Wout van Aert aims for pink jersey on opening Giro d'Italia week: “I'm curious to see how it will all go, especially because there is a rider of the caliber of Tadej Pogacar"

Wout van Aert, Olav Kooij and Cian Uijtdebroeks will head to the Giro d'Italia all with their own freedom and individual goals. Team Visma | Lease a Bike will be headlining the race for sure, and van Aert has a specific eye on the first week.

“I think it is time to contest another major stage race than the Tour de France. The focus will be exclusively on achieving stage victories. We don't have a real classification rider in our Giro team. I am aiming for stage victories myself, but I don't know yet which days I will concentrate on," van Aert said in conversation with La Gazzetta dello Sport. "I'm certainly looking forward to starting on May 4. The route of the opening stage is already in my head. Challenging climbs and an arrival in Turin immediately follow. And then we also have a time trial in the first week."

Hence, a pink jersey on the opening day could certainly be a big goal for van Aert, who is well suited to the hilly course that will be on display. Whilst he is likely to help Olav Kooij in the pure sprint stages, on days with longer climbs he can certainly perform as he's shown in the past. Whether he enters the race with his best form is however a question, as he will go all-out to try and capture a cobbled monument in the spring.

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“I'm curious to see how it will all go, especially because there is a rider of the caliber of Tadej Pogacar at the start," he continues. "We'll see, but the first week could be mine. It is also an important competition to prepare me as best as possible for the Olympic Games. After the last day of the Giro I still have a month to complete my preparation. But I don't want to put too much pressure on myself either.”

Van Aert will not race the Tour de France but instead follow a tailor-made preparation for the Olympics. This should include other competitions over the course of June and July, where he can appear with different form and schedule to that of the usual.

“We don't have an outlier for the rankings. We look at it stage by stage. This also offers the opportunity to see an interesting young rider like Cian Uijtdebroeks at work," he concludes.