Wout van Aert turns helper on Tirreno gravel stage to protect Jorgenson’s GC hopes
Wout van Aert arrived at the Tirreno-Adriatico gravel stage with ambitions of his own, but the finale unfolded very differently than planned. A poor position before the decisive sector eliminated his chances of fighting for victory. Instead, the Belgian shifted focus and helped teammate Matteo Jorgenson limit his losses in the general classification.
The stage had been marked on Visma | Lease a Bike’s roadmap well in advance. The team saw two possible outcomes on the 6.8km gravel finale: a shot at the stage win with Van Aert and a chance for Jorgenson to gain time in the standings. Van Aert had even ridden the closing section last week to study the terrain in detail.
But when he entered the gravel sector, his chances for the win were already gone.
“Wout was flooded from behind by a wave of riders and ended up in the proverbial washing machine,” sports director Maarten Wynants told HLN.
“By entering the gravel in fortieth position, the chance of winning the stage was gone, especially when you saw that Mathieu van der Poel started the sector at the front and you know he will immediately put in a big acceleration.”
In the position where Van Aert had hoped to be was Visma | Lease a Bike’s other leader, Matteo Jorgenson. The American had lost more time than expected in the time trial a day earlier and saw the gravel stage as an opportunity to claw some of it back.
When the peloton approached the gravel, Jorgenson executed his positioning perfectly. He entered the sector near the front and immediately found himself among the strongest riders in the race. Alongside Isaac Del Toro and Giulio Pellizzari, he was one of the few riders able to respond when Mathieu van der Poel lifted the pace.
The promising situation changed quickly, however. While trying to follow the pace, Jorgenson slipped in a corner and briefly lost control. “Mathieu’s pace was extremely high, which meant Matteo was under a lot of pressure and then a small mistake happens quickly,” Wynants said.
The American had to put a foot down before accelerating again, losing precious seconds. Sand inside the cleats complicated matters further.
In the meantime, Van Aert did not sit back and instead turned the situation around with a strong effort. He began passing riders immediately and soon reached the group where Jorgenson was trying to limit the damage.
“Wout passed at least twenty riders on the first kilometre of the gravel sector and when he reached Matteo’s group he sacrificed himself and halved the gap to the leading trio,” Wynants said. “In the end we did not make a good move in the general classification, but thanks to Wout we also did not make a bad one.”
Jorgenson ultimately came in 17 seconds down on the stage to leave him seventh overall, 31 seconds behind new leader Isaac del Toro.
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