Opinion: Every second counts as Wout van Aert proves himself a cut above the rest at the Tour de France

No one has dominated the recent history of the Tour de France in the same brutal fashion as Wout van Aert. In a way like you have never seen before, and in the yellow jersey no less, the Belgian ended a streak of three successive second places on Tuesday – a streak, lest you forget, that came off the back of consecutive victories in the final two stages of last year’s Tour.

Quite simply, that run of 1-1-2-2-2-1 makes Van Aert one of the modern greats – a rider certainly peerless in the peloton when it comes to anything and everything except actually winning the world’s biggest bike race. Ad/> Yes, Tadej Pogacar may well ride into the Parisian sunset with a third successive Tour title – and he may do so with some captivating performances in the mountains – but even he will not be able to match the consistency, panache and all-round threat of his Belgian counterpart, a rider who balances quite magnificently the dual aspects of personal ambition and teamwork.

Tour de France‘I’m in shock!’ – Van Aert lauded after ‘demolishing peloton’AN HOUR AGO Van Aert is so good at what he does that even in strengthening his own grip on both the yellow and green jerseys he paved the way for his teammates Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard in their own pursuit of cycling’s holy grail. 2-2-2-1! Van Aert takes sensational win to end bridesmaid streak Tour de France Stage 4, as it happened: Van Aert flies to glory In his first Tour, Van Aert was part of Jumbo-Visma’s winning team time trial squad before winning a reduced bunch sprint in Albi.

In his second Tour, he won two sprints. In his third, he pulled off cycling’s equivalent of football’s left foot-right foot-header perfect hat-trick: a TT win, a bunch sprint on the Champs-Elysees, and a