Cycling
On his first day of racing, Wout van Aert was immediately invaluable to his Visma-Lease a Bike team. Our compatriot guided his teammate Olav Kooij flawlessly through an incident-rich final to victory in the Clasica de Almeria. Arnaud De Lie had to come from too far and ended up fourth.
The Belgians are making a name for themselves in the opening phase of the new cycling season. A strong climbing Lotte Kopecky surprised friend and foe with a final victory in the UAE Tour, Remco Evenepoel immediately performed a solo of 55 kilometers and Wout van Aert also left jaws dropping on his first day of racing.
Our compatriot remained icy calm in the incident-rich final of the Spanish one-day race Clasica de Almeria and – with his teammate Olav Kooij at the wheel – safely slalomed through the falling peloton.
In itself a masterpiece from the agile Van Aert, but our compatriot also completed his work as lead-out with a scorching acceleration in the final straight line. The Belgian pacer outflanked everything and everyone with an outside maneuver and excellently pushed Kooij off to start his sprint.
The Dutchman did not betray the trust of Visma-Lease a Bike and continued Van Aert’s work flawlessly. Two Italians – Matteo Moschetti and Matteo Trentin – came to sniff his rear wheel, but eventually had to bow their heads before the fluorescent yellow flash.
In the background, two more Belgians made a good sprint, but both Arnaud De Lie – who would have been more than happy to win for his lieutenant Florian Vermeersch who fell yesterday – and Gerben Thijssen had to come from too far and just missed out on the stage.
