Visma | Lease a Bike and van Aert explore Albanian roads, but organizers keep them out of Tirana

Visma | Lease a Bike has one big goal for the Tour of Italy: to win stages. They have selected three leaders for this task. Olav Kooij will compete in the flat stages, while newcomer Simon Yates will try to win in the mountains. He also has a chance of getting a good GC result. For the hills (and the time trial), Wout van Aert is the go-to guy. And the opening weekend is right up the Belgian's alley.

In Albania, there are two challenging stages of the program, trials that should suit the 30-year-old from Herentals perfectly. There is also a time trial on day two. Therefore, van Aert and Visma will start the hunt for stage wins (and the pink jersey) very early. It is important to know what you are getting into, and the Killer Bees, once they arrived, immediately cycled a lap in the Land of the Eagles. It was not a long ride but a very useful recon of the unknown roads.

Visma | Lease a Bike rode 70 kilometers, according to van Aert's Strava data. It was a nice, quiet two-hour ride but not close to the hotel. The capital, Tirana, is not a good place to cycle with all the traffic, so the Giro organization sent the Dutch team north of the capital (and also to Friday's starting point, Durrës). There were no roads included in the course on the route they took. But covering some kilometers in an unfamiliar country is never a bad idea.