July 05, 2022
The Belgian finally added a stage win to his run of second places – by dropping the entire Tour de France peloton on the Côte du Cap Blanc-Nez and winning stage four in Calais
From the chalky heights of the Cap Blanc-Nez on the Côte d’Opale, west of Calais, you can see clear across the Channel to south east England. The white cliffs across the water seem close enough to reach out and touch; the distance between the two countries looks like nothing at all.
Unlike the rapidly-widening gap that was separating a stunned and broken peloton from the rear wheel of Wout van Aert as the yellow jersey made a shattering attack on stage four of the 2022 Tour de France, over the top of the Côte du Cap Blanc-Nez.
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Nobody could match Van Aert’s attack, which was the result of an infernal Olympic sprint-style effort from a succession of Jumbo-Visma riders on the climb. Nathan Van Hooydonck’s effort reduced the survivors to just seven riders: in order, Tiesj Benoot, Van Aert, Adam Yates, Jonas Vingegaard, Christophe Laporte, Geraint Thomas and Dani Martínez – Jumbo-Visma and Ineos Grenadiers all. Benoot’s turn at the front shed everybody except Van Aert, Yates and Vingegaard; when Van Aert surged over the top, nobody could live with him. He had dropped the entire Tour de France peloton on a 900-metre climb.
By the time the peloton got themselves organised, Van Aert, one of the best time triallists in the world, had a 25-second lead, with six kilometres left to ride. His subsequent solo victory came off the back of three second places in the first three days of the race, and those with longer memories recalled that he’d won the last two stages of the 2021 Tour as well, giving him a record of 1-1-2-2-2-1 in his last six Tour stages. Even Eddy Merckx never managed six top-two finishes in a row – his best was five, spread between the end of the 1974 and 1975 Tours. The Belgian rider Philippe Thys did achieve six top-two finishes in a row, but that was in 1920 – riders in the early years of the Tour tended to achieve more consecutive high finishes than these days. Van Aert is peerless in the modern era, and the immediate conclusion, beyond the stage win, was that Van Aert is not going to be beaten in the…