Campenaerts hails Segaert as ‘old-school Cancellara’ after stunning Giro win

The two Belgians, former team-mates at Lotto-Dstny, had already found each other after the finish the previous day. On Friday morning, the tone was lighter, but the subject remained the same: Segaert’s perfectly timed late attack, launched while Campenaerts was riding on the front of the peloton.

Segaert had sensed his chance in a chaotic finale. Visma | Lease a Bike appeared to have control, but the sprinters’ teams were running out of men. Then came the decisive detail.

“I saw that Campie [Campenaerts] was ‘fake chasing’, as I read online,” Segaert said with a grin.

Campenaerts laughed off the suggestion, but admitted his team’s priorities lay elsewhere. “We weren’t really interested in the stage win,” he said. “Still, I thought we were riding a pretty solid tempo.”

The move proved decisive. Segaert powered clear through the final kilometres and held off the bunch to take the biggest victory of his young career.

“You went away from the peloton like a rocket,” Campenaerts told him. “The sprint teams were just sitting on our wheel. All credit to you. A fantastic win.”

“We had no intention of bringing Alec back,” Campenaerts continued. “We wanted to stay in a safe position, and often that means being at the front. I couldn’t really go much faster than that. It was a hard finale, and Alec was clearly the strongest.”

Campenaerts and Segaert raced together in 2023 and 2024, and although they did not share an extensive race programme, Campenaerts has followed the younger Belgian’s development closely.

“I saw him become a professional,” he said. “His steady progress has made him the rider he is now.”

Then came the kind of comparison any time-trial specialist with a big engine would treasure.

“He is an old-school Cancellara, the kind of rider who can stay away from a peloton sprint. Everyone knows that by now. The sprinters’ teams must simply not have had the legs anymore.”

Segaert accepted the praise with caution. “That is a big comparison, but they are beautiful words from Victor,” he said. “I’ll keep my feet on the ground. Of course, it feels fantastic to already have a stage win.”

The images of his attack have followed him everywhere since. His phone has been flooded with clips, messages and reposts.

“Ramses Debruyne, a good friend of mine, told me that I’m his algorithm at the moment,” Segaert said. “He sees nothing else.”

Sleep did not come easily after the win. The legs were aching, but the bigger problem was adrenaline.

“It was not easy to fall asleep straight away,” he said. “Partly because of the pain in the legs, but mainly because of the excitement. We’ll see how the legs feel today after a slightly shorter night.”