Eindelijk. - Finally. - is the headline that Belgian sports news agency Sporza used to describe Wout van Aert's victory at the Vuelta a España on Monday in a single word, and there is no doubt that it perfectly describes the feeling Van Aert must have felt after this victory, after the longest interval between victories in his career. There is no doubt that eindelijk perfectly describes it.

Several factors may have contributed to Van Aert's absence from winning in 2024. However, a terrible crash at the Dwar door Hlaanderen in April of this year sidelined the Belgian rider for the Giro d'Italia, and the Vimaris a Bike rider did not return to racing until late June.

In August, however, he finished third in the opening time trial of the Vuelta a España, and on Sunday he finished second behind Caden Groves (Dechunanque-Alpecin). And on Monday, the long wait for victory finally ended when Van Aert passed the Australian in the slightly uphill finish on Castelo Branco.

The 2024 winless season was not the longest in Van Aert's now 47-win career: three days after winning stage 10 of the 2019 Tour de France, after suffering a terrible crash in the Pau time trial, and again at Strade Bianche in August 2020. It took him more than a year to get his arms up.

However, the 2020 pandemic and the resulting absence from the race undoubtedly skewed the difference in this particular victory, and regardless of the statistics, Van Aat's joyful expression as he celebrated with his teammates made it clear that this latest win was truly important to him made it clear.

“My first win in the Vuelta was a special victory. So to win again today is even more special.”

“And I'm also very proud to be wearing the leader's jersey of the Vuelta today.

Van Aert said that he was always sure that victory would come again, but that his stubborn refusal to accept it, given his position on the team, made it difficult to accept.

“I consider myself a winner, I am one of the team leaders and I always have the support of the team to win.

“On the other hand, I suffered for a long time after my fall in the spring. So to win again is special and very emotional. To be honest, I wasn't worried that I might not be able to come back. Today is the day.”

Van Aat said he completely changed his strategy after losing out to Groves in a group sprint in Orem on stage 2.

“I was going to do the opposite of what I did yesterday,” Van Aert said. 'I was able to get away from Groves' wheels and I think I surprised him by going from 200 meters out.'

“I was also confident. The team did a perfect job all day, they controlled the race and prepared me ideally for the sprint. They gave me the ideal set-up for the sprint.

Van Aert was still able to take the overall lead today, but decided that the summit finish of Ville Elkas on stage 4 would be too difficult for him, and defending Vuelta champion Sepp Kuss and young Belgian GC contender, Sian Uitdebloks to take over as team leader. He was a bit sarcastic: “The fun is unfortunately over.”

One Spanish journalist wondered if one day he himself would be in contention for the overall, but Van Aat promptly dismissed the idea.

“It's too hard, and you can do really well in a one-day race or if you pick one day in a stage race. “

“Luckily after tomorrow (Tuesday) we have a couple of chances that are not summit finishes, so we might have a chance to get into the breakaway. Either way, it was really nice to get a morale boost from today's win.”