Giro d'Italia 2025, Van Aert: "I want to wear the pink jersey"

Rome, 4 February 2025 - At least in words, the recent defeat in the Cyclocross World Championships suffered at the hands of his bitter rival Mathieu van der Poel it was absorbed without major repercussions: Wout van aert a Liévin he welcomed the silver medal with open arms also because he already has the road season in his sights. With a 'foil' in sight in the event of a sensational double between Tour of Flanders e Paris-Roubaix and pink thoughts in sight of the Giro d'Italia 2025.  

Van Aert's statements

The Belgian's chat on the microphones of Eurosport It started right from the last appointment in the mud. "It was a shame not to have been able to keep up with Van der Poel from the first lap. I could have put a bit of pressure on him but instead he managed to control the race well without taking any risks. Honestly though, I knew I was starting from the fourth row before taking part and so I prefer not to complain". Who knows what Van Aert, after some indications of the opposite direction last autumn, for the future the desire to give more space to the old love called cyclocross has not returned. "I would like to go back to doing 15-20 races per season, but I know that it is not possible to lose more than a month of training compared to road runners who do long training camps and specific preparation. I know that I do not have many opportunities ahead. When in 2020 I came in second at Tour of Flanders behind Van der Poel I thought I had many more chances to win one Classical Monument on the cobblestones. Here we are instead in the 2025 and, apart from the third place in Paris-Roubaix, since then I have never fought for victory again. It seems that the years pass quickly". In short, having completed the 30 years for Van Aert the usual bittersweet moment of the first assessments arrives, in his case weighed down by the many, too many, falls: not least the disastrous one that occurred last year at the Straight through Flanders. "I was probably in the best shape of my career at that time: the goal is to get back to that level before the Tour of Flanders". And here the 'foil' comes into play. "If I were to do the double Tour of Flanders-Paris-Roubaix, I could go on vacation until the end of the year". Jokes aside, on the horizon in spring there is finally the long-awaited debut at Giro d'Italia. "In the sprints I will be the lead out of Olav Kooij, so I don't think I'll fight for the cyclamen jersey. The dream, however, is to wear the pink one in the first stages, without trying to keep it for two weeks if I were to succeed, because that would entail the risk of no longer being able to fight for stage victories".

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