“De Plus et Van Wilder: Des performances satisfaisantes pour la Belgique au Giro 2023”

Laurens De Plus and Ilan Van Wilder worked hard to represent Belgian colors on the roads of the Giro 2023 after the shocking withdrawal of Remco Evenepoel. They successfully completed their mission, achieving excellent results.

Laurens De Plus, a loyal teammate of Geraint Thomas, did an enormous amount of work in the mountains to separate the peloton and protect his leader as best as possible in the passes. Besides this exhausting task, the 27-year-old climber retained enough strength to make it into the top 10 of the overall standings, 9:08 behind the winner Primoz Roglic. Only one Belgian had managed to finish in the top 10 of a Grand Tour in the last ten years: Remco Evenepoel, last year’s Vuelta winner.

The other excellent performer is Ilan Van Wilder. He came to the Italian roads to support Remco Evenepoel in the mountains, but the young 23-year-old cyclist had to change his plans after the fatal 9th stage, which infected Evenepoel with Covid. Up until that moment, he had preserved his strength to assist his leader, and his gap to the pink jersey was 12:52 after the first rest day. Two weeks later, thanks to a breakaway and his very solid performances in the mountains, he reduced this gap to 11:58 to complete this Giro in 12th position. It’s a shame because the top 10 was well within his reach.