Opinion: Wout van Aert the mere warm-up act for Tadej Pogacar’s headline performance on Tour de France’s yellow stage

If Wout van Aert, to borrow a phrase from Tom Pidcock, is “playing with the peloton’s balls,” then Tadej Pogacar is, well, crushing them.

On the day the Belgian toyed with everyone while trying to pull off the impossible, it was ultimately the Slovenian superstar who ended up stealing the show and making the headlines in Longwy. By winning his first stage of the 2022 Tour and ripping the yellow jersey from Van Aert’s shoulders, it’s Pogacar who has taken on his predecessor’s previously indomitable aura.

All of a sudden, it’s as if the man who has lit up this first week of the Tour has become a mere foil for his younger colleague – a warm-up act, if you will, with Pogacar now set to headline the Pyramid Stage on the final night at Glastonbury and Van Aert relegated to playing the tambourine.

Here lies the dilemma for cycling fans perpetually trying to rank their heroes in order of worth, achievements, capabilities and character. In Van Aert there is an undeniable giant – a rider whom a leather-clad, heavy-breathing Bradley Wiggins can’t stop ogling from the back of his motorbike; a freak of nature for whom Adam Blythe admits he holds a man crush; a natural born entertainer who can end a Tour run of finishing 1-1-2-2-2-1 by burying himself for his team just 20 hours before going on a one-man crusade for glory in the 220km Stage 6.

A rider who last year notched cycling’s equivalent of football’s perfect hat-trick on the Tour – a time trial win, a mountain triumph over Mont Ventoux, and a sprint success on the Champs-Elysees.

Van Aert is a show pony who can also be a work horse; a complete luxury but one that can deliver Jumbo-Visma stage wins while saving the race of their principal GC rider – as he did almost singlehandedly for Jonas Vingegaard over the cobbles on Wednesday.

He is all that – and more. But to what end? The Tour has yet to hit the mountains and it’s already Tadej Pogacar’s to lose. For six days it was Wout’s world in the biggest bike race of the season. But now it’s Pog’s planet.

If Pogacar left it until the penultimate day to wrest the yellow jersey from Primoz Roglic’s shoulders in his debut Tour in 2020, he took control of the 2021 race in Stage 8 having won the time trial in Stage 5. This year the Slovenian’s first stage win came a day later, but he finds himself the race leader three days earlier – and, crucially, on the eve of the first of six mountaintop finishes.

Pogacar’s victory in Longwy was as emphatic as it was gifted to him on a silver platter. No one else knows how to beat him so they simply lie down and let the 23-year-old run away with it.

In the words of Pogacar’s Danish teammate Mikkel Bjerg: “It’s like a junior bike race where there is one kid who has gone into puberty before the others.”

Van Aert and Pogacar now each have seven Tour stage wins to their name. Both are likely to add more to their palmares this July. And while Van Aert will almost certainly wear the green jersey all the way to Paris now, even he seems incapable of preventing Pogacar from doing the same with the maillot jaune.

Here lies the Van Aert conundrum at Jumbo-Visma. The team are clearly weaker and less dynamic without him, but nor will they win the Tour with him. Van Aert may not be able to stop Roglic from crashing, but he can prevent Vingegaard from dropping out of contention on the cobbles. Yet only Vingegaard can ultimately prevent Pogacar from securing a Tour hat-trick – and at the moment, the 25-year-old Dane just is not on the same level as his 23-year-old rival.

In this sense, Jumbo-Visma need Van Aert’s wins as collateral. The Belgian puts bums on seats and sets tongues wagging. He attempts – and often pulls off – things that only the likes of Eddy Merckx or Bernard Hinault would attempt.

But isn’t it telling that there’s no Van Aert figure at UAE Team Emirates? While Rafal Majka and Brandon McNulty were present and correct at the finale for Pogacar, the Slovenian is essentially a one-man band when it comes to the Tour. It’s a tactic that’s only as strong as the man himself – but up until now, that man has been peerless in the peloton.

And how demoralising must it be for the cobblestone or sprint specialists – like Jasper Stuyven yesterday, or Michael Matthews today – to see the best rider in the peloton encroaching on their domain, too. Pogacar, the best Grand Tour rider of his generation, came close to winning his debut Ronde van Vlaanderen this season; and he already had more Monument wins to his name than a classics specialist like Van Aert.

When it comes to the Tour, Pogacar essentially does exactly what Van Aert does – and more. He wins time trials, he wins sprints, he wins the summit showdowns. And this year, he’s already cast the Belgian giant in the shade and we’re only six days in. So strap in for the Pogacar show. Bravo Wout for warming up the crowds – but now, dear readers, enjoy your headline act whose set is about to begin with the hit single, ‘Super Planche’.