'Feels like it was meant to be' – Emotional Wout van Aert silences doubters with inspiring comeback gravel stage win at Giro d'Italia

For a rider with 50 professional victories, including a Monument and 13 Grand Tour stages, Wout van Aert has often seemed like a perennial runner-up in recent years, with his versatility proving both a blessing and a curse, and several wins eluding him by the barest margins at the biggest races.

But on stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia, Siena's Piazza del Campo burst into a roar as it realised that Van Aert was finally going to take victory, his first of the 2025 season. It was one of those victories that just felt right in sport, meaning no offence to second place on the day, Isaac del Toro, but it was a triumph that "had to be here" according to the Belgian, as his love affair with the Tuscan city goes back seven years.

In 2018, Van Aert showed the WorldTour just what he could do, with third place at the Strade Bianche one-day race. Two years later, with another podium in his pocket, the Belgian would return and strike victory after attacking on the Colle Pinzuto, but to a muted finish line without fans due to the pandemic.

1,751 days later, without the infamous cramp of 2018, Van Aert finally got the hero's welcome he deserved in Siena's stunning square, hanging onto Del Toro's wheel up the Via Santa Caterina, and employing all his experience to capture an emotional win with a daring surge through the final corners.

With all the criticism he's received in recent seasons, the Belgian enjoyed ultimate relief as he silenced all his doubters, and got his arms aloft for the 50th time as a professional, with his wife and two sons awaiting him at the finish. Van Aert was back like he'd never left.

"It's easy to say this victory means a lot to me, I almost cannot explain it. It had to be here… This is where my road career started back in 2018, and to win this stage after a long period without delivering, finally again it feels so good," said a beaming Van Aert after the finish.

"Siena is a special place to me, and I'm an emotional person. Places like this motivate me, they inspire me, and I just feel like it was meant to be.

"It's almost the best place to finish a bike race, on this square. It's amazing, with the spectators so close to you, to feel fans so close, it's like an arena. It was an emotional win for many reasons."

There were so many stats to unpick after the day, with Van Aert finding the half-century, completing the Grand Tour trilogy of stage wins, and scoring that maiden win of what's been an up-and-down season, with people questioning when that next win would come.

Even still, the Belgian issued an honest assessment that his former peak was still not present, despite the almighty triumph, with his head almost dropping after failing to make the early six-man breakaway. Van Aert thought his chances at victory were done, but as Visma DS Marc Reef had been warning, or hoping, all of the eight stages prior, superstars like Van Aert can come good quicker than most.

"I felt good in this stage, but if I compare this level with the best level I've ever had, it's still quite far from that," said Van Aert in his winner's press conference.

"I knew I needed to have a hard situation, but I couldn't create that situation like I used to race. I thought the biggest chance was a breakaway, so when I missed it, I thought I missed the best opportunity for myself.

"But Q36.5 had their eyes on the stage win and controlled the day, which gave me an opportunity to race for the win. From the second sector on, things turned my way. I could sit on a lot of times with the GC riders who raced for the classification.

"The whole dynamic of the race changed after the crash on the second sector, and Ineos were the only team with numbers in the front. They toOK advantage of this situation immediately, and there was the first moment when we got in the break and I realised it might be a good day."

Van Aert's belief pre-stage had also been at a low, with his pre-race illness at the Giro seeing him just miss the stage 1 victory, fail to help Olav Kooij in the sprints, and not yet make his mark on a highly anticipated debut.

"It's amazing. I couldn't really believe before today that it was possible at this stage of the Giro," said Van Aert.

"I had a good first stage, but after that, I had my difficult moments, and on a stage like today, I didn't think it was possible to win, at least not from a peloton situation. Everything seemed to turn my way, and it's really cool."

The stage itself was a gruelling one, with the GC carnage unfolding behind, and Van Aert loOKing every bit inferior to young star Del Toro, who applied the pressure throughout the final 20km with several surges. The worst of which on the Colle Pinzuto, almost caused Van Aert to completely explode, but, unlike at the Classics or the Tour in recent years, the Belgian hung on to everything.

"It was first a matter of surviving, because when Del Toro attacked on Montaperti, I was still in control, but the new attack on Pinzuto, I was completely on my limit to follow," said Van Aert.

"Luckily, I have experience from this race, so I know where the sectors flatten, until which corner you have to survive in the wheel, so all the way until 5k to go, I was just trying to recover from these efforts, because I was far above my limit to follow him. Then luckily, I found my breath again towards this final climb to Siena."

That final corner saw Van Aert come close to ruining all of his great work, but he was just on the maximum limit and managed to hold things together, avoiding the barriers. It might not have been the totally supreme Van Aert of old, but the Belgian has finally found his wings again, and this could well see the floodgates open and the Grand Tour machine that much of the 2020s has already seen, rebuild into his dominant best.

Everyone, barring perhaps Del Toro, enjoyed that.