'There was not much to celebrate' - Van Aert on a Vuelta reset by Pogacar's crash

Wout van Aert said there was little for Team Visma | Lease a Bike to enjoy about Saturday evening, with Tadej Pogačar out of the Vuelta a España and his own team having missed the win in Xeraco.

Pogačar crashed with 32km remaining on the run-in to the Puerto de Barx and was taken to hospital with concussion, a displaced left clavicle fracture and a stable C7 cervical fracture. Bryan Coquard won the stage from Mads Pedersen and Jordi Meeus after a further crash inside the final kilometre, with Matthew Brennan boxed in as the sprint opened.

"Not the best. It was a strange day, of course, with Tadej crashing out, but also Sepp and Ben had a very bad crash. We missed out on the stage victory, so there was not much to celebrate," Van Aert told reporters including Domestique before the start on Sunday.

Pogačar had been near-untouchable in the peloton until Saturday, and Van Aert put the shock down to that record rather than the crash itself.

"That's why it's such big news now. It's so rare. He's always there at the front, an amazing bike handler," he said. "I assume it's the proof that everybody can experience something like that one day, and it's very unfortunate."

The withdrawal hands Van Aert the lead in the points classification, having trailed Pogačar going into stage 8. He took maximum points at the intermediate sprint in Simat de Valldigna shortly before the crash, and was third at Aramón Valdelinares on Friday from the breakaway.

He would not accept that his path to green has got any easier.

"I wouldn't use the word easier, but of course we saw Tadej as one of the main rivals, so it would probably take a lot of points on all the mountain stages," he said. "There's still other GC guys who will do that now maybe, but it will be a different race, that's for sure. I think there will be a day where everybody has to refocus and a new race will start."

Van Aert wore red at the 2024 Vuelta and led the points classification before crashing out on stage 16, having won three stages. He came to this race after missing the Tour de France with an infected elbow wound, with stage wins the stated aim rather than any classification.

He started Sunday's stage in green on the hardest day of the race so far. Stage 9 runs 187.4km from La Vila Joiosa to the Alto de Aitana with just under 5,000 metres of climbing, and Enric Mas begins the day in red for Movistar.