Wout van Aert certainly put on a show today, getting into an early break and then trying to solo to a win. It didn’t quite work out, and he lost his yellow jersey.
On Thursday’s longest stage of the 109th edition the first non-Cat. 4 climbs arrived. The important climbs, both categorized and non categorized came in the final 20 km of the longest day of the tour, at 219 km. There were several hills, with Cat. 3 Côte de Pulventeux the most daunting at 800 m of 10.8 perc ent. The ascent to the finish line in Longwy was 1.6 km of 6 percent.
It was full-on right from the start in Binche, Belgium. The race was full of crashes, breaks and splits. Eventually, after many breakaways attempts, echelons, splits and crashes, a three-man group formed. It was van Aert, Jakob Fuglsang and Quinn Simmons.
Fugslang, most likely not wanting to be in a move like that since he was going for the overall dropped back. Then, van Aert dropped Simmons and went for the win.
It was not to be, though, as he fumbled with 10 km to go.
Many in the peloton were surprised by his unusual tactics. As were cycling fans.
Tom Pidcock summed it up best in two great post-race interviews.
“He’s just playing with our balls, isn’t he?”
Well @tompidcock has summed that up pretty accurately… #TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/2kHxNT9u1L
— Paul Knott (@P_Knott) July 7, 2022
And just to drive his point home, he said it again an another interview.
Pidcock on WvdA 😂#TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/Kp3W62ltPA
— John Morgan™ 💙 (@PartycowVelo) July 7, 2022
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Canadian Cycling Magazine…