"He is an old-school Cancellara" - Campenaerts heaps praise on Giro stage winner after surprise attack

Giro d'Italia stage 12 winner Alec Segaert has a bit of Fabian Cancellara about him, that's according to his former teammate and compatriot Victor Campenaerts who heaped praise on the young rider after his impressive exploits this week.

Bahrain - Victorious continued their dream Giro with a stage win on Thursday in Novi Ligure thanks to a breathless finish that saw the powerful Belgian break off from the peloton with roughly 3.5 kilometers of the stage to go, spoiling a potential finish for some versatile sprint teams who had worked hard to put pressure on sprinters earlier in the stage.

When Segaert made his move, it was Campenaerts' Team Visma | Lease a Bike at the front of affairs as they looked to keep general classification man Jonas Vingegaard safe to the finish. Segaert was no threat to the pink jersey battle, and thus Visma had no intention of chasing him down.

"No, we had no intention of catching Alec, but rather of staying in the safe zone," Campenaerts told Sporza. "Safe is often at the front, and that's where we were, but to be honest, I couldn't go much faster than that."

He added: "We knew perfectly well that Alec is no longer a threat to the general classification. So it didn't matter much to us. It was a tough finale and Alec was clearly the best."

Fabian Cancellara was known for his time trial prowess and powerful engine that saw him wear the world champion's jersey four times, Cancellara was also able to convert that into racing success as he won eight Tour de France stages and seven monument victories in a glittering career before retiring in 2016.

And Segaert pulled off a move straight from the Swiss legend's playbook - riding an entire peloton off his wheel in a stunning show of pure power. Campenaerts was first to make the comparison.

"He is an old-school Cancellara who can escape a peloton sprint. Everyone knows that by now. It must be that the sprinter teams just didn't have the legs anymore."

The two's careers briefly crossed paths at Lotto Dstny in 2023 and 2024 as Segaert turned professional - although Campenaerts noted that the two rarely raced together before he left the team.

He added: "We didn't ride an extreme number of races together. I did see him turn pro, though. His steady progress has brought him to who he is today."