"You don’t get dropped for fun" - Wout van Aert struggles to disappointing display on stage 3 of 2025 Giro d'Italia

Wout van Aert wasn't able to get himself into the mix for the sprint finish on stage 3 of the 2025 Giro d'Italia. Whilst Mads Pedersen and Corbin Strong were battling it out for the stage win, Van Aert was struggling home to a 142nd placed finish, nearly 16 minutes down.

"I felt pretty quickly that it wasn’t going to be my day," admitted Van Aert honestly in his post-race interview afterwards with the Belgian media assembled at the finish line in Vlorë, Albania. "I was already struggling on the previous climb. You don’t get dropped for fun. I decided just to survive the day."

All in all, not the best of starts to his Giro d'Italia debut then for the Team Visma | Lease a Bike superstar. "The opening stage went better than expected. After that, things unfolded as you’d expect. I need to be patient," he reflects. "I’m healthy again. I think I’ll gradually start getting better by continuing to ride."

In his own post-stage interview, Van Aert's Team Visma | Lease a Bike teammate Bart Lemmen gave a similarly honestly review of the performance of his team leader. "We had hoped that Wout would be feeling good, make it over the climb with the front group, and then be able to sprint," said Lemmen. "But that didn’t quite happen. Before the long climb, there were already a few little hills, and he indicated then that he didn’t really have the legs for it. That became clear pretty quickly. For us, the priority then was just to get through the day, not lose any time with Simon Yates, and make sure everyone crossed the line safely. We managed that, so that’s a positive. But we were hoping for more."

With an early rest day now this Monday as riders travel from Albania to Italy, Van Aert and Visma will be hoping to use the day to refresh and refocus.