Transfer speculation not a distraction for Visma-Lease a Bike at Giro d'Italia 🇮🇹 📝

Sports director Marc Reef on Simon Yates, Wout van Aert’s struggles, and the team’s focus

Wout van Aert in action at the Giro d’Italia. Photo by SWpix.

Hi Subscribers,

Here’s the Visma story that I promised a few hours ago.

I’m just about to jump in the car and head to the start of stage 5. It’s only about 45 minutes away, and I’ll aim to catch up with a few more riders and sports directors at the team buses.

Don’t forget, you can follow my Giro coverage on my Instagram account, and to coincide with the Giro d’Italia, I’ve set up a ✨ special 20% sale ✨ on annual subscriptions. Just click on the link below to sign up. For roughly £1 a week, you get all the stories on my Substack, including all the transfer exclusives.

I wanted to share the news that we've just reached 500 stories on Substack (501 to be exact), which to me feels like a significant milestone. 🥂

I set up the Substack 11 months ago, just a few days after the closure of the GCN website, and it's been an incredible journey ever since. I want to extend a massive thank you to everyone who has supported my work, whether that's through a subscription, a ‘like’, a comment, or a share. It all makes a difference, and I certainly wouldn't be at the Giro without your support; so, thank you sincerely.

Here's to another 500 stories!

Daniel 🫶

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Although half of the Visma-Lease a Bike roster at the Giro d’Italia are out of contract at the end of the year, and Olav Kooij is expected to leave for Decathlon AGR2, the team remains a tight-knit crew, with their focus entirely on the task at hand.

And the Dutch squad have several irons in the fire, with Kooij their sprinter, Wout van Aert another stage hunter, and Simon Yates dialled in for the general classification.

So far, the team hasn’t won a stage, but Kooij and Van Aert have both come close. There’s still a sense of frustration surrounding the Dutch team, having taken two second places and a fourth in the opening few stages, but they’re certainly in the ballpark.

At the same time, Van Aert has been bombarded with questions over his form and health from the moment he arrived in Albania for the start of the race. You get the sense that only a stage win in the next few days will lift some of the pressure the team are under.

At the end of stage 4 in Lecce, Van Aert made a beeline for the team bus and didn’t stop to talk to the waiting media after a day of frustration saw him blocked in the sprint final and unable to help Kooij.

At the start of stage 4, we spoke with sports director Marc Reef about the Belgian's current condition.

“With Wout, it’s difficult to say because on stage 1 he over-performed and that might have cost him on stage 2 and 3, but we also said that we needed to be realistic before the start and that day-by-day he can grow into the race. He felt a bit better yesterday on the rest day, but we need to see how that will develop,” the sports director said.

There’s no doubt that Van Aert is devoting himself to the team and their needs during the race, but at the same time, it’s been a rough few days for the Belgian.

The constant pressure and scrutiny under which his performances have been evaluated have hardly helped his recovery from the illness that struck him before the race.

I asked Reef if a conversation had taken place regarding the rider's health and well-being, and if the team would consider pulling Van Aert from the race if he could not regain complete fitness. A Grand Tour is long, and flogging yourself for 21 days could do more harm than good, especially when the season is so expansive and there are numerous other objectives to focus on, not least the Tour de France.