Wout Van Aert added that an aggressive early race involving Belgian teammate Remco Evenpoel worked against him, and that he was unable to react when Julien Alaphilippe launched a decisive attack on a steep climb in Leuven.

Van Aert confirmed that he would have to talk to Evenpoel and clear up the misunderstanding, as Evenpoel did not attend the post-race debriefing and even claimed that he could have won the world title had he been the protected rider.

Van Aert, who finished 11th in the race, spoke in a long joint interview with former rider Dirk de Wolf before the prestigious Kristallen Feets Award evening in Belgium. De Wolf was the inaugural winner of the men's prize 28 years ago, while Van Aert won the prize in 2020 and is a contender to win it again this year.

"[Jasper] Stuyven won the Monument, and [Tim] Mellier, [Jasper] Philipsen, [Victor] Kampenaerts and [Dylan] Tuns won stages in the Grand Tour. But my advantage is a combination of several factors," Van Aert said, emphasizing his Classics results, three stage wins in the Tour de France on different terrain, and silver medals in time trials at the Tokyo Olympics and World Championships.

"After last season, I knew it would be hard to go further. I think I can say that I succeeded. The only thing I missed was the Classic Monument. With that, we would have been on top of everything."

Of course, Van Aert's performance at the World Championships disappointed him greatly. He was unable to react when Alaphilippe started to open the race and was unable to keep up with the medal contenders.

De Wolff revealed that with Van Aert's dominance in the Tour of Britain, he felt compelled to send him a message begging him to relax. Van Aert won four stages there and took the overall win, but he now admits that his success and strong showing has hurt him and put him in the spotlight as the rider to beat in Belgium.

"For the Tour of Britain world championships, I've set myself up for an unbearable role," Van Aat said. 'But it is not in my nature to continue riding anonymously.'

Shortly after finishing the world championship road race, in which Stuyven, who had joined Alaphilippe in the chase, finished fourth, Van Aert admitted he had a bad day. The short, steep climbs were not suited to his racing style.

"The course was not in my favor. It didn't help that there was a lot of flying 200 km from the finish."

"In an explosive final, a rider like Mathieu Van Der Pol or Sonny Colbrelli would have to outperform Julien Alaphilippe and his 60kg competitors in a short spiced effort of less than 30 minutes. It was by no means an easy task.

"At my weight, I had to dig deep into my energy supply. I don't think I made any more mistakes than that."

"Alaphilippe and his team ran a great, smart race. Benoit Kosnefrois let them run." He added of Kosnefrois' attack with 180km to go.

Evenpoel jumped on the move to protect Belgium's interests, but continued to attack for 50km. This made for a tough early climb, costing several Belgians who could have been active later in the race, and Van Aert suffered a leg injury.

Post-race polemics were as big as Van Aert's pre-race hopes for victory. Even Paul fanned the flames by refusing to attend the post-race debriefing and showing little remorse for his tactical decisions.

The two, including De Wolff, still have not had a chance to discuss the matter, despite the fact that some have pointed out that the two are the team leaders of the Belgian national team.

"Right after the World Championships, I didn't care much. I was disappointed in myself and in the group.

"After that, Lemko chose not to participate in the debriefing. That was disappointing. Then the season ended quickly and everyone took a vacation.

"I was never angry. I just didn't think it was wise to create controversy in the media afterwards. But you are right, we need to sort it out because we are often together in the national team."