"Wout is at the point where he feels that he is back on track" - Jan Bakelants on Van Aert

The Giro d'Italia ended perfectly for Team Visma | Lease a Bike and much of it was due to Wout van Aert's work in the mountains and sprints. He has helped his co-leaders to several victories and the GC triumph, and compatriot Jan Bakelants has shared his thoughts on it.

Initially, the Belgian pundit believes Van Aert should've left the Giro after winning in Siena. "We'll see, in July. My statement was part of the broader point that the Tour was more central. For him, it wasn't a really successful week, I think. He did a lot of work for the team and was very valuable, but the athlete Wout van Aert didn't expand his list of achievements."

However that can hardly be used as an argument taking into consideration the Belgian spent the final half of the race supporting his teammates to victories themselves, and proved to be absolutely key on stage 20 after Simon Yates launched an attack to victory.

It is possible that Visma, in his opinion, may be able to have a van Aert in even better form at the Tour de France: "Sometimes it can also cause you to leave the race feeling a bit more tired. Then the return you get from the next training camp can be less. But it could indeed be possible. Visma | Lease a Bike has already shown several times that they succeed in managing fatigue well and letting riders perform well in multiple Grand Tours.”

“But Wout was able to do less basic training towards this race, because he had become ill. It could well be that this is now taking its toll. But at the moment it looks like he came out of the Giro very well. In that respect, I have to partly take back what I said last week. I hope he can still make some progress," he concludes. "I think Wout is at the point where he feels that he is back on track. From now on it will be easier, because he will not have to do much hard work anymore and will have to rest initially.”