Pre-race press conferences on the eve of an event like the Giro d'Italia offer up little in the way of new storylines to explore for the big stars like Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), with revelations such as his post-Classics illness already well told and the focus now fully on the opening stage.
But it does give a chance to read into the protagonists' moods and body language. So if the show Van Aert put on at Thursday's pre-Giro top favourites presser is anything to go by, then the Belgian isn't too fazed by the infection, which has seen his chance of claiming the maglia rosa on stage 1 turn to "more dream than reality", in his own words.
