"It’s not a surprise that I’m far away" - Wout van Aert unable to back up gravel heroics in Giro d'Italia time trial

Wout van Aert was the star of the 'mini Strade Bianche' gravel stage that closed the opening week at the 2025 Giro d'Italia. Perhaps still feeling the effects of these efforts on stage 10, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike superstar has been unable to back up his performance with another win on the time trial bike.

Van Aert has put in a number of strong performances against the clock over the years, but this wasn't one of the Belgian's best efforts. "Not how I wanted. I suffered quite a bit straight from the beginning," reflected Van Aert in a post-stage interview with Eurosport after crossing the line well down on the man in the hotseat Daan Hoole. "It was difficult to find my rhythm. Looking at my feeling, it’s not a surprise that I’m far away in the result.”

As touched upon, the incredible efforts of stage 9 were still also a factor for Van Aert, even though there had been a rest day in between. “Yeah, might be. I tried to recover as good as possible yesterday, and this morning I didn’t feel bad, but not fresh enough to really push through the pain today,” Van Aert concluded his analysis of the day.  “Yeah, there was quite some wind. I don’t know if it was stronger than for the others or stronger than in the recon... but yeah — no excuses.”