Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) has definitively put his injury woes behind him, marking his victorious return to competition on Wednesday one month after being forced out of the Tour de France because of an infected wound in his elbow.
The Belgian out-sprinted Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet Rose Rockets) and Henrik Pedersen (Uno-X Mobility) on the opening stage of the Tour of Denmark in Aalborg and will wear the leader’s jersey on Thursday’s stage 2.
The win wasn’t always in the cards, however, as Van Aert was part of a massive pile-up in the final 70 kilometres.
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“It was a dangerous zone with a risk of crosswinds and there was a lot of chaos,” Van Aert said according to Sporza. “I was in the middle of the peloton where I couldn’t go anywhere. Fortunately, I was able to stay more or less upright.”
Van Aert made a joke of having to elbow his way through the bunch when asked about overcoming his injury, but then clarified, saying, “It’s not really my style to position myself with the elbow anyway, just with the legs. It is a chaotic race, though, with all those motivated local teams and that fight.”
The 197.2-kilometre stage around Aalborg exploded on the hilly final circuit, with Van Aert and teammate Christophe Laporte making the winning selection of eight riders and working to close down any threatening moves before Van Aert could win the sprint.
“It’s always difficult to win, so to do it straight away on my return is really special,” Van Aert said. “It was a tough finale. The plan was for Christophe to be in the front group, while I would bridge across on the final climb. The gap was a bit bigger than we expected, but fortunately I still managed to make it across.
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“After a comeback, there’s always some uncertainty about your form. I still had something left for the final climb, and although the last five kilometres were really tough, I’m very happy we managed to pull it off.
“I remembered the little climb from 2018, when I rode here for the first time and was caught off guard by the gaps that opened up there. So I knew that today was already a chance to make a difference. My explosiveness is good.”
Van Aert now hopes to hold onto the leader’s jersey to the finish of the Tour of Denmark on Sunday.
“We have the leader’s jersey now. It is a goal of ours to win the circuit here. Tomorrow we will try to hold on to what we have.”
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