Wout van Aert comes to the Vuelta a Espana to win stages and team manager Grischa Niermann sees enough opportunities where Van Aert could possibly do that.
“His urge to win is very big,” the German team manager says. “The races are coming up quickly for Wout this summer. But that was discussed and planned. It was Wout’s wish to ride the Vuelta after the Tour. Wout is very motivated to prove himself again this year, because he is a rider who wants to win races.”
And Van Aert has not won since the end of February, when he claimed Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.
“As a team, we will do everything we can to help him win a stage at the Vuelta. He deserves it. We see a lot of opportunities for Wout to win. Ideally, more than 5. We will use him in bunch sprints and also actions of a more select groups. He will have a few strong men to support him. But Wout can also win stages from the breakaway. He has already proven that.”
“Sepp Kuss is the reigning champion, but not the top favorite to win this Vuelta. That means that Wout will not have to sacrifice himself in every mountain stage. In the Tour, there were only 2 favorites and we had 1 of them with Jonas Vingegaard. In the Vuelta there are 6 or 7 teams that can take the final victory.
“So in Spain we won’t have to control every mountain stage from kilometer 0, which means Wout will have a different role than at the Tour.”
