On the tenth floor of the Van der Valk Hotel in Ghent on Thursday afternoon, a pair of television cameramen stood guard by the elevator, waiting patiently for Wout van Art to arrive.

Each time the door opened, they held up their cameras in anticipation, but when they realized it was not him, they quickly lowered their cameras again in disappointment.

The scene repeated itself over and over, and the men were quietly outraged when they realized that they were only recording the poor timekeeping of the surprised journalists over and over for posterity.

While the collective strength of Jumbo-Visma has been the story of the spring, all eyes here in Belgium are on local favorite Van Aert, who is looking for his first win in his home race three days before the start of the Tour of Flanders.

This week, his every move is in the public eye, his importance amplified and sometimes distorted. It must be a claustrophobic experience.

On Wednesday night, his training partner, former pro Jan Bakelantz, said on a podcast that VanArt was in danger of a fatal accident earlier this week when a cement mixer deliberately passed near their group. By Thursday morning, the comment had made the Flanders media rounds.

On Thursday afternoon, at a pre-race press conference in the hotel bar, Van Aert realized that Bakelants had rather overstated the gravity of the incident.

"Accidents like this happen almost every day on the road, unfortunately," Van Aert said. 'But we are still alive. It certainly wasn't a safe situation, but we didn't almost die.

"The timing was particularly bad. I received many messages of concern from my wife.

More worrisome for Van Aert was the news that teammate Dylan Van Baar had fallen ill during the week and would miss the Tour of Flanders. Dylan van Baarle, winner of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and newcomer to Jumbo Visma this season, was to be a key part of the team's plan of attack. Despite the team's depth, van Baarle's absence is a blow to Van Aert's hopes of overcoming Tadej Pogachar and Mathieu van der Pol.

"Of course, it's a big change," Van Aart confessed. He's a super strong rider, especially in a long race like this." It's a shame we'll be without Dylan on Sunday, but we have a few other cards to play. We are a strong team and I hope we can make it to the end without Dylan."

There is no doubting the depth of Van Aat's team. With Laporte's victory in Wednesday's Dwar door Hlaanderen, Jumbo Visma will win five cobbled classics in 2023 with four different riders, but some of Richard Plagge's "samen winnen" set are more likely to win than other teams Some players are more likely than others.

Despite the presence of Thierry Benoot and Laporte, Van Aert is the clear leader of the Tour de Flanders and is arguably the only Jumbo-Visma rider who can beat Pogachar and Van der Pol in a direct confrontation.

Still, after an illness interrupted his training in February and delayed the start of the season, Van Earle himself had doubts about his prospects: among the elite players who won the E3 Saxo Classic, he was, by his own admission, the weakest, but there he was able to beat Pogachar and Van der Pol, and beating them in the Harelbeke sprint, had boosted his confidence considerably.

"They were very strong, probably a little stronger than me," he said. "Luckily I was able to hold on. 'Luckily I was able to hold on.

"I hope to be a little better on Sunday. But these are the two players I'm paying the most attention to."

After his victory in Harelbæk, Van Aert shouted into the lens of the TV camera that he had nothing to prove. Perhaps, but he was pleased with his victory here and the relief he got from the exhibition in Ghent-Wevelgem two days later.

Van der Pol and Pogachar were absent, but it was the same statement of intent for the 28-year-old, who is beginning to face more persistent questions about Palmare, which features "only one" monument, Milan - Sanremo 2020.

"If I hadn't come out on top in last weekend's races, I would feel much differently now. Winning those two races and having a good feeling in my legs gave me a lot of confidence," Van Aert said.

He also believes that his condition has improved another notch or two in the past week since his (relative) struggles against Pogachar in Oude-Kwaremont.

"It's always hard to judge, but there's no doubt that I'm recovering faster than I was a month ago in races like Tirreno, for example. When you think about it, I think we are definitely making progress. It shows in the way I run, so I think I've made some small steps in the past week. I'll be happy if that happens."

Sunday will be Van Aert's fourth attempt at the Tour de Flanders, but his record in the race he most covets is relatively inadequate by his own lofty standards: in his 2018 debut, he finished ninth in the colors of Veranda Willems-Clarin He came in, but was still primarily a cyclocross rider; a year later he was 14th, and in 2021 only 6th.

During this time, he lost a two-up sprint to his eternal rival, Van der Pol, in the 2020 event, which was delayed due to a pandemic. Last year, he had to watch from the sidelines as Van der Pol took his second win in the Ronde after a COVID-19 diagnosis ruled Van Aat out of the race altogether.

"Last year I was at the top level early in the spring, so I was confident I would be ready for the Tour de Flanders," he said. 'I think we've grown in the same way this year.'

Van Aert will again face two unimaginably high-level rivals on Sunday, but this year he is backed by a team that can ride as it wishes on the cobbles. Despite their struggles last week in Oude Kwaremont, Van Aat is looking more and more like a favorite to win on Sunday.

"Hopefully as a team we can control some of the action like we did in the last race. That's our goal, to create a good situation," Van Aert said. But at some point you have to move on your own."

Six years after the Belgian won the Tour of Flanders, it has been a historic drought for the host country. Asked what would happen if he didn't win on Sunday, he shrugged politely.

"And Monday, we'll probably wake up again," Van Art smiled. 'Hopefully.'

With such a constant glare of the spotlight, a change of perspective is never a bad thing.