The Belgian offered himself his third stage victory after a time trial who almost cost his teammate dearly, the Jonas Vingegaard yellow jersey.
By and
An image is sometimes better than words. Take, for example, the expression of the Italian Filippo Ganna’s face, pinched mouth, eyes taken off, this Saturday, July 23 during the 20 e stage of the Tour de France, when Wout Van Aert a crossed the finish line of the time trial in Rocamadour (Lot). The Belgian of the Jumbo-Visma has just put 42 s in sight at the world champion in the title of the specialty. In the area, there is only the Padirac chasm to compete.
wout van Aert said he had “heavy legs”. They found all their lightness this Saturday. The combined effect of a good massage and a night’s sleep? The Cumulator signs his third stage victory during this 2022 edition, the sixth of the Dutch Armada. “I still believe that there is fatigue after three weeks”, will concede the “green monster”, moved to tears, at the microphone of France Télévisions on arrival.
His teammate, Jonas Vingegaard, was at maternity, on September 19, 2020, when Primoz Roglic saw his hopes to win the Tour evaporating after the counter-clum (Haute-Saône). The yellow jersey has few memories of this episode, but it was still keen to avoid a similar disappointment. So he gave everything. Maybe even too much.
At the head of the first two intermediate scores, the Danish has multiplied the risks since the departure of Lacapelle-Marival. So much so that his teammate Wout Van Aert, sitting on the Hot Seat, was unable to set a movement with the hand to intimate the yellow jersey to calm the game …
A few seconds later, the tightrope walker lacked the rock in the descent of the Côte de Magès, 2.2 kilometers from the finish. But the black virgin of Rocamadour had to watch over him. Thank you to her for sparing you a bad pun with Gérard Blanchard’s Rock Amadour tube.
The super combative title
A time, we thought that the stage victory in this time trial would be played between Van Aert, Vingegaard and Geraint Thomas. The Welshman of the Ineos -Grenadiers training, who had this time thought of removing his “fucking jacket” – unlike the inaugural time in Copenhagen – doubled the French David Gaudu.
“I expected to be caught by Geraint Thomas, I was not caught by [Tadej] Pogacar so it’s already a good point,” will recognize the Groupama-FDJ runner, 26 E from the day to 3 min 10 s of the winner, but always 4 e in the general classification.
On arrival, the winner of the 2018 Tour, on the other hand, will have been preceded on the wire by a Tadej Pogacar ever resigned. We will also keep at the top of this time trial the image of the Slovenian, still fresh enough to prick a sprint in the first meters of the Côte de l’Hospitalet and tear down the 3
With him, the public has for his hours spent in front of television. We even wonder if “Pogi” would not have deserved the title of super combative. But Wout Van Aert participated in this Tour de France and was designated unanimously.
Jonas Vingegaard, he still has to travel 115 kilometers on Sunday to validate the first Danish victory since the controversial Bjarne Riis in 1996. He just must stay on his bike when toast in Champagne, do not try a wheel rear on the Parisian pavement or avoid mingling with the sprint on the Champs -Elysées – Van Aert takes care of it – and everything should be fine for him.