‘We need to balance Jonas and Wout’: Van Aert sprint win raises Tour question for Visma

The Belgian won the sprint s in Villard les Dombes after a controlled finale from the Dutch team. It was a result that confirmed Van Aert’s speed is still there, although both the rider and his team were careful not to frame it as a direct signal that he will target flat sprint stages at the Tour.

Van Aert had already shown signs of progress one day earlier, when he won the sprint from the peloton behind the breakaway. On Thursday, Visma brought the race back together and delivered him into position with a strong lead out.

Sports director Maarten Wynants said the victory came after another demanding chase. “He had already shown yesterday that he was fast,” he said to In de Leiderstrui. “But again, we had to ride very hard behind the breakaway.”

Visma still had enough strength left for the final kilometres. Per Strand Hagenes and Edoardo Affini were kept in reserve and played a decisive role in setting up Van Aert’s sprint.

“When they were on the front, I felt it would be very difficult to come past them,” Wynants said. “The wind was coming from the front left, so anyone trying to pass had to come around on the exposed side as well.”

Wynants described the final three kilometres as “textbook”, and Van Aert finished the job with authority.

The timing of the win is significant. Van Aert is expected to be one of Visma’s most important riders at the Tour de France, where the team will again be built around Jonas Vingegaard’s general classification ambitions. His role, however, is always more complex than that of a traditional domestique.

Van Aert can protect Vingegaard, control chases, help in the mountains and take opportunities of his own. That makes him one of the most valuable riders in the race, but it also forces Visma to make careful choices.

Wynants said the team will need to manage the balance between Vingegaard’s yellow jersey campaign and Van Aert’s personal chances.

“We will have to wait and see,” he said when asked whether Van Aert could sprint at the Tour. “The most important thing is to keep the balance between Jonas and Wout. If those goals do not conflict, then it is certainly possible.”

Still, the team is not drawing major conclusions from one sprint win. Van Aert has taken sprint opportunities at the Tour before, but often in harder stages or reduced groups rather than in pure bunch sprints against the fastest specialists in the world.

“It is too early to say he will contest the flat sprints,” Wynants said. “With all respect to the riders here, the Tour will have a different level of sprinter. There will be riders who are naturally much faster.”

Van Aert struck a similar tone after the race. He enjoyed racing for victory in a field like this, but he does not expect to make a habit of challenging the top sprint trains in July.

“In a peloton like this, I like taking my chances,” Van Aert said at the press conference. “But in the Tour, with all the sprinters and lead outs, I do not think I have many chances to beat riders like Tim Merlier and Jasper Philipsen. I also do not really want to take those risks for that.”

The Belgian said there is a clear difference between sprinting from a race like this and fighting for position at the extreme speeds of a Tour de France bunch finish.

“I have a good sprint,” he said. “But at those speeds, it is not the same.”

For Visma, the win changes little in itself. It is a welcome sign that Van Aert is sharp, but July will still be about finding room for his chances without compromising Vingegaard’s Tour bid.