Ilan Van Wilder 🇧🇪
Ilan Van Wilder (ILV) has been cleaning up lately. Pulling out a general classification (GC) win and a stage at the Deutschland Tour, and also a 4th place GC finish at the Tour of Pologne. Now take those performances with a grain of salt. They're not huge races, but none the less it's impressive at only twenty three years of age.
Why we post about Ilan is that he's developing extremely well. Ilan's trendline of performance is heading perfectly in the right direction.
Questions do arise what will happen if JumboVisma and SoudalQuickstep do merge? Will Ilan make the cut of the new squad? Likely in our opinion. Why? Because he can be a great domestique, almost approaching a super domestique level if they can sell him on it.
Strengths
Ilan's climbing ability is strong, and he doesn't have a bad time trial either. Other than the extremely short prologue at the Deutschland tour this year he's been within the top ten during individual time trials, usually hovering around fifth place.
That, combined with being able to climb at an above average level (we're talking only 10 seconds behind Sepp Kuss on the stage below) allows ILV to be strong contender for week long stage races next year if given free reign.
When to Bet?
Alright. So here's the pickle. Will ILV be heading down the super domestique path next year? We're unsure. It remains to be seen what happens with the Quickstep / Jumbo talks. But we'd happily select him for week long stage races in spring 2024 when loyal domestiques are usually given their time to shine before being locked down for the Grand Tour season.
Soudal Quickstep fell back on him after Remco Evenepoel dropped out of the Giro due to sickness and he's always in our mind a potential bet for the breakaway as a tactical play.
Who knows? Maybe some smart team will realize that Ilan may just be lacking in opportunity and not skill and snatch him up prior to his 2025 contract ending with Soudal Quickstep. That seems unlikely unless a major shakeup occurs with the teams.
But remember ILV's only twenty three! Lots of time to develop and unlike say Felix Gall, already has his time trial in good shape.
