"To be honest, I didn't feel very good" - Wout van Aert surprised by own performance in opening stage of Giro d'Italia

Wout van Aert fell just short of capturing the pink jersey in the opening stage of the Giro d'Italia 2025. The Belgian managed to match Mads Pedersen in the final sprint of stage 1, however he couldn't go through him and had to settle for a second place in Tirana.

"This was way beyond my expectations," the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider began his analysis after the stage. "Even during the stage I honestly didn't feel very good. But there is only one or maybe two chances to take the pink, so I really wanted to try". Nevertheless, Team Visma | Lease a Bike fully commited to making it a hard day and controlling the breakaway until the final two climbs where Lidl-Trek took over.

It almost went down the drain completely on the final ascent, where he began to lose positions in the group and was close to getting dropped. "On the last climb I had to suffer so much just to stay with it. It's a shame to come second, but it's better than expected."

In the final sprint he managed to take the wheel of Mads Pedersen and was the only true contender to match him in a sprint, and after a spring of disappointing finishes, the Belgian actually proved to be quite strong, but it wasn't enough to take the race lead.

Although Van Aert had to miss out on the pink jersey, he still has the chance to take the lead in the general classification on Saturday afternoon. With an individual time trial on the program, and the six bonification seconds he picked up in stage 1, the Belgian is well placed to still have the pink jersey around his shoulders tomorrow.

"We are going to try to recover as best we can to be ready for the time trial. We'll look at it day by day. We'll let this sink in and see how it goes again tomorrow," he concluded.