Giro 2025, Daan Hoole almost doesn't believe it: the Dutchman's admission
At his first success in this 2025, but also his first overall victory in a major stage race, Daan Hoole did not hide his elation on the sidelines of the prize-giving ceremony at the end of the Pisa time trial, which he won ahead of the two Britons Tarling and Hayter, like him specialists in time trials.
“It’s incredible – debuted the Dutch national champion in the time trials -I’m so excited and I want to thank so many people. I felt good and was aiming for this stage, but I never thought I could really do it. The big guys in the general classification caught the rain and that changed the race a lot, but I still managed to beat Josh Tarling in the same conditions”.
“I was surprised to be able to overtake him – Hoole later admitted, still talking about his Ineos Grenadiers rival -: he is one of the best time trialists in the world. I had a good second half, which allowed me to make up time on him. A victory in the Giro is something special. I am overjoyed” then concluded the Lidl-Trek rider.
A class of 1999, Daan Hoole has been riding for Lidl-Trek since 2021, when the team was called just Trek. This year’s is his third participation in the Giro d’Italia: in 2023 he finished 108th, while in the next edition he finished 132nd. He boasts one more victory in his career on Italian soil, in the 2021 edition of the Coppa della Pace-Trofeo Fratelli Anelli in Romagna.
