Jumbo-Visma manager Richard Plugge has insisted that reports of Wout van Aert’s likely participation in the 2024 Giro d’Italia are premature, with a final decision on his race programme to come only in December.
La Gazzetta dello Sport reported earlier this week that Van Aert would make his Giro debut in 2024 with an eye to targeting a place in the top five overall. Next year’s Giro route features two long time trials and a significantly reduced diet of climbing.
“We have not yet reached that stage in the process of making plans for 2024,” Plugge told Wielerflits. “Our staff will meet in November to evaluate this season and make careful plans for 2024. This is how we approach it every year.
”These ideas will be discussed one-on-one with the riders in December during the first training camp. The race programmes are only put together then, so it’s not yet clear which Grand Tour Van Aert will ride.”
Van Aert has raced the Tour in each of his five seasons at Jumbo-Visma, winning a total of nine stages. He won the green jersey in 2022 and he has also finished twice in the top 20 overall while producing striking performances in the high mountains on behalf of leaders Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard.
The Belgian has never raced another Grand Tour, but the configuration of his season could change in 2024 given his ambitions at the Paris Olympics in late July and at the Zürich World Championships in September.
According to La Gazzetta, Van Aert would again target the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in the opening phase of his road season before lining up in Turin for the Grande Partenza of the Giro on May 4.
Last month, Van Aert had indicated his enthusiasm for the idea in an interview with La Gazzetta.
“I'd really like to ride but it's not only my decision," he said. "The first Grand Tour other than the Tour I want to ride is the Giro. I love Italy."
Jumbo-Visma completed a clean sweep of the Grand Tours in 2023, with Roglič landing the Giro, Vingegaard winning the Tour and Sepp Kuss adding the Vuelta a España.
Roglič will race for Bora-Hansgrohe in 2024, while Vingegaard has already confirmed that he will ride the Tour and Kuss has also indicated that he is unlikely to return to the Giro.
