With Wout van Aert set to make his Giro d’Italia debut this Could, he and his Visma-Lease a Bike group will probably be taking a look at methods to discover a stability between the Belgian star battling for his personal success and dealing for fellow debutant Olav Kooij within the sprints.
The pair labored nicely collectively finally season’s Tour of Britain, their first stage race collectively, as Van Aert led out Kooij for 4 stage wins earlier than taking considered one of his personal on the best way to the general victory.
On the Giro, he’ll be looking levels for himself, too, whereas additionally engaged on delivering wins to 22-year-old Kooij as new signing Cian Uijtdebroeks takes on the GC problem. Van Aert stated that he sees “numerous attention-grabbing levels” on the Giro route and potential for him and Kooij to rack up wins throughout their time in Italy.
“There are numerous attention-grabbing levels. We’ve got Olav for the bunch sprints and myself if it will get a bit trickier. That means we could have numerous probabilities to win levels,” Van Aert advised In De Leiderstrui.
“If Olav survives a climb and we are able to dash with him, then our probabilities of successful will probably be greater, than if we had been sprinting with me in a smaller group. So long as we win as a group, it would not matter with whom. The higher Olav climbs, the higher that will probably be for the group. We begin the Giro with plan, however Olav can be a bonus.”
Van Aert stated that he will not be egocentric through the Giro, noting that it is an ethos of Visma-Lease a Bike to sacrifice for others, even when, as a celebrity, you may be nicely inside your rights to count on in any other case.
“You’ve gotten two issues on this group: you by no means experience a race the place you may suppose it is all about you. I do not need that in any respect. And two: on this group, you by no means experience a Grand Tour with a mediocre group. There are all the time robust males, who can take you to the ultimate and management the race. And so, it is an honour for me and Olav each to be leaders of such a group.
“We tried [working together] within the Tour of Britain and that went fairly nicely. The Giro will probably be a very totally different stage, however on the times we experience for Olav, the entire group will assist him. The identical goes for the levels that can go well with me.
“I do not know if the Tour of Britain was a try-out for the group. I personally had been speaking in regards to the Giro in 2024 for a while, however every part got here collectively within the numerous conferences.”
For his half, Kooij acknowledged that, whereas Van Aert is not any stranger to success in flat sprints himself, the Belgian hasn’t focused them a lot prior to now yr or so. He stated that he feels he has a better high finish, and so it is solely logical that Van Aert – “an ideal lead-out” – will take him to the road whereas additionally having loads of probabilities for himself on quite a lot of days.
“Wout has blended it up rather less in pure bunch sprints after the inexperienced jersey on the 2022 Tour. I believe I do have a bit extra high pace on the highest pace,” Kooij stated.
“He is an ideal lead-out, completely. I could not want for a greater one. We really rode little or no collectively, however after we rode collectively, it nearly all the time went nicely. We cannot race a lot collectively in the direction of the Giro, however within the race, we really feel one another. Wout has the bodily capability to maintain an summary within the finals and, for instance, to experience via the wind.
“There will probably be loads of levels for Wout in between. I rely about 5 – 6 dash alternatives which are attention-grabbing for me. Wout additionally wins on the Ventoux and within the time trial, so there are then nonetheless numerous levels the place there are probabilities for him.”
So, there needs to be no issues in dividing levels up between the pair, and there seems to be no prospect of intra-team squabbling over stage wins. There’s the little matter of their rivals within the peloton, although, notably one other Giro debutant within the type of Tadej Pogačar.
The opening stage of the race is about to be an opportunity for Van Aert to take his first Giro stage win and with it the maglia rosa. Nevertheless, he stated that Pogačar’s determination to experience will solely complicate that plan – in additional methods than one.
“I noticed that they’ve already tailored the primary stage,” he stated. “They put a steep climb within the final 5 kilometres and two days later it was introduced that Pogačar will experience. So, it will be arduous to beat him there.”