{"id":553026,"date":"2026-03-20T15:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T15:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/553026\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T15:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T15:06:14","slug":"van-aert-not-the-top-favourite-for-sanremo-but-still-heading-there-to-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/553026\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Aert not the top favourite for Sanremo, but still heading there to win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is a different situation from some previous editions: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/visma-lease-a-bike\" title=\"Visma | Lease a Bike\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Visma | Lease a Bike<\/a> will not roll up to the start of Milano-Sanremo with the race\u2019s clear standout favourite. That does not mean the Dutch squad is travelling to Italy without serious ambition, though. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/wout-van-aert\" title=\"Wout van Aert\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wout van Aert<\/a> has already won La Primavera once before and believes he can fight for victory again on Saturday.The last time the Belgian competed in Sanremo was in 2023, when he finished third. \u201cI skipped Milano\u2013Sanremo for a few years, but I definitely wanted to start there again this season,\u201d  Van Aert said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teamvismaleaseabike.com\/race-preview\/news\/van-aert-heads-to-first-monument-of-the-season-with-ambition\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">press release<\/a>. \u201cThe race is one of the most beautiful on the cycling calendar. I really enjoyed watching last year\u2019s exciting edition, so it\u2019s extra motivating to be back at the start soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Van Aert competed in the Ename Samyn Classic, the Strade Bianche, and the Tirreno-Adriatico as part of his preparation. His best result was a fifth-place finish in the fourth stage of the latter race. \u201cOverall, I\u2019m satisfied with how I felt during those races. I had a good week at Tirreno\u2013Adriatico, where I was able to test myself several times. I\u2019ve done everything I can to be ready.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The 31-year-old Belgian won Milan-Sanremo in 2020 and hopes to repeat the feat. &#8220;It\u2019s the start of an important month with many top classics. I hope to be competitive everywhere. I\u2019m not starting as the top favorite, but my goal is to win the race. I absolutely believe in my chances. Milano-Sanremo is a race where many scenarios are possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/147365-f33d9f88c8f1ac30bf495bc09777907d.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"147365_f33d9f88c8f1ac30bf495bc09777907d\"\/>Niermann: &#8220;We head to Milan with a lot of ambition&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, Van Aert has faced two rivals in Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar who have often proven to be the stronger riders so far, but he has shown on multiple occasions that he can beat them. Moreover, the Belgian all-rounder won\u2019t be alone at the start. Visma | Lease a Bike is sending a strong and versatile squad to Italy.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/grischa-niermann\" title=\"Grischa Niermann\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Grischa Niermann<\/a> sees a strength for his team in just that. \u201cWe can rely on a strong group,&#8221; said the German Head of Racing of Visma | Lease a Bike. &#8220;In addition to Wout, riders like Matteo (Jorgenson) and Christophe (Laporte) have shown in recent races that they are in good form. With them, we can certainly play a role in the finale. We head to Milan with a lot of ambition.\u201d Matthew Brennan was also supposed to start, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/cycling\/setback-for-visma-lease-a-bike-in-sanremo-ill-matthew-brennan-pulls-out\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">but he is sick.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a different situation from some previous editions: Visma | Lease a Bike will not roll up&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,182689,211219,85,23372,58412],"class_list":["post-553026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-grischa-niermann","tag-milan-san-remo","tag-sports","tag-visma-lease-a-bike","tag-wout-van-aert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}