Van Aert: It was time to respond with the pedals

Wout Van Aert didn’t hesitate to prove his critics wrong with his victory in the Superprestige race in Spa-Francorchamps. His team leader Niels Albert also hit out at Sven Nys.

"I want to read the analyzes again," Van Aert told Het Nieuwsblad. For more than a month he has had to surrender to his Dutch rival Mathieu van der Poel. During the past weeks, lots of people have shared their views in the newspapers and on television. 

"If you are always second, you have no right to speak so I never responded. But I knew that I had ti. It was now time to respond with the pedals. I've never lost here.”

Van Aert found a dream course in and around the Formula 1 circuit. He mainly made the difference in the difficult uphill running section. 

"It’s not often in a season that you get the chance to run on such a wall. I can do that well, so it was nice to show it again. In the coming weeks, we still have  beautiful duels with Mathieu in the busy month of December.”

Also team leader Niels Albert had not forgotten the comments. Sven Nys, team manager at Fidea, have openly questioned why Van Aert had done a heavy training in Calpe three days before the race in Gavere. 

"I'll do my job, Sven must do his. Sven will have more than enough work with his own team,” Albert said.

Van der Poel: I could not follow

Mathieu van der Poel (2nd) was not looking for excuses.

"It was a tough race. Wout has always been stronger on such a running course. It will never be my specialty. I first tried to follow Wout on the running wall, but I couldn’t. It was too hard for me. I soon realized that I would not close the gap so I chose to safely ride for second place.

Aerts: I really like this kind of course

Toon Aerts finished third.

“This is really a course that I like,” he told Het Nieuwsblad. ”I expected more mud, but unfortunately it was frozen. I had large sticks under my shoes for the running. But because I slipped on an icy section when I jumped off the bike, I injured my knee. Then I entertained the audience when I jimped over the flat part of the bridge. Every lap there were more and more spectators. It gave me confidence.”