Van Aert: "It means a lot and gives prestige to win in Pogacar"

the Belgian Wout van Aert, winner of the eighth round of the Tour de Franceadmitted he misses his duel last year with the Dutchman Mathieu van der Poelbecause it gave more prestige to his achievements, but he said it also gave a lot to beat the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar.

“When I beat Van der Poel, I am given more prestige, unfortunately not last year’s level. I can only beat those there and the loss to Pogacar is also very prestigious,” said the Jumbo rider after adding his second stage in this Tour. , the eighth in total.

Van Aert, who finished third in the first three periods and won the fourth, with the finish line at Calais, regretted that he did not win the sixth at Longwy, where he decided to enter the breakaway and he was chased with eleven. kilometers further, which left the road for Pogacar’s victory.

The Belgian admitted that this approach did not succeed, but said that controlling the race from the rear required a lot of damage and in that case they didn’t have to do it.

The Jumbo cyclist indicated that he felt “at the limit” on the final slope of the stage on Saturday, but his plan was to wait until the last 300 meters, when the terrain was flat.

“I had a hard time following the big climbers in that section, but I kept up with them and I sprinted well,” said the runner, who assured that “it’s never easy to win in cycling, and less so. So on the Tour.”

Van Aert, who has won stages in all four Tours he has contested, said those wins give confidence to a team seeking overall status along with two leaders, Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark and Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia.

At the time, he stressed that they would seek more successes on stage, although now the terrain is less conducive to their choices.

The Belgian got the green jersey of regularity, which he intended to bring to Paris.