Wout van Aert celebrated another Giro d'Italia win in Rome on Sunday, leading out Olav Kooij to victory in the final sprint and guiding Simon Yates to overall success. He then sprayed Yates with Italian prosecco on the podium and found the perfect simile to describe Visma-Lease a Bike's and his own Giro d'Italia.
"It's like a ketchup bottle, when it's almost finished, you keep shaking and shaking. Nothing happens but then suddenly everything comes out at once. That's what happened at our Giro," Van Aert said after hugging Yates and his teammates beyond the finish line.
"We came here with three leaders and all three were successful," he pointed out.
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Van Aert was talking about himself, Yates and Kooij, who won two sprint stages. Van Aert was overjoyed to win stage 9 in Siena and appeared to take huge pride and satisfaction in helping his teammates.
"It's been a crazy 24 hours since Simon decided to turn everything upside down. We were really focused to finish it off and win with Olav," he said on the final Giro weekend, the emotions still high.
"It was the first time I've seen Simon so emotional. He's a relaxed guy but you could really see that it means so much to him. What he did on the Colle delle Finestre was special."
Van Aert began the Giro in Albania with doubts and limited expectations after falling ill during a key pre-Giro training camp in Tuscany. He was second on stage 1 but then struggled during the first week, only to show his true talents and determination by winning the Siena gravel stage.
He appeared to get better, stronger and more ambitious as the Giro rode north. He was second to Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) in Vicenza on stage 13 and then went on the attack three times in the final week, to try and win in Cesano Moderno on stage 18 and in order to help Yates in two mountain stages.
He played a fundamental role on Saturday by joining the break of the stage and staying out front over the Colle delle Finestre to then give his all to pace Yates to Sestriere and Giro victory.
"The start of the Giro wasn't a nightmare for us but at that point we were struggling," Van Aert said.
"But in the end it's been a brilliant three weeks. It's mission accomplished for us."
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