Wout Van Aert uttered the old cliché at his press conference on winning the E3 Saxo Bank Classic. It never gets easier. It just gets faster."

In the warm-up for Friday's Tour of Flanders, he went faster than anyone else. In fact, only his teammate Christophe Laporte was able to keep up with him in the final 40 km, and he survived only because Van Aert decided to wait for him.

The Belgian champion opened the race himself with 80km to go in the Teyenberg and then took the race out of sight in the Paterberg with 40km to go. LaPorte accompanied him, and the two entered Harelbeke more than 90 seconds ahead of everyone else, arm in arm.

"I'd be a fool if I said it was easy," Van Aert said. 'But you still have to perform at the highest level. Of course, we had a big gap at the end, but we had to fight until the moment the group behind us started to hesitate.

"I would never say this was easy, but of course the way we won was really special."

Even though it looked easy, Van Art had the grace to take credit for the team. Having shortened his cyclo-cross campaign to peak in the spring of Fremisch, he looks as strong as ever, but with more support than ever.

Previously, he rode almost like a lone wolf on the cobblestone classics, forced to close gaps and solve problems.

But with the addition of Laporte and Tiesj Benoot, as well as the return of Mike Tunissen and the improvement of Nathan Van Hooydonk, Jumbo Visma has reached the dimension of Quick Step and beyond.

On Friday, Van Hoydonk laid the groundwork for the Tijenberg attack, with Laporte and Benoot three out of seven. In Eikenberg, Tunissen won his fourth in 16, and in Paterberg, Van Aert and Laporte were clear.

After the 1-2 finish, Benoot had three in the top 10 and Tunissen had four in the top 12.

"Before, I used to be in situations where I was in the lead group by myself. Today, we always played the way we wanted to play," Van Aert said.

"It starts with belief. In Teyenberg, we all wanted to be up front together. We saw what Quick Step did there last year, and sometimes it's better to copy good tactics than to try something new that doesn't make sense. We wanted to force something over there, but that is only possible if everyone believes in it and is 100% committed."

"I think we tired other players by attacking a lot, especially Teejer. Me and Christophe were able to save ourselves until the start of the final in Paterberg. So our attack was very good, a big difference from before 40km when we had already solved the problem. I really wasn't stressed now. It definitely feels comfortable to have so many strong teammates behind me."

The suspense was quickly erased from the race when Van Aert and Laporte made it up the last four climbs and extended their lead to two minutes with a run-in to Harelbæk. The winner had not yet been decided, but that was for Jumbo Visma to decide.

In the recent Paris-Nice race, Laporte had taken the honors of victory in similar circumstances, but this time it was Van Aert who was given the go-ahead, arms crossed and front wheel thrust forward as he crossed the line.

"Quite apart, Christophe himself had the idea of giving me this victory. A few weeks ago, you did the opposite in Paris-Nice. I really have to help him. We just became teammates, but we already know each other very well," Van Aert said.

"It's weird to finish in a sprint. This is definitely the most beautiful way to complete this teamwork. 0]

Moreover, in contrast to the way Laporte clawed his way back into the race on the Paris-Nice home stretch, this time it was the same for Van Aert. It was no surprise that the strong man had the upper hand, as he began to pull away from Laporte in the Oude Quaremont following from Paterberg.

"I had to pick up the pace a bit to get Christophe over the Quaremont. It wasn't the right tactic to go it alone from there, because we were in a super good position with the two of us," Van Aert said.

"We could have recovered just a little bit from Paterberg's attack, but we weren't going to drop him.

Van Aert argued that Jumbo Visma's racing style would give the likes of Laporte and Bunut a chance in future races, but would there be any chance left to bypass the other 20 or so teams that make up the peloton?

"I don't think we are invincible," Van Aert said. 'We should keep focusing like we are now. We should continue to be as focused as we are now. Indeed, the worst thing we can do is think it will come easy."

"Just a week ago in Milan-San Remo, we saw a lot of really strong riders. On some days everything works out and everyone is at their best and can get results like this.