Where is Wout? Van Aert quiet in Tour de France opening stages after sickness

When the weather is bad, the hills are steep, and Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar are in action, you would usually expect Wout van Aert to be not far behind. But even with a Classics-style opening weekend, the Belgian has had a fairly quiet start to this year’s Tour de France.

Van Aert finished 48th on stage 1, caught the wrong side of echelon splits – despite his Visma-Lease a Bike leader Jonas Vingegaard making it – and then 80th on stage 2 to Boulogne, a finish that would have usually suited him