Belgian ace Wout van Aert leaves Tour de France ahead of second child birth #Belgian #ace #Wout #van #Aert #leaves #Tour #France #ahead #child #birth

MOUTIERS, France (AP) — Belgian allrounder Wout van Aert, a key teammate of Tour de France leader Jonas Vingegaard, has left the race to be with his wife Sarah ahead of the birth of their second child.

Van Aert, a versatile rider capable of winning on all grounds, has provided crucial support to Vingegaard since the start of the Tour. But because Vingegaard has opened a huge gap in the general classification with one tough mountain stage left, Van Aert’s presence was not deemed as essential.

“As everyone knows, Sarah is pregnant, things are starting to get a bit tight at home,” Van Aert said in a video published by his Jumbo-Visma team ahead of Thursday’s Stage 18. “In consultation with the team we have decided that my place is now at home.”

Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, celebrates on the podium after the seventeenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 166 kilometers (103 miles) with start in Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc and finish in Courchevel, France, Wednesday, July 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Jonas Vingegaard is on course to bring the yellow jersey to Paris for a second straight year after the Danish rider took a huge lead over his main rival at the Tour de France.

Stage winner and overall leader Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard reacts after the sixteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race, an individual time trial over 22.5 kilometers (14 miles) with start in Passy and finish in Combloux, France, Tuesday, July 18, 2023. (Anne-Christine Poujoulat/Pool Photo via AP)

Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard may have time-trialed his way to a second straight Tour de France victory.

Belgium's Nathan van Hooydonck crashed during the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 179 kilometers (111 miles) with start in Les Gets Les Portes du Soleil and finish in Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc, France, Sunday, July 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Fans gathering on the sides of roads and in villages as riders pass by is part of the tradition — and charm — of the Tour, but many spectators can take too many risks, including when they run alongside riders in mountain ascents.

Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the best young rider's white jersey, sprint towards the finish line of the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 179 kilometers (111 miles) with start in Les Gets Les Portes du Soleil and finish in Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc, France, Sunday, July 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Jonas Vingegaard has kept intact his 10-second overall lead in the Tour de France as Dutch veteran Wout Poels soloed to victory after a tough trek in the Alps with a mountaintop finish.

Van Aert added that leaving the race is “a strange feeling, but it’s not a dilemma.”

Vingegaard, the defending champion, dropped Tadej Pogacar in the last big stage in the French Alps on Wednesday to increase his overall lead to 7 minutes, 35 seconds. Barring any big crash, he looks set to win his second Tour title on Sunday.

Van Aert has nine career stage wins on the Tour, but none this month.

“I often had the legs to win a stage, but it did not happen,” he said. “But I will always remember this Tour as the one where I called home every day.”