Van Aert fifth in Belgian road race championship

Team Visma | Lease a Bike appeared at the start in Sint-Lievens-Houtem with four riders. Tiesj Benoot, Tosh Van der Sande and Julien Vermote supported leader Van Aert in the 222 km race on hilly roads.

A front group of ten created a big lead. Halfway through the race, the gap quickly decreased. Van der Sande and Vermote also did their part in the peloton, where Van Aert and Benoot rode around attentively. With six kilometres to go, partly due to strong work of Benoot, the last escapees were caught. Shortly afterwards, Van Aert accelerated firmly on the cobbles of the Lippenhovestraat. A reduced group eventually sprinted for the win. De Lie proved the strongest on the slightly uphill finish. Van Aert finished fifth.

“It’s reassuring that I was among the best again”

Wout van Aert

“I’m not at my top level yet, but it’s reassuring that I was among the best again”, Van Aert said afterwards. “I’m happy with my feeling on the bike. The legs felt fine. In the last kilometre I was a bit too far, so I had to waste too much energy to move up. I can live with fifth place.”

“With four we did what we could”, he added. “Tiesj and I were where we wanted to be in the final. I was able to sprint for the win again and I’m happy with that. It quickly became clear that I would come up short against the fastest riders. I was the underdog on this course, which wasn’t as tough as I hoped it would be. This championship was a good test, but the Tour is another level. After all, I’m glad I was among the better riders again.”

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National Championships Belgium ME – Road Race
One day race

Result

Result

1

Arnaud De Lie

Lotto Dstny

04:55:19

2

Jasper Philipsen

Alpecin – Deceuninck

+00:00:00

3

Jordi Meeus

BORA – hansgrohe

+00:00:00

5

Wout van Aert

Team Visma | Lease a Bike

+00:00:00

19

Tiesj Benoot

Team Visma | Lease a Bike

+00:00:10

–

Tosh Van der Sande

Team Visma | Lease a Bike

DNF

–

Julien Vermote

Team Visma | Lease a Bike

DNF

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Subjects

Cycling – World Tour men

Wout van Aert

1