Van Eetvelt must go back to the drawing board after his Giro ambitions hit a Block(haus)

Lennert Van Eetvelt had been hedging his bets all week — but on stage seven of the Giro d'Italia, the 24-year-old Lotto-Intermarché Belgian ran up against his limits. The climber had been among the GC group after six stages, but on Blockhaus his hopes of a Belgian high finish in the overall went up in smoke.

To be fair, Van Eetvelt had emphasised throughout the opening week that his strong stage two performance was no guarantee of what would follow. He arrived at this Giro with a decent build-up, though he crashed at Strade Bianche and abandoned Tirreno-Adriatico after day one as a result. Following a good period of training, he came to Italy via the Ardennes classics.

In stage two, Van Eetvelt showed his potential — the same potential he had demonstrated by winning a stage and the overall at the UAE Tour in 2024. The climber was able to follow Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) when the two accelerated in Bulgaria.

"I know that on a good day I can be close to those guys. I haven't been able to show that often, but today was one of those days," he said afterwards. Yet in the days that followed, he consistently maintained his line: stages ahead of a classification. Or, as he put it before the Giro: "Spread over the three weeks, there are a lot of opportunities for riders like me."

Speaking to IDL Pro Cycling before stage seven's finish on Blockhaus, Van Eetvelt was more specific about his Giro ambitions. While his goal is to win, that doesn't have to come from an early breakaway. "In my first Grand Tour — the Vuelta — I spent three weeks trying to win from breakaways, but I only made the move twice in the end."

"For that reason, we decided at this Giro to try to win a stage from the group of favourites. Winning on Blockhaus itself won't be possible, because if I'm with the best, Jonas will win regardless. But I want to compete and see how far I get," he said with clear ambition. And then: "We'll see if I can follow or not."

The answer — unfortunately for him and Belgian cycling fans — came fairly quickly. Van Eetvelt was dropped relatively early on Blockhaus as Visma | Lease a Bike stepped up the pace. He finished 3 minutes 47 seconds behind Vingegaard.

With his crystal ball, Van Eetvelt had already predicted as much: "I expect riders like Vingegaard and Pellizzari to be even better here than they were on that second day in Bulgaria. And in the time trial I'll certainly lose a lot of minutes — though there are plenty of climbers who aren't strong time triallists either. But hey — we haven't even been racing a week yet."

"After Blockhaus, we'll know how realistic it is whether I can win a stage from the GC group," Van Eetvelt had said — and now he has that answer. But nothing is lost for him or for Lotto-Intermarché. Especially if Vingegaard takes the pink jersey, the stage hunters may yet find plenty of opportunities opening up for them.

Van Eetvelt will keep approaching things in a calculated way. He also said, looking further ahead: "I hope to be genuinely at my best in as many stages as possible. I need to eat well and at least maintain my weight. A little extra wouldn't hurt. Maybe my best days in week three will be slightly less sharp because of it — but I absolutely don't want to come out of this Giro in a weakened state."