‘It’s a hard pill to swallow’ – Wout van Aert suffers near miss after Visma reel in break at Vuelta a España

Despite his disappointment, Wout van Aert could only smile when the question was put to him in the mixed zone in Villablino, where Kaden Groves had just pipped him to victory on stage 14 of the Vuelta a España.

“In Danish, we have a saying: ‘The surgery went well but the patient died.’ Was it a case of that today?” the reporter asked.