Tiesj Benoot stopped to congratulate Dwars door Vlaanderen winner Matteo Jorgenson when he crossed the line in Waregem, but his uneasy embrace told its own story. This was a strange kind of victory for Visma-Lease A Bike. They won the day, but their best rider will lose out on the rest of the Classics campaign.
While Jorgenson was ushered towards the podium, Benoot, who took fourth place, wheeled gingerly towards the mixed zone, his face a picture of concern rather than of celebration. He knew all too well that the importance of his team's triumph here was eclipsed utterly by the significance of Wout van Aert's crash with 67km remaining.
It was later confirmed that Van Aert had suffered a broken collarbone that would rule him out of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. Benoot surely already suspected as much when he stopped to talk reporters through his day in Dutch, French and English. He might even have known it when he felt a bump against his rear wheel after Berg ten Houte.
Indeed, Benoot deemed himself to be at least partly to blame for the incident, which saw at least ten riders fall as the group of favourites thundered towards the foot of the Kanarieberg. Benoot had been dutifully following orders, securing Visma's position at the head of the bunch, when Van Aert clipped his rear wheel and fell heavily. In a split second, the complexion of his leader's season had shifted entirely.
"Our plan was to go on the Kanarieberg and Tim van Dijke was doing a great lead-out towards the climb," Benoot explained. "When Tim had finished leading us out, Wout shouted at me to accelerate, which I did. But I think he touched my back wheel when I stood up to accelerate. I feel really shit about it, actually.
"Wout shouted at me 'Go Tiesj,' and I stood up to accelerate again towards that corner, and I think he hit my rear wheel there. That was the feeling I had. It happened so quickly I'm not entirely sure."
Benoot's rapport with Van Aert goes far beyond that of a mere colleague, and they had spent most of the past two months cloistered together as they followed a novel approach to the cobbled Classics. They raced side by side at the Volta ao Algarve and Opening Weekend, and then they trained shoulder to shoulder for three weeks on the barren slopes of Mount Teide.
Van Aert's decision to eschew Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo in favour of an altitude camp had been the subject of much intrigue, but all part of a grand design to target the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. His Dwars door Vlaanderen display was expected to offer an appraisal of that approach, but that test – and, as it turned out, his whole Classics campaign – was cut short when he clipped the rear wheel of his training partner.
"We were together for the last seven weeks, I shared a room with him in Tenerife for three weeks…" Benoot said, his voice trailing off wanly. "He's a good friend, I'm really sorry for him. I was thinking of him after the crash. I had Wout on my mind for the rest of the race."
And yet the race went on, and so did Benoot. He had no other choice. He remained in the reduced group of favourites with Jorgenson, and at the American's prompting, they opted to continue with the initial plan of forcing the pace on the ascent of the Kanarieberg.
"I was a bit confused afterwards, but Matteo still went on the climb," Benoot said. "In the end, that was a good decision."
Benoot and Jorgenson found themselves in front as part of a six-man group in the finale and they combined smoothly to secure their team's second successive victory at this race. When Jorgenson pressed clear with 7km remaining, Benoot expertly policed the chasing group and he ultimately helped himself to fourth, 29 seconds down on his teammate.
"I think we are both quite experienced and I think we showed we are able to work well together," Benoot said. "I think he had better legs than me today, so I was trying to set him up for an attack, which he did."
In ordinary circumstances, Visma's victory here would have been couched as a response to the ill fortune that has blighted their Classics unit over the past two weeks. Instead, it offered only a passing consolation in the face of the heftiest blow yet.
Christophe Laporte has already been ruled out of the Ronde through illness, and the participation of Dylan van Baarle and Jan Tratnik is also in doubt, with the Slovenian abandoning early on Wednesday.
Benoot, for his part, abandoned the E3 Saxo Classic after a crash on Friday and he was still suffering its effects at Gent-Wevelgem. His performance on the road to Waregem offered some reassurance about his own condition, but it was the furthest thing from his mind as he drifted his way through the mixed zone.
"Personally, I'm happy with my feeling after a hard crash on Friday, it's already much better than at Gent-Wevelgem," Benoot said. "But I'm really disappointed for what happened to Wout."
