Opinion: Indefatigable Wout van Aert must make Tadej Pogacar go green with envy after latest Tour de France blitz

When did you last see the defending champion being dropped by the green jersey on the final hors categorie climb of the Tour?

Never. Well, not until this Thursday’s Stage 18 to Hautacam, when the runaway leader of the so-called sprinters’ classification hammered the final nail into Tadej Pogacar’s coffin before propelling his team-mate Jonas Vingegaard to a maiden stage win in the yellow jersey, all but securing the overall win for the Dane in the process.

That final pull by Van Aert as the elastic snapped for Pogacar only tells half the story. For Van Aert did not even wait a second before attacking from the gun of the decisive stage in the Pyrenees – going clear with 143 kilometres remaining.

You could almost imagine what went through the heads of the other prospective breakaway contenders as they saw Van Aert go up the road with Neilson Powless – only for the man in EF Education-EasyPost’s garish pink kit to return minutes later with his tail firmly between his legs: “Not again!”

Rigoberto Uran probably had a few more choice words for Van Aert when, on the first climb of the day, the Col d’Aubisque, and the green jersey present and correct in the break, the man who had only just earlier won the intermediate sprint at Laruns proceeded to distance most of the escapees, including the Colombian climber, a veteran bridesmaid from three Grand Tours during his long career.

If those 20 points in the sprint stretched Van Aert’s already unassailable lead in the points classification, it did not spark the beginning of the end for the Belgian’s foray off the front. Quite the opposite.

Very soon, the tussle between Giulio Ciccone and Simon Geschke for KOM points became a red herring – for once Van Aert went over the top of the Col de Spandelles ahead of Thibaut Pinot and Dani Martinez, he came one climb away from adding polka dots to the green jersey he will wear on the streets of Paris on Sunday.

Of course, the polka dot pendulum was to swing again – and when it did, Van Aert made sure that the best climber of this Tour will be the man Tadej Pogacar declared “the best climber in the world” after beating him to the line at La Super Planche des Belles Filles back in the opening week.

Van Aert came within five kilometres of adding Hautacam to his Mont Ventoux scalp from last July – astonishing for someone we more readily associate with short bunch sprints than prolonged uphill kicks. Once he realised that the stage win was beyond him, Van Aert sat up and waited for his team leader. And after taking the baton from team-mate Sepp Kuss, Van Aert proceeded to deliver the killer blow.

It was a fitting way to seal the dream. Jumbo-Visma entered this race with lofty ambitions to win both the yellow and green jerseys – and here it all came together with yellow and green riding away from white on the final climb of the Tour in a move which secured a bonus extra: polka dots.

A one-two-three for the riders in yellow, white and green was a sight to behold – three riders, incidentally, who have all won a stage in this year’s Tour while sporting the famous maillot jaune.

Van Aert’s third place at Hautacam was his seventh podium finish since the start of the Tour after two wins and four runner-up spots. It also came at the end of his fifth long-distance breakaway on the race, the Belgian having clocked up over 600km ahead of the peloton in the past fortnight alone.

To think that many were saying that Van Aert’s personal ambitions would be Jumbo-Visma’s undoing in their quest to win yellow through Vingegaard or Primoz Roglic – that the 27-year-old’s pursuit of personal glory would jeopardise his team leaders’ chances winning the maillot jaune.

Well, there was no better team-mate to have up the road for Vingegaard on Thursday than an all-round talent who has proved beyond any doubt that he is quite capable of being a major team player while keeping his own palmares ticking along.

Cast your mind back to the stage over the cobbles of northern France to Arenberg. The day before, Van Aert – frustrated after finishing runner-up on each of the three stages on Danish soil – rode clear of the peloton on the final punchy climb by the coast to take a remarkable solo win in Calais.

It was a win many blasted as irresponsible given it came on the eve of the GC test over the cobbles. But the next day, when the wheels almost came off the Jumbo-Visma bus amid comedic scenes of panicked bike-swapping across the road and near collisions with team cars, Van Aert, his yellow jersey torn after crashing earlier on in the stage, put aside his chances of winning on his own terrain and almost single-handedly saved the Tour for his co-leaders Roglic and Vingegaard.

Van Aert is worth his weight in gold. He would be the first name on any directeur sportif’s list if they were drawing up a fantasy team for pretty much any race – not least the Tour. He brings you sprint wins, TT wins, solo wins, mountain wins; he brings you breakaway exposure; and now he brings you a green jersey by what will be a record number of points in Paris – all while moving heaven and earth to bring you both yellow and polka dots, too.

Heck, if he could retrospectively delay Vingegaard’s birth by three weeks, he’d probably have squeezed that in to secure the white jersey as well.

And the best thing for Jumbo-Visma and Van Aert is that this Tour is not over yet. With a flat finale to Stage 19 on Friday – plus reports of blustery winds at the start – you wouldn’t bet against Van Aert being on the right side of any splits before riding to a third triumph at Cahors.

Failing that there’s always the final time trial to Rocamadour and the showpiece sprint on the Champs-Elysees. After all, it’s not as if that would be new territory for Van Aert: he did that exact same double last year.

How Tadej Pogacar must be kicking himself that he doesn’t have a team-mate like Van Aert. That was arguably the major takeaway from Stage 18: the two-time champion’s isolation in the face of total domination from a Jumbo-Visma team down two riders but still outshining everyone else.

If Pogacar wants to win back his crown next July he’s going to need a complete overhaul at UAE Team Emirates. Even then, whoever comes in won’t be anywhere near as affective as Wout van Aert in his pomp – a rider for whom we are running out of superlatives, a rider who has been peerless in this Tour, and a rider who will no doubt have his rivals cursing, “Not again!” on numerous occasions before the curtains are finally drawn on this Tour on Sunday.

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