Plan A had to be trashed after 3 kilometers – Wout van Aert forced to improvise after ‘different ideas from the competition’

“I had nothing left,” gasped Van Baarle, who finished eleventh. He revealed that the team hadn’t initially aimed for a breakaway. “Our original plan was to control the stage for a sprint with Olav (Kooij, ed.). But a lot of other teams clearly had different ideas. That’s when we started jumping in with Wout and Edo (Van Aert and Affini, ed.). It turned into a very hard and fast day,” Van Baarle summarized.

Visma | Lease a Bike had both Van Baarle and Van Aert in the breakaway of nearly forty riders. Affini dropped off earlier during the tough middle section of the route. The plan for the final, according to Van Baarle, was straightforward: “You just know you have to watch Lidl-Trek and Alpecin-Deceuninck. And that’s exactly what we did.”

In the final, Van Baarle broke away with ten others, but the Dutchman wasn’t entirely happy with how things played out. “Wout said over the radio that I had a gap. We were trying to help each other. I tried to do the same for him a few times too. Honestly, I would’ve preferred if it had been Wout in that move,” he said, referring to his teammate’s stronger sprint. Van Aert, after all, had already won stage 9 in Siena.

Ultimately, it was Nico Denz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) who launched the winning move from that group of eleven. Post-race, Daan Hoole voiced frustration about the German benefiting from the slipstream of the race motorbike, something Van Baarle also noticed. “Denz already looked incredibly strong. Then came his attack, tucked in close behind the motorbike, of course then you can ride away like that.” When asked how he could be so sure, Van Baarle responded firmly: “I can feel it.”

Wout van Aert also spoke to Eurosport at the finish line. The Belgian missed the key move when eleven riders broke away late in the stage. “I knew it was going to be a complicated finale,” he said, referring both to the large breakaway group and its composition, including himself, Mads Pedersen, and Kaden Groves, all strong sprinters.

“It was a solid break, with almost all the fast guys and plenty of teammates in it,” Van Aert explained. “Pedersen, Groves, and I were watching each other a lot, so once each of us had a teammate up the road in that final move, we all agreed to let them go for it.”

Van Aert was happy that Van Baarle got his shot at the stage win. “It was good to have Dylan up there today. I’m happy he got the chance to fight for the stage win, too bad it didn’t work out,” he said. Like Van Baarle, Van Aert confirmed the original strategy was to go for a sprint with Olav Kooij. “But after just three kilometers, that plan could already be trashed.”