"I’m really excited to finally make my debut in the Giro d’Italia" - Wout van Aert announces Maglia Rosa intentions in bid to complete set of Grand Tour leaders jerseys
CyclingTuesday, 06 May 2025 at 16:42
A wearer of the Maillot Jaune at the Tour de France and the Red Jersey at the Vuelta a Espana, Wout van Aert's main goal is a clear one as he prepares for a Giro d'Italia debut this month - get himself into the Maglia Rosa to complete his set of Grand Tour leaders jerseys.
After the official confirmation of Team Visma | Lease a Bike's lineup for the 2025 Giro d'Italia, Van Aert's name was a standout. One of the biggest names in the entire peloton, the Belgian has never before made his way to the start line at the Italian Grand Tour. Twelve months ago, Van Aert was pencilled in for a Giro debut, but a Spring crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen put an end to those ambitions. This time though, there is now nothing in the way of the 30-year-old from a ride around the Italian roads.
"I’m really excited to finally make my debut in the Giro d’Italia," Van Aert previews in quotes to a pre-Giro d'Italia preview on the official website of the Team Visma | Lease a Bike squad. "We all know what happened last year, so I’m especially glad to finally be here. Racing in Italy always gives me a special feeling.”
As mentioned, the main goal of Van Aert at this Grand Tour is to complete his set of Grand Tour leaders jerseys and in the process, hopefully also complete his set of Grand Tour stage wins. "That’s definitely a goal this month," he says of a potential stage win. "I’ve also worn the leader’s jersey in both the Tour and the Vuelta. It would be a dream to wear the pink jersey in the Giro as well.”
With Van Aert one of three established leaders alongside Olav Kooij and Simon Yates though, the Belgian will have to pick and choose the right moments to make his move. “For the flat sprints, Olav is our best chance at a stage win,” Van Aert explains. “It’s only logical that we support him in those stages, and I’ll do everything I can to position him well for the finish. Personally, I’m targeting the more demanding stages. That could mean a sprint from a reduced group or a long breakaway. The Giro traditionally offers plenty of those types of stages."
🇮🇹 #GirodItalia
— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) May 6, 2025
Ciao, @giroditalia 🇮🇹
A well-balanced team for a race full of challenges. Meet our Squadra for the 2025 Giro d’Italia! 💪💗 pic.twitter.com/zpPcIzoPsP
claps 1visitors 1
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
May 12, 11:09
0
Popular news
Latest comments
- Friendly = raising white flag? Wow, I never know that. /s I don't know why he complained about the way Vingo raced. That was one of the most aggressive version of Vingo. He attacked on the a sprint stage and went all out of the hilly stages, albeit not being able to beat Pogi there. How is that considered raising white flag?
KerisVroom20-06-2025 - Pidcock has always come across as arrogant and not particularly smart. I’m not surprised that he, his team, and their sponsor would do something like this—and to top it off, they released the video on the anniversary of Gino’s tragic death.
UltimateOpportunist20-06-2025 - It's okay, Chris Froome rumoured 5 mil euro per annum contract comes to an end this year🤞. I doubt anyone wants to sign him as a rider with that salary bracket. I'll be surprised that he still want to ride for another year for anything lesser.KerisVroom20-06-2025
- Jan Christen? Is that guy a team player? Why would you bring in a domestique who doesn't follow the team tactics to the biggest race of the year?KerisVroom20-06-2025
- If you patronise in the wrong way, you are encouraging people to do whatever it takes, yes. If you throw your money at sport so that money becomes the prime driver for performance, it encourages more cheating, yes. It’s unfortunate but it IS part of the consequences. There are ways to follow the sport without money concentrating where it shouldn’t, just like there are ways and choices for consuming any product. It’s of course an extreme argument, nonetheless, if you want to prevent things going wrong, you need to look ahead to see how that might happen. That includes, how to deal with ideas like One Cycling, Enhanced events. I would guess that cycling took doping a bit more serious after Uknowletsnotnamehim is because they saw the whole story (mediaworthy and ironically therefor potentially money-making) as capable of turning away audiences and probably it did, had it not, they might have just swallowed and waited.Mistermaumau20-06-2025
- More like keyboard police, judge and jury. Next he’ll be telling French people to write Putin and not Poutine ;-)Mistermaumau20-06-2025
- Happy you got that out?Mistermaumau20-06-2025
- As a general rule in evolution, every generation says that about new generations, with so e rare exceptions where you may have to skip one generation. What strikes me with oldies is how many of them grow chubby post cycling, none of the old guys I’ve cycled with are ever chubby. Even Merckx who still rides seems heavy.Mistermaumau20-06-2025
- But he would be a wise man if he used the pre=condition "barring any unforseen event" in his prediction?FredMan20-06-2025
- This idiot seems to forget that a lot can happen in a 3 week race. It’s not just form, it’s a lot of luck too. All pog needs is for someone the peloton to take him out by accident and he could be out. Remember pundits declaring Remco was going to win in the giro the other year, only to crash in bad weatherCrashjames19-06-2025