Tomas de Gendt relieved some of the pressure on the Lotto Soudal team after winning a stage around Naples in the Giro d'Italia on Saturday. Despite the result, the Belgian rider will not be named to the team's roster for July's Tour de France. [At a press conference on the rest day at the Giro d'Italia, de Gendt said, "I can't decide for myself which races I want or have to compete in. At a press conference on the rest day at the Giro d'Italia, de Gendt said, "I could decide until the Giro, but I had to do three or four extra races. Besides, I don't want to put the team at risk of not being able to start. We had to start with at least four riders, and in some races we started with only five."

In previous years, de Gendt has ridden early season stage races such as Paris-Nice, Volta a Catalunya, Tour de Romandie, and Giro d'Italia before taking a break before the Tour de France. This year, he has done several classics: Noccare Coors, La Flèche Wallonne, Eschborn Frankfurt, and the Tour of Turkey.

After the Giro d'Italia, de Gendt said he will compete in the Tour de Suisse but is not thinking about the 2022 Tour de France. There are a lot of races at the same time," he said. And some of us are preparing for the Tour and are in high altitude camps and other training camps. So there is no other choice but the Tour de Suisse. If we continue from the Giro to the Tour de Suisse, I don't think it's possible to add the Tour to that."

The 35-year-old said this year's Tour is not in his plans at the moment and that he booked his July training camp in March. I would love to go to the Tour," he said, "but I'm convinced I won't have to.

De Gendt said he can already call the Giro d'Italia a success. He created a breakaway with Mathieu Van der Pol and Biniam Guillemay on stage 8 and wisely followed through on a counterattack that left two strong riders behind, although it would be hard to win in a sprint. He then overpowered his companions to take the stage win.

Now that he has the win, he feels no pressure to win another. I don't need to win two stages in one Grand Tour, but of course I will go for it when I have the chance. I don't need to win two stages in one Grand Tour, but if I get the chance, I'll go for it.

One of those teammates is sprinter Caleb Yuan, who says he plans to leave the Giro d'Italia before the major mountain stages." I think the easiest stage for me was Naples. The rest of the stages are either too hard or too flat. But if I have a chance to get into the break I will definitely try and if I have the legs I have a chance to win."

De Gendt is only 35 years old, but he has already been asked by the press if it is a trend for the generation of riders born after him to achieve success.

"I think (Mark) Cavendish has already started. He even won a stage. Yesterday in the blockhouse, we had three guys in the top 10 who were either near or over 40 years old, (Domenico) Pozzovivo, (Alejandro) Valverde, and (Vincenzo) Nibali. In other words, it's kind of a resurgence of the older guys. Last year all the young riders were super strong, and I am surprised that most of the riders who are winning this year are still winning. It's like cycling is back to normal again."

During the 2020 and 2021 seasons, several riders were shocked at the lack of success, despite racing at similar power numbers as before. Asked if the peloton had slowed down or if he had become faster, de Gendt pointed to the former.

"I saw in a tweet a comparison of all the Grand Tour stages I won and you could see my power and it looks like my average power is the same as Saint Etienne (2019 Tour de France stage 8) and the same as Gijon in the Vuelta (2017 stage 19). I think they are pushing the same way.

"Maybe the pace of the peloton has slowed down a bit. In the Grand Tours, you can't race every day like you have in the last few months. In smaller races or week-long races, you can be aggressive from 70-80km. In the Grand Tour, all GC riders have to take it a little easy. So I think the peloton is slowing down just a little bit. [After his victory in Naples, de Gendt made no effort to suppress his emotions. In his autobiography, de Gendt opens up about his struggles with depression and says that showing his emotions has brought about change.

"I don't keep them to myself like I used to. I just kept my feelings inside, like when I won the championship, I don't care anymore if people see me crying because I'm so moved, five years ago I would have covered my face or held back," she said. Now it's okay to show my feelings of joy, anger, sadness, and anger. In my book, I wrote that too, to show you a side of me that no one else knows and to let you know that even if you are successful, look successful, or seem happy, you are not necessarily so."