Van Aert's 'ketchup effect' in the Giro: "We kept shaking it until it came out"

After the conclusion of the 2025 Giro d'Italia, Wout van Aert has found the perfect simile to describe his season. A campaign in which nothing seemed to be going well until, finally, the Belgian has been able to demonstrate all the class he still possesses by once again being decisive in a teammate's victory in a grand tour. Without a doubt, Simon Yates has to thank him for a good chunk of the Giro d'Italia.

Wout van Aert smiles again in the Giro d'Italia

This 2025 was a critical season for Wout van Aert. After the serious injuries he suffered last year, a discreet cyclocross mini-season but with some memorable performances made it seem like the Belgian could be back to his best level. He focused all his early season on performing at his best in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, but things didn't go as planned.

Starting from the Dwars door Vlaanderen where he couldn't finish off a numerical advantage of his team in the final of the race, a Flanders where he stayed with the best until the end but without showing the ability to make a winning move against the superiority of Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel; and a Paris-Roubaix where he disappeared from the start and, like in Flanders, still managed to secure 4th place.

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There were a couple more races left on his calendar before focusing on finalizing his preparation for his debut in the Giro d'Italia: Brabantse Pijl where, despite having a great day, he couldn't match an inspired Remco Evenepoel and Amstel Gold Race where another fourth place started to raise concerns about Wout van Aert's physical condition.

To make matters worse, Wout van Aert arrived at the start of the Giro d'Italia in Albania practically struggling to shine at the beginning due to an illness that had kept him practically sidelined since the beer classic, in fact, Wout van Aert was barely seen in the first week, only in the sprint of the first stage where he had to settle for second place against a Mads Pedersen who was starting to accumulate wins.

"The start of the Giro was a nightmare for us," said Wout van Aert after finishing the Corsa Rosa in Rome. However, the Belgian cyclist from Visma-Lease a Bike did not give up. In the last stage of that first week, on the sterrato of Siena, things finally started to go his way. He held on to the good break of the day and managed to arrive at the front with Isaac del Toro. He just had to resist the attacks of the Mexican on the final wall of Santa Caterina and make the most of his bike skills in the curves leading to Piazza de il Campo to achieve a fantastic victory in Siena that ended a long drought.

From that day on, we saw Wout van Aert filtered in a good number of breakaways. Those escapes that occur as a grand tour progresses and only involve cyclists of great quality. Along the way, he made a perfect lead-out in stage 12 to help Olav Kooij win the sprint.

However, Wout van Aert still had a key role to play. Twentieth stage and he managed to get into the breakaway of the day again, not seeking his own chances in the stage, practically impossible against a colossus like Finestre but as a tactical move planned in the Visma-Lease a Bike team bus.

He broke away from the group of escapees from the early ramps of the ascent to Colle delle Finestre with the break almost 10 minutes ahead of the peloton. He climbed this tough mountain at an excellent pace, just 3 minutes above the time of the favorites, and at the top he simply let himself be caught by a fantastic Simon Yates who had crowned the mountain with just 1 minute 40 seconds ahead of the duo Del Toro, Carapaz.

Until that moment, despite being the virtual leader, Simon Yates by no means had the Giro won, but reaching Wout van Aert was the turning point. The Belgian began to set that destructive pace that we have seen countless times in the classics on a climb to Sestriere ideal for his characteristics and opened the gap to an insurmountable distance that secured the pink jersey for Simon Yates.

"It's like a bottle of ketchup. When it's almost finished, you keep shaking it and nothing comes out, and suddenly, everything comes out at once. That's what happened with our Giro," in clear reference to both the evolution of his performance and the performance of a Simon Yates who had remained in a discreet second place throughout the race until that twentieth stage.

Wout van Aert still had time to leave one last gem in the final stage in Rome with a new lead-out for Olav Kooij that handed the stage victory to the sprinter from Visma-Lease a Bike, also receiving the final prize of the Giro d'Italia for combativeness.