As if he couldn't help but win. Belgium's Wout Van Aert (Jumbo Visma) won his second group sprint victory in the Tour de France.

In a technical and undulating finale in Prevas 48 hours earlier, the Milan-San Remo winner was in his element, dominating the sprint despite the lack of team support.

And on Friday's stage to Lavol, with the peloton split into small and large groups, Van Aert powered through the final meters while protecting Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma).

Jumbo-Visma has had a near-perfect start, winning three of seven races in this year's Tour, but Van Aat has the Dutch team's goal of winning the yellow jersey, plus the lead over Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Sam Bennett (Desseuninck-Quick Step). Despite being third in the points standings, he turned down the chance to challenge for the green jersey himself.

The Belgian wisely pointed out that the team's top priority goal was to win the overall in Paris, and that they could not afford to waste their energy going for every group sprint to achieve that. Nevertheless, if the opportunity presents itself, as it did for Lavol, he has no intention of turning up his nose at it.

"I was focused on Primosch during the stage," Van Aert said after the stage.

"I was able to find a gap and get into someone's slipstream, and I timed my sprint perfectly. But I didn't think it would happen today. I didn't expect it to be a small sprint today.

Van Aert praised Tom Dumoulin for helping him hold a good position in the last few kilometers, saying, "It shows how special our team is.

On keeping his eye on the ball in a different way, VanArt does not envision going for the green jersey.

"Like I've said in the past, it's important to get every point from the start (to go for the green), it takes a lot of energy. So it's impossible to do all the work for the team and then do all the group sprints," Van Aert insisted. That's not my goal."

He also brushed off suggestions from another journalist that he considered himself the best rider in the world because of his outstanding versatility on all terrain.

"That's not a question for me, but for the fans," he insisted. 'Everyone has a favorite rider. It's about winning races. I've won a lot of races, but I don't think about that."