For Van Aert, the victory is an important confidence boost. At the same time, the stage win underlines the collective strength of Team Visma | Lease a Bike, which had already impressed earlier in the race with victory in the team time trial and once again demonstrated its ability to compete on multiple fronts.
“The sprints have been going really well all year, so I had confidence going into it,” Van Aert said afterwards. “But sometimes it’s a question of whether you can control the race and have the opportunity to sprint. Fortunately, that was the case today,” he concluded.