“Beautiful, great”, responded the Dutch sports director of Jumbo-Visma after the new sprint victory, yesterday, in the Tour of Wout van Aert.
“If you can win a super tough and dangerous stage with Wout, who helped Primoz Roglic during the stage, it couldn’t be better.”
“This is a dream scenario”, says Zeeman, who says he is no longer surprised by Van Aert. “This scenario made it clear that this would be an opportunity for Wout. We were very well prepared and knew where it would happen.”
“The atmosphere in our team is such that Primoz and Tom (Dumoulin) say: we want to help Wout: go for it.”
“Wout is extremely versatile, a great driver. You can be proud of him”, says Zeeman.
Van Aert has now moved up to 3rd place in the green standings with 106 points against leader Peter Sagan’s 138.
“The green?” Laughs the sports director modestly. “The yellow is the main goal. We will see what comes. This has been a dream scenario so far. Wout has been perfectly prepared by his trainer.”
The World Cup was also discussed. National coach Rik Verbrugghe said that Van Aert must make choices. “I have a missed call from Rik.”
“Can I give advice? We are now in the Tour and have important things to do here. The World Cup is something for later. That can wait a while.”
“We talk about it with the coaches. Whether Wout is a candidate for the world title? If he takes part.”
