Van Aert, what a trick: he attacks to win 6,000 euros in bathroom furnishings

At some point of theE3 Saxo Classic by Harelbekeon Tiegemberg, the last wall of the day, Wout Van Aert he attacked and was the first to cross the summit, without however making a difference with respect to Van der Poel And Pogacar. The three then reached the finish line together and Van Aert, the one who appeared most in difficulty on the paved climbs that cover the Belgian race, placed the winning sprint over the other two.

The Tiegemberg however, it had a peculiarity, of which only Wout was aware: whoever took the lead up there would win 6,000 euros in bathroom furnishings, offered by one of the sponsors of the race. Indeed, on the “berg”, next to the banner stood a huge yellow duck. Van Aert only revealed the secret to his attacking companions at the end of the race and the other two, after hearing the story, started laughing uproariously. “We’ll all get a third of the bath from Wout, right?” Pogacar began. “Tadej and I didn’t know, so we confronted Wout. He assured that he would split the prize between the three of us,” Van der Poel added. “I saw that Mathieu and Tadej hadn’t noticed anything, so I decided not to inform them” concluded Van Aert, who after the race also had to explain another matter, much less joking. Around -20 the Herentals phenomenon had received the assistance of the flagship: the mechanic looked out of one of the side doors and lubricated the bike chain on the fly. An operation bordering on the regulations, at least in the final stages of the race, which the UCI commissioners preferred to ignore. The three, together with Philip Gannawill be the protagonists of Ghent-Wevelgem on Sunday 26 March.

Catalunya, skirmishes between Roglic and Evenepoel, then Groves wins

Winning sprint, the second in three days, for Kaden Groves in the sixth stage of the Back to Catalunya While Primoz Roglich remains in command ahead of the world champion Remco Evenepoel. At the end of the 177 kilometers that led from Martorell to Molins de Rei, the Australian sprinter of Alpecin-Deceuninck took advantage of the wheel of teammate Xandro Meurisse and preceded Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) and Ide Schelling (Bora-Hansgrohe) to the finish line. Roglic and Evenepoel battle it out in the intermediate sprints for time bonuses (one won each) and in the end the Slovenian of Jumbo-Visma maintains a 10″ lead over his rival, with Joao Almeida (UAE Emirates) in third position in the general 1’02”. Now the grand finale in Barcelona (142 kilometres). On the last climb of the day, the Alt de la Creu d’Argall, Evenepoel attacked and got close to Roglic. After asking him in vain several times to relieve him, Evenepoel shook his head at his rival and stopped shooting. Egan Bernal retired after a crash during today’s stage with 90 kilometers left to go. For the Colombian from Ineos, still looking for the best physical shape after the dramatic accident in January 2022, this is the second retirement of the season. The season and perhaps the career for the extraordinary winner of the 2019 Tour and the 2021 Giro are terribly uphill.