Wout van Aert has amused everyone with his announcement on X that he will participate in the sprint in the ninth stage of the Tour de France. The Belgian joked about it on Saturday after he surprisingly sprinted in the eighth stage as well.
Van Aert surprised everyone on Saturday by taking his chance in the sprint against stage winner Jonathan Milan. A few hours earlier, before the start, he had thrown sand in people’s eyes. He had said that he did not plan to sprint for the stage victory.
That turned out to be a white lie, he honestly admitted to Sporza after the eighth stage. “I will announce it next time and put it on Twitter (the current X, ed.)”, he winked.
However, Van Aert did not want to say in front of the camera whether he would sprint again in Sunday’s stage. “I’ll think about it,” he said. “And maybe I’ll put it on Twitter, although I don’t know if I still know my password.”
On Sunday morning, it turned out that Van Aert still knew his password and kept his word with a short tweet. “I’m going to sprint today,” wrote the Visma-Lease a Bike rider.
Whether Van Aert is throwing sand in people’s eyes again or really going to sprint will become clear later on Sunday. The ninth stage starts at 13:25 and is expected to finish around 17:00.