Few associated with the Olympics made the journey to Tokyo harder on themselves than Tour de France cyclists. The drill went: pedal through France for three weeks, snap a quick photo of the Arc de Triomphe, get on a plane.
PARIS—Wout Van Aert was clearly in a hurry. As the Belgian cyclist tore up the Champs-Élysées and muscled his way across the finish line on Sunday, he became the first rider to be officially done with this year’s Tour de France.
With victory on the legendary stage to Paris behind him, Van Aert could then concentrate on the tightest turnaround of his summer: racing to the airport for a flight to the Tokyo Olympics. There was just one problem. Finishing first was in fact the surest way to be late. “I guess I made myself in trouble,” he said during the winner’s mandatory press conference. “I have to catch a flight tonight and all these interviews will take quite a while.”
Van Aert was one of more than a dozen riders in the Tour executing the high-wire sprint from a stage that finished shortly after 7 p.m. to an 11:25 p.m. Air France flight to Tokyo departing from the opposite side of Paris. Even for teams used to shuttling riders and bikes to races around the globe, Sunday was a hell-for-leather run. And just like in bike racing, no marginal gain was too small.
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