The bullet through the church: Wout van Aert begins in Paris-Roubaix, but not as a leader

There will be this afternoon when his teammates Laporte, Teunissen and Van Hooydonk and his comrades. Explore the final of the 119th edition of Paris-Roubaix, but he will join them on Sunday at the start at Compiègne. Van Aert stays in sunny places for a while, as he has been improving for a while. His inability to participate in the survey was clearly a loss, but given the circumstances, this was the only possible option. Last Tuesday, after he contracted a corona before the Flanders tour, he obtained permission to resume training sessions. He is closely followed by the medical department of Jumbo-Visma. All values ​​and physical parameters were meticulously analyzed for several days.

loss of shape

Accompanying the decision to allow Van Aert to start is a lengthy training that he only recently completed. I got close to the race duration for a race like the Roubaix and there wasn’t a single spot in the air. This instilled the necessary confidence within the team, giving Van Aert a place in the selection for the seven-man Paris Roubaix team. He won’t get the role of absolute leader this time around. By staying in isolation for a week and only being able to gradually increase the training tempo after that, there is actually a loss of form in Van Aert. This is why Jumbo-Visma was chosen to take full advantage of the breadth of selection. Riders such as Teunissen, Laporte, Van Hooydonk and Rosen will start on a par with Van Art on Sunday and may take their chance.

Jumbo-Visma didn’t happen overnight. Every potential hazard has been tested so that all potential obstacles can be overcome one by one. The health of the Belgian champion is given absolute priority. The team takes it for granted that Van Aert will not have the best of him. Only after Roubaix will there be a new evaluation and then we should see what the rest of his show will look like. Having him also race Liège-Bastogne-Liège next week is an option at the moment, but that will depend on how the hell he survives.