Wout van Aert completed his Strade Bianche recon alone: “It had been a long time”

Van Aert is above all pleased to be back in Siena. “This remains a really beautiful race,” he told Sporza. “Last year in the Giro I noticed again that gravel suits me well, even if that stage was easier than Strade. But it was always my intention to come back. Because of the circumstances, it took a long time, but it was never the plan to stay away from this race. Definitely not.”

Van Aert crashed during the cyclocross winter, recovered from a broken ankle and then fell ill in the build-up to Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. As a result, he only made his return to racing at Le Samyn, where he then punctured in the finale. “I had hoped for more answers in Le Samyn on Tuesday, but I wasn’t really able to test myself fully in what was quite an easy race. Tomorrow will bring more answers.”

Like the rest of the field, the Belgian powerhouse headed out for a recon of the course on Thursday. “It went well. It was important to look at some of the sectors again, because it had been a long time. It was a good refresher.” He did that recon ride on his own, though. “That wasn’t necessarily the plan, but the team had different ideas and I personally wanted to do that long training ride on Thursday. There’s nothing more behind it.”

A win looks extremely difficult with Tadej Pogačar on the start line, so Van Aert mainly wants to get back to racing well again. “If it turns into an honourable result, I can be satisfied with that. But we’ll see tomorrow.” The Belgian will line up in Italy alongside Filippo Fiorelli, Tijmen Graat, Matteo Jorgenson, Timo Kielich, Pietro Mattio and Tim Rex.