Wout van Aert and Visma-Lease a Bike were left wondering what might have been on Saturday as the Belgian star failed to impact the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and his team never managed to get on terms with a race they have won for the last three years.
With the considerable benefit of hindsight, there were plenty of mixed signs during and before the race that suggested Van Aert was in good shape but might not be up to his usual top Classics self in the Opening Weekend.
Victory-less in his build-up races and off the pace in the sprints in the Algarve - although to be fair, he was blocked in the second - Van Aert had taken second place in the closing time trial. However, when Alpecin-Deceuninck were able to split the Omloop peloton with stunning ease around 40 kilometres to go, Van Aert was on the wrong side of the divide.
Things came together again, but his team, already caught out a little when UAE had put in a testing move on the Lange Munte cobbles, were unable to dictate the narrative in the ways they have done so often in Nieuwsblad in the past.
An acceleration on the Geraardsbergen by Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was matched by Van Aert and teammate Matteo Jorgenson. But from there to actually breaking the race apart seemed beyond their pace.
"I didn't feel too great. I didn't have the feelings I wanted," Van Aert said. "We made a big effort because we were behind all the time, that tells us it wasn't a good race by the team.
"I feel quite tired, it was not the race I hoped for. I never felt I was in contention, I thought I was missing the feeling you need for a Classic like this."
There was a lot of headwind, he said, "which kind of blocked the race, and maybe apart from us and UAE, a lot of teams who didn't want to do the race because they had a sprinter here, but that's what you can expect."
"But it was our tactic to make the race hard, and we never got to the point where we could do that."
Van Aert's conclusions were that "my legs were never enough. But tomorrow is another day."
Eleventh at the finish, Van Aert will have the opportunity to set the record straight in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, as he did in 2024 when he claimed third in Omloop and then finished with a victory on Sunday. But after Saturday's collective setback, his team will also be looking for a way to bounce back as fast as possible.
