After missing an opportunity to fight for victory on the thrilling second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, Wout van Aert could only blame himself and was left frustrated with his own positioning once again.
The uphill finale into San Gimignano was preceded by one section of gravel, where the day would be decided, and the entry onto it came after a tight left-hand corner. With 9.8km to go, Van Aert was perfectly placed towards the front of the peloton, but in the space of 3km, he’d dropped back to around 40th.
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“I was very disappointed. I was completely out of position at the most important point of the race. Because of that, I couldn’t get a result,” said Van Aert to VTM Nieuws at the start of stage 3, admitting that while the form was there – which we did see when he worked to limit Matteo Jorgenson’s losses – he could only rue it as a missed opportunity.
Riders like Van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar make the vital skill of staying in front look easy, especially the former with his expert bike handling, and Van Aert’s cyclo-cross background and illustrious palmarès highlight how he’s obviously been one of the best in the positioning business previously.
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