Van Aert’s coach says top riders dug too deep at Tirreno Adriatico

Wout van Aert was 3rd in Milan Sanremo and won Gent Wevelgem. However, he lacked punch in other recent races and was distanced by his main rivals when he might have been expected to put them under pressure. His coach believes Tirreno Adriatico was perhaps too hard (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)
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Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel may have had a strong spring classics campaign but Van Aert’s coach believes their form for the classics was dulled by making such hard efforts at Tirreno Adriatico.

Marc Lamberts said the Italian stage race was so hard, especially given how aggressively it is raced and the often poor weather, that it could no longer be considered a build-up event towards the classics.

In Tirreno Adriatico the big three – Van Aert, Van der Poel and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) – all won stages.

Van Aert (Jumbo Visma) claimed the opening stage in a bunch sprint and won the final stage TT while also finishing in the top three on five of the seven stages. He also rode very hard on the climbs in a bid to try and win the race overall.

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Mathieu van der Poel spent a lot of time out front solo at Tirreno Adriatico and then lacked his top form at the spring classics (Photo: Marco Alpozzi)

Van der Poel (Alpecin Fenix) also rode exceptionally
hard; winning two stages, including the 205km stage 5 in wet
and cold conditions with an epic 50km solo breakaway.

Before Tirreno Adriatico Van Aert had
completed an altitude camp after the cyclocross season and had ridden just one
road race, taking 4th in Strade Bianche. And Van der Poel had won Strade
Bianche and a stage at UAE Tour.

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However, since his efforts at Tirreno
Adriatico, Van der Poel has not won a race, and while Van Aert has won Gent
Wevelgem, neither rider has looked at his very best and they have lacked their
usual punch.

And now Lamberts believes Tirreno Adriatico took the edge off Van Aert's form rather than improved their condition, noting that Van der Poel also looked under par in Flanders.

“Wout was the third-best in the race and that is suddenly
no longer enough,” Lamberts said of the Tour of Flanders. “I thought Wout was
very good, but he hit his limits.

“It has to stop somewhere. It was a tough race. Moreover, Van der Poel also hit his limit, only 20 kilometres later than Wout," he added of Van der Poel uncharacteristically running out of gas in the final sprint against winner Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep).

“Physiology is not an exact science. I still support the
trajectory we have outlined. With the data I had after the cyclocross World
Championships, I would now do exactly the same again: three weeks of altitude
training in February.

“Tirreno-Adriatico was so tough, partly due to the
weather conditions, that you could not label it as a build-up week. If we had
known it was this tough, he might have been better to ride Paris-Nice .”

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