It had all looked so promising. Second in the tough opening stage of the Giro d'Italia despite recent illness wreaking havoc with his pre-race training, Wout van Aert had had high hopes of clinching the maglia rosa in Tirana on Saturday.
But it was not to be, as instead of taking pink, the Visma-Lease a Bike co-leader crossed the line in an anonymous 39th place, 34 seconds down on stage winner Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers). Overall, the Belgian star has slumped to eleventh, 32 seconds down on new race leader Primoz Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
After riding past waiting journalists at the line, there was a certain grim irony that Van Aert's choice of spot to ease his bike to a halt in some welcome shade was, in fact, right in front of the mixed zone interview areas for the stage's classification leaders. But rather than talk to the media clad in a pink jersey just a few metres further away - as he would surely have liked - instead Van Aert remained outside the barriers.
But as courteous in defeat as he is in victory, Van Aert first politely waved his hands and shouted 'space, space' to ensure journalists would stand back and give him some room to catch his breath, before getting down to discuss what had gone so wrong on the day in yet another chapter of his rollercoaster 2025 season.
"I had high hopes of being able to at least fight for the pink jersey or maybe to take it, but that didn't work out," Van Aert said.
"My feelings were like the result. I don't know how far I am behind, but I could see all the way through that I just did not have enough power."
"It was not great. I still felt kind of fast, but I felt I lacked the power to pick up the pace after the corners."
"Right from the start, I also felt that it wouldn’t be enough. Those first kilometres usually go smoothly for me, but after two or three kilometres had trouble finding my rhythm. With the climb still to come, I knew it would be difficult.”
Van Aert refused to put the blame on his recent illness, which had wrecked his training between Amstel and the Giro.
"I don't know. I've done my best, but I don't want to point to any excuses. It's just how it is, and today I was obviously beaten by better guys."
"Of course I had hopes to stay in contention for the maglia, and I still have to see how far back I am on GC. But the aim was to be much closer."
Van Aert certainly has had more than enough past success against the clock to boost his hopes for a repeat success, and not because of two Tour de France time trial victories and multiple World Championships podium finishes. In his most recent Grand Tour, the 2024 Vuelta a España, memories are still fresh regarding Van Aert's third place in the opening stage TT of the Vuelta a España in Lisbon, which was then followed up by a narrow defeat on stage 2's bunch sprint - but taking the overall lead as a major consolation prize.
This time, though, the scenario failed to repeat itself even remotely closely, and Van Aert recognised that his only hope now is that things will get better in the days to come.
"That pink dream may be gone, now, we'll see. In any case, it's better that Roglič took the lead and Mads Pedersen didn't keep it, because this way I still may have a chance."
Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our 2025 Giro d'Italia coverage. Our team on the ground will bring you all the breaking news, reports, analysis and more from every stage of the Italian Grand Tour. Find out more.
