It is in new colors that Wout Poels approaches the 2025 season with a clear ambition, to win a stage on the Tour of Italy. Stage winner on the roads of Tour de France and of The Returnthe 37-year-old Dutchman did not have the opportunity last season to complete the triptych, not selected by the Bahrain Victorious a few weeks before the start of the 107th edition of the Italian Grand Tour. This decision left a bitter taste in Poolsand this is largely what motivated his choice to offer himself one last professional experience within another training, the XDS Astana.
Video – Alexandre Vinokourov, new manager of Wout Poels
“I made this Giro a goal”
Despite a good start to the season with Bahrain Victorious where he managed to secure a 6th place overall during the Tour of the Alpsthe Limburger paid the price for the tactics of his former team. “I was left out of the Giro team at the last minute and I never had a very clear reason” he mentioned during an interview with Wielerflits. “They needed a different type of rider and they could also use me in the Tour de France alongside Santiago Buitrago. I was really disappointed about that. The Tour was of course a race I “I quickly had to concentrate. It was good, but I had made this Giro a goal in my head.”
For 2025, the Dutchman's ambitions have hardly changed. “I always want to try to win this stage of the Giro” confessed Wout Poels who does not close any doors for the rest of his professional career. “If all goes well, I would like to stay for another year (chez XDS Astana editor’s note). I notice that I am approaching the new year with great motivation. The Giro is the main goal, which I think is still a very realistic goal. It is my big challenge to win a stage in the three Grand Tours. But I want to get the best out of myself everywhere. Whether at WorldTour level or in the lower division like last year in Hungary” he concluded by mentioning his only victory in 2024, in Pecs, during the last stage of the Tour of Hungary.
