{"id":26108,"date":"2025-07-27T00:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T00:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/26108\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T00:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T00:21:07","slug":"hopefully-pogacar-doesnt-interfere-wout-van-aert-anticipates-battle-with-tour-de-france-winner-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/26108\/","title":{"rendered":"“Hopefully Pogacar doesn’t interfere\u201d \u2013 Wout van Aert anticipates battle with Tour de France winner in Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wout van Aert<\/a> has one last chance to end his three-year
\ndrought of Tour de France stage victories, and he\u2019s aiming squarely at Sunday\u2019s
\nfinale in Paris. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider made a bid to get into the
\nbreakaway on Stage 20 but couldn\u2019t make it stick. Instead, the win went to
\nKaden Groves, leaving Van Aert with one more opportunity to get that win he
\ncraves. The final stage won\u2019t follow the traditional Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es script, with
\na Montmartre climb on the menu, it may play to Van Aert\u2019s strengths.<\/p>\n

“It was another tough start, and in the first part of
\nthe stage, I didn’t have the legs I’d hoped for,” Van Aert told HLN.
\n“I tried a few times, but I couldn’t really get into the breakaway.”
\nHe described being caught in limbo as the race unfolded: \u201cHalfway through the
\nstage, I ended up with a group between the peloton and the leading group.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut because most of them already had someone in the front,
\nwe ended up in no-man’s land.\u201d Van Aert also pointed to what he saw as a
\ntactical misstep by organisers, noting, \u201cIt’s the biggest race in the world,
\nand it’s normal for riders to sprint for a podium finish. I think the
\norganizers were more at fault here, putting that turn in the last 500 meters.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Despite the frustrations, Van Aert is looking ahead.
\n“I’m much more motivated for this final stage than before. Montmartre will
\nbe more of a classic. I expect a short, explosive race that should suit
\nme.”<\/p>\n

With the terrain likely to shake up a typical sprint, his
\nchances may improve, but he\u2019s keeping one eye on the overall winner.
\n“Hopefully Pogacar doesn’t interfere. (laughs) He certainly doesn’t look
\nvery motivated anymore, but you never know with him.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wout van Aert has one last chance to end his three-year drought of Tour de France stage victories,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-26108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}