TakeVuelta2 weeks ago
Van Aert lost his sunglasses on stage 5 and joked he can't just replace them like Pogačar — a throwaway line that says everything about their roles at this Vuelta. Pogačar rides for himself and hands out spare glasses; Van Aert rides for Matthew Brennan and can't afford to lose his own.
The gap started with a gift: after stage 2, Pogačar gave his own red sunglasses to Van Aert's son Georges. Three stages later, Van Aert's own pair fell off during racing, prompting his quip — «I'm not Pogačar, who gets a new pair of glasses every day» — while he was busy setting up Brennan's second sprint win in two days. He called it a feeling that «comes very close to winning yourself», which is either genuine contentment or the closest thing to competitive fire he's allowed himself to show all week.
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