Patrick Lefevere discussed in his weekly column the absence of Wout van Aert at the Belgian cycling championship on Sunday. The outgoing Jumbo-Visma champion has bumped his knee and does not want to take any risks towards the Tour de France. “How much bad luck can you have?” Lefevere wonders.
“The great absentee on Sunday is of course Wout van Aert, who bumped his knee against his handlebars during a training period in Tignes”, the team boss of Quick-Step-Alpha Vinyl writes in The newspapaer† “How much bad luck can you have… I’m not going to say it didn’t happen, but if Jumbo-Visma prefers to keep its leaders away from the championships for the Tour, say so in so many words. Or is it a coincidence that Primož Roglič is not participating in Slovenia either?”
No little champions
Sunday’s BC in Middelkerke is flat and Quick-Step-Alpha Vinyl is not a favorite, according to Lefevere. “Barely two hundred kilometers. Obviously not in favor of our team, which starts without a sprinter. I read left and right that Remco Evenepoel should just do it like in Gullegem Koerse, but with permission: that is complete nonsense. No comparison is possible between the peloton that was there at the start and that of the Belgian Championship. […] In the Belgian Championship the specific gravity of the peloton is ten times higher.”
“To end on a positive note: despite the course, despite the skewed balance of power and despite the absence of Van Aert, we will still see a good race and get a deserved winner”, Lefevere continues. “In the time of Ludovic Capelle you still had small champions, today not anymore. Nobody should call Dries De Bondt that, because that boy has shown enough that he can ride a bicycle. Whoever wins on Sunday can call himself Belgian champion forever. And should never be ashamed of that.”
