Outgunned by three superior rivals, Wout van Aert played a losing hand as best he could at the 2026 Tour of Flanders but after chasing hard for fourth, the Belgian Classics star recognised it was never really going to be possible to clinch a second Classics Monument podium this spring.
Third in Milan-San Remo had given Van Aert’s long-suffering fans some room for hope that he could do better on home soil, particularly after some dramatic near-misses at In Flanders Fields and above all in Dwars door Vlaanderen last Wednesday.
Instead, and despite being exactly where he needed to be in the Oude Kwaremont – right on Tadej Pogačar’s back wheel as he was ripping the race apart – from then on things only got worse for the Visma-Lease a Bike leader.
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Dropped by eventual winner Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and then by runners-up Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) on the false flats that followed the Oude Kwaremont, Van Aert was then forced into a chasing game alongside Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).
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