🎥 Visma's team car cheers van Aert to victory: "Come on Wout, this is your day!"

In an Instagram video, Reef and two Visma staff members are seen in the team car responding to one of Del Toro's accelerations. Van Aert is struggling at that moment but manages to cling to the Mexican's wheel. "They're dropping Wout, so you're now alone with Del Toro," Reef tells his rider from the car. The sports director then finds the right words to motivate the Belgian: "Come on. This is your day. Do it for your kids."

Not much later, we see Van Aert hanging on to Del Toro's wheel. “Come on, Wout. You have to stay up front because there will be attacks on the 14% section," Reef tells his rider on the last gravel section. Fast forward to the final climb towards the Piazza del Campo, where Reef once again encourages his rider. “Come on, keep fighting,” says the Dutchman before updating the rest of the team on the situation. "Wout is fighting for the stage win."

From that moment on, the team car was quiet for a moment. Everyone listened anxiously to the race radio, and then it became clear that van Aert had won. A moment of pure relief followed, with Reef hugging his colleagues in the car. Everyone was overjoyed, which was only natural after van Aert's difficult spring and tough start to the Giro d'Italia.

After the race, Reef spoke to IDLProCycling.com about a fantastic day on the Tour of Italy. "After a challenging period for him, this is a truly outstanding result. It shows what kind of champion he is because it hasn't been easy after his crash in the Vuelta (in 2024, ed.), having to come back again, the classics that at times – despite him being there – didn't go quite as he would have liked."

'This shows his greatest strength: always coming back after a setback,’ continued the sports director. "He showed that again here because his preparation was very difficult. It was a real fight for him until stage 5, where he sometimes couldn't even do his job on a flat stage. But from that moment on, things got better every day. On day 6, he started to feel good again, although we certainly didn't expect that."