{"id":1805844,"date":"2026-03-03T09:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T06:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1805844"},"modified":"2026-03-03T09:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T06:36:09","slug":"van-aert-deflated-by-late-puncture-in-season-debut-as-visma-unearths-a-new-cobblestone-gem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1805844","title":{"rendered":"Van Aert Deflated by Late Puncture in Season Debut as Visma Unearths a New Cobblestone Gem"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2264575669-scaled.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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Jim Cotton<\/span><\/div>\n

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Updated March 3, 2026 09:53AM<\/div>\n
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Always unlucky Wout van Aert was derailed by a late bike change in his season debut at Le Samyn on Tuesday, but Visma-Lease a Bike might have seen some classics hope nonetheless.<\/p>\n

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The team\u2019s young Norseman Per Strand Hagenens attacked out of the breakaway over a fast section of pav\u00e9<\/em> at around 30km to go and was only caught by the charging bunch in the closing kilometer.<\/p>\n

It was a breakout ride for the 22-year-old after a difficult neo pro season in 2025.<\/p>\n

Pre-race favorite Jordi Meeus outkicked Laurenz Rex (Soudal-Quick Step) and Hugo Hofstetter (NSN) in the final sprint to take his Red Bull super team to double figures for 2026.<\/p>\n

With 10 victories for the year, Remco Evenepoel\u2019s new squad is second in the win rankings behind only UAE Emirates.<\/p>\n

Meeus kicked to his first win of 2026 after Hagenes was reeled back in the final kilometer.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Van Aert builds back for Strade Bianche brawl<\/h2>\n

Tuesday\u2019s cobblestone classic marked WVA\u2019s long-awaited comeback to racing after he broke his ankle in the cyclocross winter and was then struck down by sickness ahead of a planned start at this weekend\u2019s Omloop.<\/p>\n

Van Aert indicated at the start he wasn\u2019t expecting much from his first road race since September after a brutal illness caught him cold over the weekend.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m feeling fit again after a rather bad stomach bug,\u201d Van Aert told VTM<\/em> before the start of Tuesday\u2019s race. \u201cI haven\u2019t been able to eat properly for a few days. I\u2019ve been feeling a bit weak on the bike so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wonder if I\u2019ll be fit enough to perform,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old duly cut a low profile all through the race Tuesday and missed the split that allowed his teammate Hagenes to get away.<\/p>\n

Van Aert\u2019s day ultimately ended 10km from the line when he was forced to change bikes.<\/p>\n

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There are only a very few riders with worse luck than Wout \ud83d\udc94 #LeSamyn pic.twitter.com\/Ik4sXZ0xqi<\/p>\n

\u2014 Luk\u00e1\u0161 Ronald Luk\u00e1cs (@lucasaganronald) March 3, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

It was a typically unlucky start for Belgium\u2019s fan favorite, but Visma might consider it a success to see him on a bike at all.<\/p>\n

The stakes will be significantly higher for Van Aert and Visma on Saturday when they face off with Tadej Poga\u010dar at Strade Bianche.<\/p>\n

\u201cWout\u2019s feeling was OK, we didn\u2019t expect him to be great today,\u201d Visma director Grischa Niermann told HLN<\/em> at the finish. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame he couldn\u2019t sprint, but we shouldn\u2019t draw too many conclusions after today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good to have ridden one more race before Strade.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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Jim Cotton<\/span><\/div>\n

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Updated March 3, 2026 09:53AM<\/div>\n
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[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/van-aert-deflated-by-late-puncture-in-season-debut\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2264575669-scaled.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated March 3, 2026 09:53AM Always unlucky Wout van Aert was derailed by a late bike change in his season debut at Le Samyn on Tuesday, but Visma-Lease a Bike might have seen some classics hope nonetheless. The team\u2019s young Norseman Per Strand Hagenens attacked out of the breakaway over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1805844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1805844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1805844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1805844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1805844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}