Analysts left speechless after van Aert's insane lead-out: "I want to swear, that is how impressive it is"

Blythe was completely stunned after seeing Van Aert's lead-out. "I haven't seen such a good lead-out in a long, long time," he said in his analysis for TNTSports. Visma | Lease a Bike finished with only two men, Van Aert and Edoardo Affini, in the top four. "Affini did everything from 2 kilometers to go until the finish line. Van Aert did it from 1 kilometer to 250 meters before the finish line. We know he's strong, but to accelerate like that out of the corner after 500 meters in the wind: I want to swear, that's how impressive it is."

McEwen has won 12 stages in the Giro in the past. He often had to do it himself, but the Australian knows how important a good lead-out can be. "He was the missing link. Van Aert, with his mojo, was what Olav Kooij was missing," he says. "We said from the start of the Giro when the start list was announced that Kooij has the fastest legs in this field. But you need more than that to win. You need luck or a pinch of Wout." An analysis showed that Van Aert reached bizarre watts in his lead-out.

Kooij also had a bit of luck with Casper van Uden's early sprint. 2He used the slipstream and launched his sprint at 320 meters, way too far," Blythe thinks. His Australian colleague agrees. "He came out of that corner at speed and decided to go. But he was so far ahead that he actually became a kind of lead-out. But considering how far he went, it's extremely impressive that he still finished second."

In addition to Kooij and Van Uden, there was another surprising name on the podium. An unexpectedly strong contender finished third among all the top sprinters. “Kaden Groves, Mads Pedersen: they all started their sprint and ended up in the wind. But Ben Turner rode in Olav Kooij's slipstream and secured himself a place on the podium," McEwen analyzed. The INEOS rider had previously finished eighth in Lecce.