Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) has not taken long to get back to winning ways on the cyclocross scene after his Vuelta crash last September. And now the Belgian looks like he is planning to very much up the intensity in the year ahead.
He is now eyeing a season that would be based on riding both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France; a double that has become less common for the top riders in recent years, though Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) won both last season.
Van Aert already has 12 Grand Tour stage wins to his name - nine at the Tour and three at the Vuelta - but he is yet to open his Giro account as he has never ridden the Italian Grand Tour.
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What should have been his debut appearance last year had to be shelved after his serious crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen in March, with his recovery time much longer than hoped and ruling out a Giro start.
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However, Het Laatste Nieuws, has now outlined his race schedule - based on information from its sources - and reports the Giro-Tour double is back in the Belgian's diary. This year he will skip both Strade Bianche and Milan-Sanremo, though he will be riding plenty of the big one-day classics.
It is reported he will start his 2025 road season at Clásica Jaén (1.1) in Spain on February 17th; the race with gravel sectors that will serve up a challenging opening to the season.
He will then ride Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta (2.Pro) from February 19th to 23rd, where he won a stage last year, and then open his spring classics campaign with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on March 1st, with an altitude camp to follow in Tenerife.
There then follows: E3 Saxo Classic Harelbeke (March 28th), Dwars door Vlaanderen (April 2nd), Tour of Flanders (April 6th), Paris-Roubaix (April 13th) and Amstel Gold Race (April 20th). Once that schedule is completed, the Giro will be firmly in view as it starts on May 9th in Durrës, Albania.
While Van Aert will want to take Giro stage wins on debut, and perhaps the maglia rosa for a period, he has said his two main aims for the spring are the Tour of Flanders and Paris Roubaix, neither of which he has won so far in his career.
