Wout van Aert was left frustrated at the E3 Saxo Classic on Friday and admitted that he "missed the beat" on the Taaienberg as the winning move, instigated by Mads Pedersen, got away from him on the steep cobbled climb.
The Belgian was missing in action for much of the race, with Matteo Jorgenson leading the charge for Visma-Lease a Bike behind the front group in an attempt to salvage a result for the Dutch team. The American two-time Paris-Nice winner came home in ninth place as part of a group led home by Soudal Quick-Step’s Casper Pedersen, more than two and a half minutes down on Van der Poel. Meanwhile Van Aert finished in 15th.
"I missed the beat on Taaienberg," Van Aert said at the finish in Harelbeke to Belgian broadcaster VTM. "I was a bit too far there. I was just behind the crack, around position twenty, so from there it was racing backwards. I was in a pretty good position, but just before Taaienberg every place counts."
"I wasn’t in a good enough position to be there," he added. "I tried to get ahead with the better ones from the group I was in but it took a long time before we got a break. On the Oude Kwaremont I did get away with Florian Vermeersch [UAE Emirates]."
After spending much of the last fortnight at altitude on Mount Teide in Tenerife, Van Aert will now target both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix once more after a major crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen last year prematurely ended his Classics campaign.
Visma-Lease a Bike were one of the teams caught out due to an early crash in the race, and then seemed oddly out of position at the key point in the race, after Ineos Grenadiers put the pace on into the Taaienberg and then Pedersen attacked. This led to them chasing for lesser positions.
Asked what was to blame for his disappointing showing on Friday, Van Aert admitted that he didn't have the answers. "That’s hard to say. I did have a good final, but I had hoped to be in the race. I had hoped to get a result and that didn’t work out."
Meanwhile, away from the rain of Belgium, Visma-Lease a Bike enjoyed success in both Spain and Italy with Brits Matthew Brennan and Ben Tulett taking two individual victories for the team. 19-year-old Brennan won the fifth stage of the Volta a Catalunya, his second stage win of the week, with Tulett winning the fourth stage of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali.
