Wout van Aert faces frustrating day in Loenhout: "I cursed loudly under my breath"

It all looked so promising, but Wout van Aert ultimately had a particularly frustrating afternoon in Loenhout. The Belgian seemed ready to take on the duel with Mathieu van der Poel, but two flat tires dashed any chance of a possible victory.

Van Aert was understandably disappointed afterwards. "I cursed under my breath quite harshly, yes," he told the media afterwards—including Het Nieuwsblad. "It’s really bitter to get two flats. Where did it happen? On the same stone where I got the first flat. Such bad luck," the Visma | Lease a Bike rider could still laugh a bit about his unfortunate race.

"After that, it was still a long way to the technical zone. It was the worst place to get a flat. I was at my limit at that moment. Mathieu was putting pressure on me, but I had to hang on a little longer so I could ‘reset’ at the finish."

"I really wanted to pull off to the bus"
"I felt like I could have made it a real duel, so this is definitely a shame. I only finished the race for all the supporters who were here for me. I really wanted to pull off to the bus, but I couldn’t do that."

Van Aert managed to recover in the final phase and fought his way to tenth place in the daily ranking, less than a minute and a half behind winner Van der Poel. With races in Mol (2/01), Zonhoven (4/01), and the Belgian Championships (11/01) coming up, he still has (normally) three more cyclo-crosses on his schedule.