'I don’t think the sacrifice is worth it' - Wout van Aert not aiming for GC on Giro d'Italia debut in 2024
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Published 04/12/2023 at 13:45 GMT
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) looks set to race the Giro d'Italia for the first time in 2024, but he is not planning to go for the GC. Van Aert has two top-20 finishes at the Tour de France and has won individual stages at the race, but has other focuses next season. "I would hate to say I was fifth in the Giro, but the rest of the year I was bored," he commented.
Laporte holds on to secure elite men's road race title ahead of Van Aert
Wout van Aert is not planning to ride for overall victory on his Giro d’Italia debut as he doesn’t want to “sacrifice” his aims for the rest of his season.
It has been widely reported that Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) will make his bow as GC leader at the Grand Tour in 2024.
Van Aert has two top-20 finishes at the Tour de France and has won nine individual stages at the race.
However, he has said that he has other priorities next season that do not line up with getting in the right condition to contend over three weeks at the Giro.
“If I were to go to the Giro, I would prefer to go for stages,” Van Aert told De Rode Lantaarn.
“I don't always see limits, but I also look at things realistically. Riding for GC cannot be combined with the other things I want.
“Maybe I can ride a nice result if I sacrifice a lot for it, but I don't want that. I would hate to say I was fifth in the Giro, but the rest of the year I was bored, because I went altitude training 100 times and I had to lose an extra 2kg.
“Even if I had general classification ambitions, it wouldn’t be to win, because my body shape is against me. If it’s not with the aim of winning, then I don’t think the sacrifice is worth it.”
Van Aert’s immediate focus will be the cyclo-cross season.
Before the Giro starts in May he will then target the spring Classics and likely look to win Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix for the first time.
“The explosiveness that you need in the Classics is something completely different from not having a bad moment for three weeks in a row,” he said.
“Now I do many different things, which give me a lot of satisfaction. I think it’s great that I can and am allowed to combine all that.”
Van Aert is working with a new coach, Mathieu Heijboer, and will not be riding as much across the winter as in previous years.
“Mathieu puts different accents on it," Van Aert said.
"We have consciously chosen to approach the cyclo-cross season a little more slowly and build up more progressively towards the road season.”
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