En route he won the intermediate sprint, to put more distance between himself and Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), his main rival for the race’s green jersey. And then easily won the two-rider sprint to take his third stage victory of the race.
Van Aert took off with Marc Soler (UAE Tema Emirates) and 21-year-old William Lecerf (Soudal–Quick Step) with about 130km left to ride in the hilly 160km stage. The breakaway group grew to five after being joined by Juri Hollman (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ).
The Belgian took the 20 points for winning the intermediate sprint on the lower slope of the stage’s final climb, with about 30km to race. He then continued racing up the Alto de Mougás (9.9km @ 6.1%), and only Pacher could keep up with him.
The two stayed together until the finish, though it was a hopeless situation for the 32-year-old French rider. Van Aert won the sprint, with Pacher finishing 3 seconds behind him. Soler then won the three-rider sprint for third place, 2:01 adrift. As a result, the Belgian now leads Groves by a substantial margin in the points classification, 243 to 162.
Van Aert said the win was “extra special”, because his family was there to congratulate him at the finish. “It’s not too often I can win when they visit me [at a] the race,” he said. But he admitted that he nearly gave up getting into the breakaway because he had found the stage’s first climb very difficult.
“It was my aim to be in the breakaway, but I had a hard time on the first climb, and actually I almost gave up,” he said. “But I gave it one more try before the top, but still I think for 50 kilometers we really had to fight to get a bit of a gap” ahead of the peloton.
But he grew more confident as the breakaway headed towards the finish. “I think it was in my favor because the climbers in the group had maybe less-fresh legs,” he said.
It was a wonderful ride, clever and strong, and reminiscent of van Aert at his powerful best. It’s significant that he had no trouble racing up the category 1 Alto de Mougás because it suggests that he will be able to get over the many tough climbs coming in the final week of the race and make it to Madrid to collect his Škoda Green Jersey.
All those mountains to come are bad news for Groves, who climbs reasonably well for a sprinter bus, but not as well as van Aert. Only one stage remains where he could get points, stage 17. It’s a short stage with only two category 2 climbs to get over and there are 70 points on offer, including an intermediate sprint on the flat about 25km from the finish line.
That means he will have to pick up 82 points before that stage and that van Aert has to pick up none on the preceding stages and on that stage, which seems highly unlikely. So all van Aert needs to do to celebrate his recovery from his crash in late March at the Dward door Vlaanderen is to stay on his bike and get over the remaining mountains.
