For a rider with 50 professional victories, including a Monument and 13 Grand Tour stages, Wout van Aert has often seemed like a perennial runner-up in recent years, with his versatility proving both a blessing and a curse, and several wins eluding him by the barest margins at the biggest races.
But on stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia, Siena's Piazza del Campo burst into a roar as it realised that Van Aert was finally going to take victory, his first of the 2025 season. It was one of those victories that just felt right in sport, meaning no offence to second place on the day, Isaac del Toro, but it was a triumph that "had to be here" according to the Belgian, as his love affair with the Tuscan city goes back seven years.
