So near but so far. Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) came within a whisker of getting his Vuelta a España debut off to the best of starts in the opening time trial at Lisbon but instead had to settle for third place, with a possible crack at the lead in the stages to come as a major consolation prize.
Last to start in the 12 kilometres ultra-flat TT test along the shoreline of the River Tagus, Van Aert managed to secure the fastest time by the mid-way checkpoint, one second faster than Czech National TT champion Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek).
However, the final segment in the exposed race did not see Van Aert maintain his advantage. He dropped off the pace slightly, repeating his third place of the recent Olympic Games TT, fractions of a second behind Vacek and two seconds behind stage winner and opening Vuelta leader Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates).
Van Aert remained upbeat, however, telling Eurosport and other media afterwards that he had “everything to play for” in the stages to come. And as one of the top sprinters in the 2024 Vuelta a España field, even a third place time bonus at a stage finish, worth four seconds in the Spanish Grand Tour, might just be enough to put Van Aert into red, perhaps as soon as Sunday.
“I didn’t feel great, I just felt good, but too soon in the TT it started to hurt,” Van Aert said afterwards, “and at that point, it was still a long way to the finish.”
“I don’t know really what the full result is, I think I finished quite short [far back], but my feeling was not what I hoped for.”
The last rider down the start ramp, Van Aert said that he was glad he opted to start so late in the day, given the wind was dropping a little by that point. At the very least, he said, “There was less wind than in the recon.”
“It was the right decision, it was just a shame not to finish it off. But if we couldn’t finish any closer because the legs weren’t great, we still should be happy.”
As for what the future now holds, Van Aert has promised to fight for stage wins throughout the Vuelta and as he said “I’m also thinking about the red jersey. So if I’m still close I will give it a shot in the next few days, for sure we’ll go for it in the sprint.”
When informed that there was only a margin of two seconds between himself and McNulty, Van Aert responded, “Then there’s everything to play for. That’s great.”
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