{"id":529078,"date":"2026-03-11T12:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T12:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/529078\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T12:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T12:39:08","slug":"its-not-all-about-good-watts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/529078\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s not all about good watts\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wout van Aert<\/a> had big ambitions for stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico, but although the Belgian rider from Visma | Lease a Bike<\/a> produced a remarkable finale, it ultimately came in service of Matteo Jorgenson<\/a> rather than for himself. In the In Het Wiel <\/a>podcast, the panel again saw Van Aert get pushed back at the decisive moment. <\/p>\n

Visma | Lease a Bike appeared to have things well under control in the demanding second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico. The yellow-and-black squad had a strong block near the front of the peloton, but when the race was decided on the tricky gravel sector, Van Aert was nowhere to be seen and Jorgenson crashed deep in the finale.<\/p>\n

Van Aert then powered his way back impressively and emptied himself for Jorgenson\u2019s general classification ambitions. The American finished 17 seconds behind stage winner Mathieu van der Poel and can therefore still dream of a strong GC result later in the week. The big question, however, was this: how did Van Aert end up missing the front <\/a>of a finale that looked tailor-made for him?<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo<\/p>\n

At In Het Wiel, Roxane Knetemann<\/a> and journalist Dani\u00ebl Dwarswaard noted that Van Aert was squeezed out of position in the final kilometres before the gravel sector. According to Dwarswaard, that is not the first time it has happened. \u201cVan Aert has already been through so much in his sporting life, so that definitely plays a role. But so does the stage of life he is in now, with children and his wife.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suggestion was that Van Aert no longer seems willing to take risks at all costs. In today\u2019s peloton, Knetemann argued, that can be fatal. \u201cCrashes are part of cycling, but at some point that settles in your head. One way or another, all those crashes pile up on your SIM card. You try to push that fear as far away as possible, but at certain moments it can open up again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo<\/p>\n

Is Tirreno-Adriatico a warning sign for Van Aert\u2019s Classics campaign?<\/p>\n

Knetemann said it is \u201cvery difficult\u201d in that kind of mental situation to still stay at the front in dangerous moments. \u201cThat is something Van Aert is going to run into with his spring ambitions. Because in those races, everything depends on positioning. It\u2019s not all about good watts, but about where you are able to use them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that is from 100th place, then the bird at the front has already flown,\u201d Knetemann continued. \u201cVan Aert is already just a little below Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Poga\u010dar, and if you then also position yourself less well, you simply cannot afford that. Not really against the whole peloton, but especially not against the two names we are talking about now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo<\/p>\n

What did Van Aert himself say about the stage?Before the start of stage 3 at Tirreno-Adriatico, Van Aert stopped to speak to the Belgian media<\/a>. There, he admitted there was disappointment after Tuesday\u2019s stage. \u201cI was totally out of position at the most important point of the race,\u201d he said critically. Van Aert pointed to \u201ca tricky descent\u201d as one reason, but also spoke of \u201ca couple of wrong choices\u201d when trying to move up.<\/p>\n

In the end, Van Aert still moved up impressively and was able to do important work for Jorgenson. \u201cBut we would rather have been there with two riders to fight for the stage win,\u201d said the Belgian, who also noted that he had \u201cgood legs,\u201d something backed up by the way he got back among the favourites in the chasing group. Van Aert himself did not speak about any fear when it came to positioning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wout van Aert had big ambitions for stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico, but although the Belgian rider from Visma…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,206350,82,140532,10761,12290],"class_list":["post-529078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-roxane-knetemann","tag-sports","tag-tirreno-adriatico","tag-visma-lease-a-bike","tag-wout-van-aert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}