Remember Greg Van Avermaet, the nearly man? The memories are fading fast. Nowadays everything the BMC rider touches turns to gold, like the strip on the sleeve of his jersey, and Sunday's victory at Gent-Wevelgem – completing an unprecedented triple after Omloop Het Nieuwsblad earlier in the year and E3 Harelbeke earlier in the week – was the latest triumph for a man who is quickly making up for lost time.
Before 2016, Van Avermaet had only one major one-day victory – Paris-Tours – to show for his nine years as a professional. 13 months later he has Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (x2), E3 Harelbeke, Gent-Wevelgem, GP de Montreal and Olympic gold all tucked into his palmares.
"I nearly can't believe it myself. It's a dream for me to win these three races. I've been trying for so long to get on the podium and now I'm winning all three of them. For me, it's a dream. After the finish I had to pinch myself to check if it was true," said the 31-year-old in Wevelgem.
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"If you told me this morning that I would win Gent-Wevelgem then I would've told you something's just not right," he added, laughing. "It's just a dream for me, winning such hard races. Now it's all working out."
Now it's all working out. But how has this extraordinary transformation come about? The turning point seemed to be the Tour de France stage victory in 2015, when he got the better of Peter Sagan in a one-on-one battle in Rodez. He had an opportunity and, whereas in previous situations he’d have contrived to let it slip through his fingers, he grasped it, and hasn't looked back since.
"Things are just going my way," he added, though he did insist it's not all some intangible, possibly psychological, knack he's finally struck upon.
De Ronde
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