{"id":2998,"date":"2022-06-30T16:21:18","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T14:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?p=2998"},"modified":"2022-07-07T16:22:42","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T14:22:42","slug":"the-race-for-the-skoda-green-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2022\/06\/30\/the-race-for-the-skoda-green-jersey\/","title":{"rendered":"The Race for the \u0160koda Green Jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s no secret that we love Wout van Aert. Though he will never win the Tour de France yellow jersey, he is, simply put, the most talented all-around road racer in the world. After five stages of the 2022 Tour de France, the 27-year-old Belgian Jumbo-Visma rider is wearing both the yellow and the green jerseys.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Van Aert will eventually have to give up the yellow but the chances are very good that he will wear the \u0160koda Green Jersey all the way to Paris. He currently has 178 points, which is more than half of the 337 points last year\u2019s green jersey winner, Mark Cavendish, had at the end of the race and 52 points more than his nearest competitor, Fabio Jakobsen of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, now claims.<\/p>\n

Suspense isn\u2019t everything. Sometimes, watching a master like van Aert at work is more entertaining than a tight head-to-head competition. Not that van Aert \u2013 who also races cyclo-cross and has won every one of the nine races in that discipline in which he took part in the 2021-22 season \u2013 has had it all his way so far. He finished second in each of the first three stages, and though he came out of it wearing both yellow and green jerseys, he wasn\u2019t pleased, shouting \u201cVerdomd\u2019 (Dutch for \u2018damn\u2019) after crossing the line at stage 3. Has anyone ever finished second three stages in a row at the Tour? Van Aert thinks he is the first. “Three times in a row second in the Tour, that must be a record,\u201d he said, adding<\/a>: “Another second place is not so much fun anymore.”<\/p>\n

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Riders who finished runner-up in the first three stages of a Tour de France edition:<\/p>\n

1930 – Alfredo Binda
2022 – Wout Van Aert<\/p>\n

— CafeRoubaix (@CafeRoubaix) July 3, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n