Van Aert: "I'm happy with this win, and I have to keep working now"

June 11 ^th 2026 - 17:51

"Winning is always nice, especially in a big race like this, so I’m really happy with this stage win.
Honestly, my shape is not much different now compared to what it was at the start of the week.

The last two days were just a bit easier and suited me better with my current form. It was a difficult start. Today it was also difficult mentally. Sometimes I feel pain due to the crash I had just before this race. The team were chasing the whole day and I just had to try. Bruno Armirail was impressively strong on the front until the last few kilometres and the other boys did an amazing job to bring me to the line. I have to thank them, and I’m really happy.

Honestly, sprints have been going pretty well already the whole year and in the last few weeks in training. I was definitely confident I had a good chance. But this is such a hard race, with a lot of altitude metres, not a lot of sprint teams, so every day is a question mark whether it will be controlled. If fifteen other teams want to go in the breakaway, you have no chance. Today, we did a great job from the start and we were able to have a break that we could come back to. That’s how we got this opportunity.

I’m happy with this and I have to keep working now."