Wout van Aert vows to go “all in for Simon Yates” after breakaway disappointment on stage 18 of 2025 Giro d'Italia

Wout van Aert forced his way into the breakaway once again on stage 18 of the 2025 Giro d'Italia. Ultimately though, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike superstar missed the winning move, crossing the line in 15th, 3:40 down on the stage winner Nico Denz.

“You could see everyone wanted to make the most of their last chance. With Dylan van Baarle, I was well-positioned in the first group on the climb, and we worked well together,” Van Aert reflected in comments collected by Sporza at the finish line of stage 18, admitting a slight disappointment of having missed out on his second stage win of the race. “It happened with just one move — you could tell everyone had pretty much emptied the tank. That’s racing.” 

“The breakaway had a lot of fast guys and teammates. Lidl–Trek and Alpecin–Deceuninck controlled things for a long time, but at a certain point, a group got away that had a rider from almost every team,” Van Aert continued. “Everyone was happy with that — including me — because I had Dylan with me. It was great that he got a shot to fight for the stage win.”

Now though, Van Aert has one sole goal for the remainder of the breakaway as he vows to go “all in for Simon Yates,” with the Team Visma | Lease a Bike GC hopeful entering the final weekend sitting 3rd in the general classification, just 51 seconds down on the Maglia Rosa leader, UAE Team Emirates - XRG's Isaac del Toro.