"Great champions always stick their heads out" - Diego Ulissi salutes Wout van Aert

Diego Ulissi had won the maglia rosa at the Giro d'Italia on Saturday after finishing third on the brutal stage that finished in Castelraimondo. On Sunday's stage, a mini Strade Bianche where the gravel caused chaos throughout, he could not keep the precious pink jersey.

The Italian rider of the XDS Astana Team entered the finish line more than 5 minutes behind the winner Wout van Aert, but he was still very happy and admitted that he enjoyed the experience a lot. However, he did not have the legs for the effort made the day before and could not fight to keep the pink jersey, which now is in the hands of Isaac del Torro.

"It was a dusty stage, I enjoyed a lot since last night and, nothing, I knew it was going to be very hard, I gave my best, there was a lot of tiredness from yesterday, I'm satisfied. Without a doubt, they went to war from the start, I was very tired, yesterday we had a very hard day, nothing, I enjoyed the day.

He also spoke about Wout van Aert, who finally won in 2025, "I'm happy for him, great champions always stick their heads out."

Astana will surely fight for stage wins in the coming days with men like Ulissi himself, Lorenzo Fortunato and Wout Poels, who when high mountains arrive will target the breakaways. Remember, the main goal for Astana is to get as many UCI points, in there battle for world tour status with Team Picnic PostNL. Whilst Astana no longer have the pink jersey, they have still had a great start to the Giro.