There Dwars door vlaanderen 2025 will be remembered for the pastry of the Vistma Lease in Bike who, with three men on the four on the run, gets in the sprint by the American Neilson Powless of the EF Educational Easy Post. Wout Van Aert, Tiesj BenooT and Matteo Jornson They bring him into a carriage at the finish and then remain dry mouth convinced probably to make one bite. In the manual of sensational defeats, this sprint enters the right. But it is not the defeat of the Visma, the mockery, the disaster as they hold almost all the sites of the Belgian newspapers to make noise.
Belgian (and not only Belgian) is not recommended for Wout Van Aert, not only Belgian, The most loved champion, the champion who in all these years has made the fans of this sport fall in love, joined them, made them passionate about a cycling that he interpreted with class, with elegance, with the loyalty of the greats, with a style that made him unmistakable.
Impossible not to “fall in love” by Wout Van Aert. It is impossible not to cheer on a champion who won, who often lost, who let his teammates win that he was able to memorable, who never pulled back when he was to do the wingman, who fell, wounded, got up, he never surrendered, who fought against the unfortunate that often gave the impression of arising. For this reason today, when at seventy kilometers from the finish line, when with a fantastic action the Visma started on the run with four of her almost a team time trial, everyone thought in a moment that, after an exact year from that ruinous fall that in practice had removed him in the middle for a whole season, the day of his redemption had arrived.
Everyone, except Neilson Powless And the relatives and friends of Neilson Powless, wanted him to win Wout Van Aert, his sports directors, his people, his teammates and perhaps his opponents wanted him because there is a cycling with Wout Van Aert and there is another without. And they are not the same. And he wanted him who in the end also admitted him as only he could do: “This defeat is my fault, I wanted to win is I asked the team to bring me to the sprint. I am the only responsible …”.
Wout van aert as well as a boy. He is a champion, a man, he is a husband and father. He knows what it means to take responsibility for a defeat that is not only the defeat to the Dwars door Vlaanderen. The fear, for those who love cycling and this immense champion who in all these years has honored him and exalted a sport that owes him a lot, is that the defeat today in Flanders is unfortunately something more, it is a “blow” that will leave a deep mark in the soul more than in the legs and is the beginning of a descending parable that brings him irreparably far from opponents with which he has always fought like Van der Pogac, Pogacar, Pogacar. Pedersen. Here last year the Belgian champion had fallen and had closed a season that he had prepared carefully. Here today he arrived at the second finish line in a sprint that only had to win and fear, for those who are in love with this sport, is that he has not only lost a sprint …