

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