Wout van Aert 'continues to amaze' as he competes against former Tour de France winners
The 2020 Milan-San Remo winner came to the race to see if he could compete in the general classification
Wout van Aert "continues to amaze" as he has held is own against multiple Tour de France champions in Tirreno-Adriatico.
The Belgian has conceded that he can no longer close the gap to current leader Tadej Pogačar with two stages remaining, but his impressive performance on general classification may be a sign of things to come.
Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) started Tirreno-Adriatico with the intention of going for the overall classification as he looks to potentially change his future aims.
Despite his reputation as a cyclocross star, a Classics specialist and now a formidable sprinter, Van Aert has been holding his own against former Tour de France winners Pogačar, Egan Bernal and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers).
The star rider started well sits with victory on the opening stage and is second overall at the start of stage six, but is more than a minute behind Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) after a huge attack by the Slovenian on stage five.
>>> Chris Froome suggests Shane Sutton disliked him due to internal rivalry with Bradley Wiggins
Speaking after the fifth stage Van Aert said: "It was really hard once we hit the final circuit, especially with the rain, it was a bit like the 'survival of the fittest'... In the last climb, Tadej [Pogačar] was stronger on the climbs, I tried to stay as close as possible.
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
"I think I lost quite a bit of time again, but I'm secure in second place. I gave everything I had and the strongest came in front today."
Van Aert now sits at 1-15 behind Pogačar in second overall in the general classification with a flat stage and a short time trial left to race.
While Van Aert has shown he could win both he doesn't think he can pull back the Slovenian: "It’s no shame to be beaten by Tadej uphill. I’m not going to make up the difference of 1-15 in a possible sprint on Monday and a short time trial on Tuesday. The next two days I can still go for stage wins. I still have the motivation for that."
Coming into Tirreno-Adriatico Van Aert's team, Jumbo-Visma, were interested to see how he did as a GC rider, with sports director Merijn Zeeman saying that the team were curious as to how he does.
Zeeman said on the In Het Wiel podcast that the team was not expecting Van Aert to achieve a podium with the line-up that he was up against in the race: "We had included Tirreno-Adriatico in his program to let him gain experience as a classification rider, to see how far he can get. But with this course and that field of participants, we never expected to compete for the podium. In the future, now that it is clear that Wout can participate in stage races of up to a week for an overall win, we will take this into account even more in the composition."
>>> Bradley Wiggins: ‘Freeman case stinks to high heaven’
But Zeeman said that Van Aert will continue to focus on races like Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix for now before potentially focussing on Grand Tours in the future, much like what Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) did after taking the Classic E3 Harelbeke and later going on to win the Tour de France.
Zeeman continued: "How far can he get in a Grand Tour? I'm not going to venture into that. Wout is an extremely great talent and he continues to amaze us in all areas, like this week in which he still competes against three Tour winners, among others.
"Where he can end up will depend on the course. In a Grand Tour with a lot of time trial kilometres he will gain more advantage than in a Grand Tour with a lot of steep cols."
Thank you for reading 20 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Join now for unlimited access
Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.