A year later than planned, but if all goes well, Wout Van Aert is finally set to make his Giro dâItalia debut in 2025. Last yearâs brutal crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen, which left him with a broken collarbone and fractured ribs, robbed the Corsa Rosa of one of its most anticipated stars. It also denied Van Aert a chance he openly admitted he needed: a new goal, a new race, a fresh challenge.
But Wout is a man of his word. Twelve months on, heâs back with renewed pink dreams. And yes, a rider of his caliber isnât coming to Albania just for the scenery. Heâs coming with ambition. Team Visma | Lease a Bike will bring a strong squad â featuring Olav Kooij for the sprints and Simon Yates for the general classification â but Van Aert is still expected to shine.
âIn the sprints, Iâll be the lead-out man for Kooij, so itâll be tough for me to go after the Maglia Ciclamino,â Van Aert admitted this winter. âBut my dream is to wear the Maglia Rosa in the opening stages â not necessarily to defend it for two weeks, because that could hurt my chances of winning stages later on. And at the Giro, I really want to win more than one stageâ. When someone like Wout makes statements like that, you can be sure heâs aiming to hit top form come May. Letâs hope he finds that âform of a lifetimeâ â the same condition he said he had just before that crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen last year.
Some unfairly label him a perennial runner-up, but here in Italy, thereâs no doubt: Wout Van Aert is a winner to the core. Heâs claimed two of the most beloved and prestigious one-day races on the calendar â Strade Bianche and MilanoâSanremo â plus two stages at Tirreno-Adriatico.
It was on the dusty roads of Siena that he truly announced himself to the world of road cycling. In 2018, in what remains the muddiest edition of Strade Bianche, he finished third wearing the jersey of VĂŠrandas Willems-Crelan, and no one will forget his heroic ride up the Via Santa Caterina wall, where sheer exhaustion caused him to collapse to the ground.
At that point, heâd already won a handful of Belgian semi-classics, but that ride in Siena was the moment the world really took notice, allowing him to step out of the cyclocross bubble for good.
Maybe thatâs why Italian fans love him so much. If you want to bring Wout down, you pretty much have to knock him off his bike. And Wout seems to feel that love too â maybe thatâs why he often chooses Italy for his holidays.
A Giro raced in true Van Aert style, with attacks and fireworks almost daily, would only deepen that bond. So yes, weâre ready for him, maybe in the Maglia Rosa, maybe on the gravel, maybe right there in Sienaâs Piazza del Campo, where it all began.
