Wilco Kelderman declares attack on first Grand Tour stage win: "You can count me among the attackers"

Without Jonas Vingegaard, but Visma | Lease a Bike still aims to succeed on several fronts during the Giro d'Italia. While Olav Kooij and Wout Van Aert will be in charge of sprints, Wilco Kelderman's time will come in the high mountains; either as helper of Simon Yates, or as a stage hunter himself.

"Things are going well. Things were going pretty well at the Itzulia Basque Country, but I felt that I was still missing something. After that, I went to altitude and improved my performance a little bit, so I'm feeling good," said Kelderman to IDLProCycling. "We have a powerful and experienced team here, and we started with ambition. I think it's a nice mix, with Olav, Simon Yates, and Wout van Aert as leaders."  

Visma | Lease a Bike will bet on new recruit Simon Yates for the general classification. The 32-year-old was already close to winning the Italian Grand Tour in 2018 before his infamous explosion in the third week when he lost over an hour. Kelderman doesn't really have much to teach him in the way of riding for GC then:

"He's super relaxed and very experienced in stage races. He knows what he has to do and is capable of, so that makes a big difference. You don't have to teach him much. I think at the beginning of the season, it was mainly a matter of fitting into the team and our way of working. Once you've done that, the rest comes naturally. Of course, Simon has only done two races for us."

"He gained some experience there, and now the main goal is coming up. I expect him to do well," said the Dutchman, curious how far Yates can go. "There are several guys we must consider as top favorites, with Primoz Roglic and Juan Ayuso, for example. But I think Simon will be in contention for the podium behind them, and maybe he'll go even further."

And about Kelderman's own role during this Giro, will he play an active role himself? "You can count me among the attackers; that's the plan. There are quite a few stages where we can get several men up front, so this Giro suits me in that sense."