Wout van Aert (VIsma-Lease a Bike) has been absent from Strade Bianche since 2021, with the Belgian instead focusing on trying to win one of the cobbled Monuments, the Tour of Flanders, or Paris-Roubaix, and heading for altitude camp in March, not Tuscany.
But on Sunday, he will return to the white gravel roads and Piazza del Campo in Siena, where we won the stunning Italian one-day Classic in 2020, as Tuscany’s sterrati play host to stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia.
It’s a big chance for Van Aert, after being forced to grow into better form, with his approach to the Giro hampered by an infection, which caused him to miss a significant portion of training after completing his Classics campaign.
He hasn’t yet been able to show his best, which has seen him win 12 Grand Tour stages throughout his career, but Van Aert vowed to give this weekend of hard, punchy stages a full gas effort.
“I feel good. I have to say that [stage 7] was a good day for me. I reached the finish line quite well, even though it was a difficult stage. So I’m happy,” said Van Aert to CyclingProNet before stage 8, with his form continuing to improve.
“Of course, I’m thinking about the gravel stage, but I think with my current shape, it wouldn’t be smart to gamble on one stage, because it’s also not a given that Sunday is a good chance.
“It’s gravel roads, but also super difficult terrain in Tuscany. So yeah, I want to give it a double try this weekend.”
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The first half of that promise was completed during the opening 53 kilometres of the up-and-down road from Giulianova to Castelraimondo on Saturday. Van Aert tried several times to escape in an early breakaway before dropping on the first categorised climb, knowing it was not going to be his day.
“Do the interview quickly, because it will be dark soon,” said Van Aert to Nieuwsblad, reportedly in good spirits at the finish.
“It took a long time for the breakaway to come together. I tried, but it wasn’t enough to really get ahead. From the moment we got to mountainous terrain, I had already decided in my head that I wouldn’t try anymore there.”
“You just knew that a lot of people wanted to get into that breakaway. I quickly realised that it would only work on that climb. So my attempts were a bit against my better judgment.”
The Belgian also gave an insight into just how hard it was to get into the break, which Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla) eventually took solo victory from, after starting the day unsure of how it would compare to the furious fight that always ensues at the Tour de France.
“There are 200 men riding here, 150 of whom want to get into that breakaway, so it makes sense that they jump on each other’s wheel if someone wants to escape,” said Van Aert.
“That’s what I would do. I just didn’t succeed. In the end, it must have been the men with the best legs who got ahead.”
Now, Van Aert has an arguably better chance on a route similar to one he’s triumphed on before, but this is not the Monument-winning, world-beating Wout van Aert that starred throughout the season five years ago, but a not full-strength and perhaps less confident version of the same rider.
He sees the route as more than a worthy tribute to the 215km one-day race, especially given its context of closing out what’s been a tricky first week of Grand Tour racing.
“[It’s]Really difficult. It’s a full-fledged Strade Bianche, not a ‘remake of’, as you sometimes have in major tours,” Van Aert told Nieuwsblad, in an earlier interview.
While other gravel stage hopefuls may be forced to remain on GC leader duty, Van Aert has been allowed the liberty to go and chase for the stage win he desperately wants, with no need for him to sacrifice his own chances in aid of Simon Yates’ ambitions.
“I have a free pass to jump into a breakaway,” but whether that will be such an easy task in the 112km preceding the first sector is a “Good question,” according to the former Strade Winner “I still have time to think about that.”
How confident are Visma-Lease a Bike of Van Aert suddenly finding his best? The answers of DS Marc Reef to the Belgian newspaper would suggest that they are more hopeful than confident of him once again conquering the Via Santa Caterina and arriving in Siena victorious.
“Wout is certainly not his old self yet,” Reef told Nieuwsblad. “I can’t say when we will see him again, but with a great champion like him, things can fortunately go very quickly.”