Blood, sweat and tears at Visma | LaB: Vingegaard and Van Aert cry tears of joy, while Kelderman licks his wounds

Wout van Aert sprinted to third place in the first stage of the Tour de France. This meant a lot to the Visma | Lease a Bike rider, who had to work hard to get back to form after a serious crash in Dwars door Vlaanderen. IDLProCycling.com was present at the finish in Rimini and spoke with prominent members within the killer bees formation!

During his interview with Sporza, which was his first reaction after the race, Van Aert had to take a moment to process all his emotions. "This feels really good. I am coming out of a really tough period, so it doesn’t surprise me that I react so emotionally." Van Aert finished third, behind the surprising dsm-firmenich PostNL duo. "This was a successful test. I never expected this, I am super happy with it," said the 29-year-old Fleming.

Visma | Lease a Bike sees Kelderman fall, but pleased with Van Aert’s and Vingegaard’s performance

"I just felt good today, and given the situation, I had a chance to win the stage." Visma | Lease a Bike put Wilco Kelderman and Matteo Jorgenson at the front in the finale, partly because Van Aert had regained that good feeling. "Somehow I got my confidence back during the race." Satisfaction prevailed for Van Aert, despite Bardet and Van den Broek staying ahead. "Two strong riders stayed ahead, and they are teammates. Then you know they will ride together. Kudos to them. We couldn’t do much more, so we are satisfied."

The Visma | Lease a Bike team kept the gap within two minutes for the last climb, but it wasn’t a full-on attempt for the win yet. "We turned it around completely on the last climb, which wasn’t the hardest anymore. We were already riding to keep the gap limited beforehand, but we had to let other teams help to close the gap. After the last climb, we quickly took control."

Similar sentiments were heard from team manager Merijn Zeeman, who also noticed how well Van Aert’s comeback went. "For Wout, after everything that happened, it would have been a great reward if he had won. Then the day would have been perfect. But still, I think he and we will mainly take the positives away from this. I’m glad today is over because you could feel that everyone was tense. Myself included."

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One significant downside for Visma | Lease a Bike: Wilco Kelderman crashed, but he managed to continue with some bandages and dressings. "Unfortunately, Wilco returned to the team bus with abrasions. That's a pity," Zeeman said about twenty minutes after the finish. "I didn’t see exactly what happened, but I heard somewhere that he slipped on gravel on a descent. But I haven’t heard it in detail yet."

Zeeman also spoke about general classification leader Jonas Vingegaard, another comeback figure. The Danish titleholder looked calm and strong all day, never faltering when UAE Team Emirates, the team of top favorite Tadej Pogacar, pushed the pace. "Besides Wout, Jonas also did very well, so we can say today was a successful day," said Zeeman. "UAE indeed tried to push the pace for a while. And then there was also the heat, which made everyone who put in a big effort pay for it. That will probably happen many more times. I expect a great fight in the coming weeks."

First a lot of uncertainty, now realization of competitiveness: Vingegaard and Van Aert – both emotional – satisfied with first day

For a long time (read: the past few weeks), the public had no real details about the form of Van Aert and Vingegaard, who were both preparing for La Grande Boucle in the well-known Tignes. On the first day of the stage race, it already seemed clear that they are alert and competitive enough (although the real work has yet to come, of course). "The two leaders, Wout and Jonas, certainly surprised me positively," said Zeeman. "I think Wout really rode incredibly strong. It’s very impressive that he was still in it. And if you then win the sprint from the peloton, you can say that you're good. We also worked hard to make it come down to that sprint. We put everything into it. We would have loved for Wout to win, but the two attackers made it. And that’s also very nice for cycling."

After Zeeman, Vingegaard himself also spoke to the cycling press, including this website. The 27-year-old climber was clearly happy and satisfied with what he had shown, as we could conclude. Earlier in the day, at the start in Florence, we already saw the sympathetic leader get emotional when he realized his comeback was really a fact. "It went well. As a team, we are a bit disappointed that we didn’t catch the two escapees, since Wout was really strong," he also addressed the all-rounder from Herentals. "He didn’t win the peloton sprint for nothing. In that respect, it was a bit of a shame, but overall, we can be happy with the fact that both Wout and I were in good form."

"Based on this stage, I can be optimistic," Vingegaard concluded when asked about his (general classification) ambitions for the coming weeks. "I am certainly looking forward to the next stages, and definitely with a lot of positivity. Hopefully, it can be a nice race for us. It’s still a bit early to draw real conclusions, but I think I’m ready to be competitive in the fight for the overall classification."