Wout van Aert insisted we’ll see him in Nice on the final day of the Tour de France, with the Belgian indicating he needed every day of the race in order to haul himself back into the sort of form needed to be competitive at the Olympic Games.
Speaking at a Visma-Lease a Bike press conference on the first rest day of the Tour de France on Monday, Van Aert refuted the suggestion from Belgium’s national selector, Sven Vanthourenhout, that he might beat an early retreat for the Tour in order to prepare for Paris.
"I was a bit surprised to read that, because it was never discussed with Sven,” Van Aert stated. “The intention has always been to finish the Tour. I really need this race to find myself again."
The Tour de France was not part of Van Aert’s plan as mapped out at the start of the year, with a Giro d’Italia debut set to be followed by a tailored approach to the Olympics, where he'll line up in the road race and time trial. However, the heavy crash he suffered in the middle of the Spring Classics forced him back to the drawing board.
After making his return to action at the Tour of Norway in late May, Van Aert was deemed fit enough to support Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour, while also working his way back towards his top form.
"I don't really have that feeling yet, I’m quite tired after these first nine days,” Van Aert said of his progress. "You usually only feel after the Tour that things are really going well. I know that fatigue plays to my advantage. I am confident that I will continue to improve.”
Van Aert played a prominent role on Sunday’s gravel stage, notably dictating the tempo in the bunch on the latter off-road sectors, on a day where Vingegaard rose to the occasion.
"I am satisfied after yesterday's ride, because as a team we achieved our goal and on a personal level because I felt good and was able to contribute. But there is a difference between really fighting for victory and the work I did yesterday,” Van Aert explained.
“I have ridden the Tour often enough to know how good you have to be to win a stage. I had high hopes for that after the first weekend, but the past few days were quite difficult for me and I didn't have that feeling. So I decided to take it slower."
Van Aert ran into particular difficulty in the stage 7 time trial, his 24th place finish – some 1:51 behind his victorious compatriot Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) – being some way short of the potential that has seen him win Tour de France time trials in the past. As such, his ambitions for the Olympic time trial in Paris on July 27, six days after the Tour concludes with its second time trial, have been dampened.
"I am not a favorite there. I already wasn’t, and I will not get back into that role. The numbers I set on Friday were very far from what I can normally do," Van Aert said. "It’s a 30km time trial in Paris, for which I am super motivated, but it will be very difficult to win a medal there."
Still, the road race is another story, and it's not like there's nothing to fight for in this Tour de France beyond merely reaching the end.
“A stage win has always been the goal. Hopefully that will happen in the second week. The [final] week in the mountains will be very tough," Van Aert concluded.
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