Visma celebrates Giro success overshadowed by loss, Van Baarle speaks from the heart: "We wanted to make Robert and Daisy proud"

"I'm glad to be home, and I'm pretty exhausted," Poels begins his story. "The last week wasn't what I expected. I started the last week with a bit of a cold, and after that, I didn't feel strong in my legs anymore. I missed all the breakaways, wasn't in the race, and it was game over for me during the final weekend."

The Dutch climber had hoped to complete his trilogy of stage wins in a Grand Tour this year, but unfortunately, that didn't happen. "I still had hope in the last week, but my legs weren't up to it. We rode very well as a team, so the morale was good. But when you see your teammates doing well, and you're not, you enjoy it a lot less. You just want to perform yourself."

Van Baarle did enjoy a successful final week, seeing his teammate Simon Yates win the Giro. But on Friday, it didn't look like it would happen. "The plan was to make the race hard on the first climb, but we decided to wait until the next one. We did well as a team for Simon, but unfortunately, there were two stronger riders. In the end, Simon was a little frustrated because he had hoped the race would be shaken up on the first climb, but he apologized immediately in the evening."

But the next day, with the ride over the Colle delle Finestre, they made up for it. "I didn't see much of that day, but the fans along the side kept me informed. But it was even more bizarre than I had imagined. When I got to the finish, I immediately looked for Simon and gave him a big hug."

But the Dutchman admits that he didn't immediately feel euphoric. "We all gathered in a hotel room with the whole team, but everyone was so exhausted that there wasn't exactly a euphoric feeling. That feeling only really came in the final stage, with a glass of champagne in my hand."

And on that day, Olav Kooij put the icing on the cake by sprinting to victory. "The lead-out by Affini and van Aert was really crazy. Affini pulled so hard that no one could get past him, and van Aert set Kooij up perfectly. It was a stunning and impressive victory," said Van Baarle.

However, Visma's wonderful weekend was overshadowed by the death of Robert Gesink's wife. "Steven broke the news to us, hitting us like a bomb. We knew she was ill, but that it would happen so quickly... terrible. It hurts even more because we had been away from home for so long. Ultimately, we wanted to make Robert proud, and we did that."