Wout van Aert exceeded his own expectations by sprinting to second on stage 1 of the Giro d'Italia, after illness hampered his preparations, but was nonetheless still disappointed to be the perennial runner-up and miss out on the first jersey by a wheel.
"It doesn't feel like a victory, but of course it's a better result than I expected the last couple of days," Van Aert told reporters at the finish, asked if the context of his viral infection meant second felt like the win. "I have to be happy with it."
