Wout van Aert (Jumbo–Visma) was fined 500 Swiss francs for littering during stage three of the Tour de France.
The question is, how much will Van Aert be fined on stage four after his savage attack on the Cap du Blanc-Nez climb left riders littered all over the road? I mean, it was a total mess — and that might get pretty expensive.
Even top GC climbers like Tadej Pogecar (UAE Team Emirates), Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) and Van Aerts’ captain Primoz Roglic were quickly dropped. Van Aert tossed them all out behind him without a moments hesitation.
The Blanc-Nez proved an ideal launch pad for the supremely talented Belgian. His teammates Nathan van Hooydonck and Tiesj Benoot set a blistering tempo on the 900m climb. The average gradient is 7.5% with ramps up to 10% and Van Aert made it all look a little too easy
As Roglic said after the stage, “Yeah it’s crazy. He’s half human, half motor. We can’t wish for more. It’s really unbelievable.” After three seconds places in the first three stages of this Tour de France, Van Aert said runner-up wasn’t funny anymore. So he decided to trash the whole peloton.
Van Aert started the day with a seven second lead in the maillot jaune over Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team). By the time he finished with a solo victory into Calais, the gap was 25 seconds. Two-time Tour de France winner Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) sits another 7 seconds further back in third.
Speaking of Pogačar, he was also impressed by Van Aert’s ability to kick everyone to the curb. “I think [Jumbo-Visma is] really strong and especially Van Aert, who just smashed everyone today. Not even Vingegaard and Roglič could follow him.”
The victory sets Van Aert up perfectly for the 20 kilometers of cobblestones on tomorrow’s mini-Paris-Roubaix stage five. Perhaps another fine for littering, another impressive win.
Leave A Comment