Wout van Aert’s decision to gift his teammate Christophe Laporte victory at Gent-Wevelgem has been given a collective thumbs-down in Belgium from three of his fellow Belgian cycling greats – Eddy Merckx, Johan Museeuw and Tom Boonen.
Laporte and Van Aert broke away more than 50 kilometres from the line in the rain soaked edition of Gent-Wevelgem, in a repeat of their long distance joint attack at the E3 Saxo Bank Classic in 2022.
Van Aert pulled ahead in the closing metres to win in Harelbeke a year ago but at Gent-Wevelgem this Sunday, Van Aert let Laporte take the top spot.
Van Aert’s gift came after he beat Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) to win Friday’s E3 Saxo Classic and before he expects total loyalty from Jumbo-Visma at next Sunday’s Tour of Flanders.
Laporte appreciated Van Aert’s generosity but other people didn’t.
Eddy Merckx made it clear when talking to sporza.be (opens in new tab) that he did not agree with Van Aert’s decision, even though he emphasised that he fully respected that choice.
“It’s his [Van Aert’s] choice to let a teammate win, but I wouldn’t have done it,” Merckx said.
“Wout van Aert was by far the best, you saw that on the Kemmel,” he added, referring to the moment where Laporte briefly lost contact with the Belgian on the key Gent-Wevelgem climb. “He [Van Aert] could have written history by winning Harelbeke [E3 Saxo Classic], Wevelgem and the Tour of Flanders.”
Tom Boonen was equally unconvinced of the wisdom of Van Aert’s decision, telling Sporza: “He is going to regret it.”
“I understand. I have also helped teammates to win, but never in such a situation.”
“You help teammates to let them fight for the win. This again looked good for the team’s marketing, but I don’t know if I would have done it.”
Boonen argued that Gent-Wevelgem was a bigger prize to give away than a stage of Paris-Nice, where last year Primoz Roglic and Van Aert also gifted Laporte a win.
He also argued that sprinting it out would have been fairest and that while Laporte will likely be more than willing to work for Van Aert at Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, “that is not a guarantee.”
Johan Museeuw joined Boonen and Merckx in arguing that it was not the right choice, saying: “In 15 years Wout might think back to this moment and be angry with himself.”
“He may not quite realize what he gave away,” Museeuw told VTM news (opens in new tab). “The victory is gone. I…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…