Tour de France riders head to Tokyo with Games in sight

TOKYO: Wout van Aert had just concluded one of the most remarkable performances of anyone in the Tour de France with a thrilling sprint victory on the Champs-elysees in Paris when he was asked about his Olympic ambitions.

The breakthrough Belgian star, who also won a time trial and mountain stage on the iconic Mount Ventoux, will be lining up at Musashinonomori Park on Saturday for the road race before tackling the time trial a few days later.

“I guess I’ll try to win both,” he said with what amounted to an audible shrug, “but of course it’s going to be really difficult. Though for now, I’m still overwhelmed by the victories of this weekend.”

Nobody quite knows how van Aert and the rest of the riders who will be jeting from the finish line in Paris to the starting line in Tokyo this week will perform ater three hard weeks riding around France.

Cycling stands out among Olympic sports for having its biggest, most prestigious event serving as an appetizer to the Summer Games. Overall Tour winner Tadej Pogecar of Slovenia will also be competing in Tokyo.

Only two riders to compete in the last five Olympics won a stage at the Tour before winning a road race medal, and one of those stage wins was Fabian Cancellara’s victory in a time trial in 2008.

The other was Greg van Avermaet, who struck gold at the Rio Games ater winning the sixth stage of the Tour to cement his status as Olympic favorite. Much like his countryman van Aert did this year.

Other riders have also used the Tour to ride into form for the Olympics.

Paolo Betini spent eight days wearing the king of the mountains jersey before winning gold at the 2004 Athens games, where Axel Merckx - who eventually won the king of the mountains classification - grabbed the bronze medal for Belgium. And at the 2000 Games, Germany’s Jan Ullrich followed his second-place Tour finish to Lance Armstrong - who, of course, was stripped of his win - by winning the gold medal in Sydney from a three-man breakaway.

But for the most part, the three-week grind of the Tour de France tends to leave riders weary when they line up for the Olympics.

Ater all, it’s the Tour rather than the once-every-four-years Summer Games that they target above all else.