Jumbo-Visma: “Unless Woot van Aert is crippled, he won’t run today” | Tour de France

As the Tourmalet developed strength, Team Jumbo-Visma’s intentions left little room for interpretation.

The yellow jerseys wanted to put the Tour into a decisive fold yesterday. But at the end of the day, they come home from an empty gallery.

This is the picture that prevails among commentators, analysts, and followers of the course. Or is this picture incorrect according to the sports directors in the cockpit of Jumbo-Visma?

“Honestly, we didn’t get to enjoy Twilight,” Merrin Zeman admitted this afternoon. “The result was not what we had hoped for.”

“It was great to see 8 knights sparring fire for each other.”

“Jonas and Tadegg are so close together. He hit back. That’s great for the Tour, less so for us.”

“Are we going to continue to defend yellow now? It’s about yellow in Paris, so we’re not going to do it every day at any cost. But of course we’d prefer not to give yellow to Tadej.”

There was the title role of Wout van Aert. Was he angry after the critical noise left and right?

“If you mean he was hungry for stage wins, that’s certainly true. But I think he showed a great level in the first weekend.”

“It’s very smart that he competed for the win in the Basque Country. And yesterday he was the best rider for us to overtake Tourmalet.”

“If Wout wants to be in the leading group… while he rages like a beast in those first kilometres… there are few riders who can do anything about it.”

(Continue reading below the image)

But at the end of the day there was no dessert. “Woot was lucky that Jonas had won the stage, but it just didn’t work out.”

“So we’ll give him a rest today. That he won’t run fast? No, unless he gets a twist in the final.”

“We told him to take a day to recover and recharge. Now it’s up to the super-fast people.”

“In the second week there are still interesting rides for him. He will definitely get chances and I very much hope he wins. He deserves it like no other.”

(Continue reading below the video)

“I feel a bit tired after today,” Van Aert admitted at first. “We worked for it as a team and it’s a relief.”

“We were hoping for the icing on the cake, but we crashed into a super-powered Pogacar. We have to accept that.”

“I can imagine it was kind of a meltdown. It was also a weakness of Jonas that he couldn’t finish together, but we all threw ourselves in.”

“I’m happy with the way things went yesterday, maybe I felt better than I did the day before. But I don’t think I’m going to sprint today. Tomorrow suits me better. It’s time to make choices.”