Jan Bakelants: “Van Aert’s absence is a poisoned gift for Van der Poel”

According to ex-rider Jan Bakelants, the retirement of Mathieu van der Poel’s biggest competitor for the Tour of Flanders – Wout van Aert – is a poisoned gift. “You get a price that now shifts unilaterally to the top favorite. This means that he will have to bear a large part of a difficult-to-control race like the Tour of Flanders himself,” the Kempen resident predicts. HLN.

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“That is a role that Alpecin-Deceuninck is not one hundred percent used to,” Bakelants notes. While Alpecin-Deceuninck normally always relies on the support of Visma | Lease a Bike could count, it will now be on its own. “Other teams that thought in advance that they could not do anything in the Tour are now also waking up. And so I expect a very strange match in which surprises will happen.”

Bakelants may see those surprises at the troubled Soudal Quick-Step. “Maybe Kasper Asgreen will find a pair of good legs hidden away in a cupboard. And he can turn the underestimation that currently surrounds the team to his advantage. At Lefevere, the riders who ruled these races three years ago are still there. Patrick is not at all happy with the way things are going now. But on the other hand, I don’t think everything can be gone.”

On the other hand, you can say that Van der Poel usually needs few teammates in the final. The two-time Tour winner likes to start his efforts early. “Alpecin-Deceunick has the luxury of having a leader who usually has his plan and, if necessary, will solve it himself a hundred kilometers before the finish. It would have been easier for Mathieu van der Poel if nothing had happened. Then there will be no asterisk behind his name if he wins, because Wout is not there. Which is lame, but still.”