Last year Visma-Lease a Bike was the best team in the world and won the three Grand Tours. This year you won Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, but did you still get a blow?
“You say that well. We won Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico. Eighteen victories already. Numerically we had the best spring ever, plus Matteo Jorgenson who has made a great breakthrough for us and Jonas Vingegaard who has already ridden great… Only, yes, we missed the presence to fight for victory in Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders. Those were our objectives. In that sense it is a shame and disappointing, a bit sweet and sour… What gave our team a big blow was the loss of Jonas and Wout van Aert. And especially on a personal level. It wasn’t fun that those boys were in such a mess.”
Pardon the word: but has there been a crisis?
“Not at all. That might be the case when you are at full war strength and you don’t participate at all. It wasn’t just Wout and Jonas. Jan Tratnik was there in Gent-Wevelgem, Christophe Laporte who missed the top level, Wilco Kelderman who dropped out and I can name a few more… Then it is difficult to say: ‘Guys, we didn’t do what we were supposed to do on a physical level!‘”
You’re talking about a boom. How did you manage that internally?
“Yes, but… internally managed, Wout’s fall was so terrible. In football, if the strikers are not there, you can either sit back or try to score goals with the players you still have and ensure that those absent boys return as quickly as possible.”
Spring is over. How is the team doing now?
“Good in itself. Everyone is getting back on their feet.”
You were the king of cycling with your team for three years…
“…we still are, right? We won Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, the first time that one team won both races in the same season.”
UAE is comfortably first in the UCI world rankings.
“Certainly, but that was also last year and we won three Grand Tours… I am still confident that we will also show great things this year.”
Last year you won the Giro. Now you’re aiming for stage wins. That is the ambition of a small team, On-Visma’s.
“I do not think so. I think it is very much Visma’s fault that we dare to tackle this. Because of course we have plans here. We don’t have someone who can just ride for the overall victory. It is important to set realistic goals, but still set the bar very high.”
What do you want to achieve in this Giro?
“What you say, but in our way.”
I expected a little more Dutch swagger.
“I think this is a lot of swagger in myself. Before you immediately call me a fat neck. Haha.”
How is the integration of Cian Uijtdebroeks into the team going?
“Very good. He fits us seamlessly. He is a boy who is very happy with what we offer him. We are working on all the details, which he really likes and is what he was looking for. He is a very nice boy, but still very young. We have to help him a lot, he still has a lot to learn.”
Do you have a lot of contact with him?
“Now a little more, then a little less. We spoke often during training camp.”
Then what are you talking about?
“How you deal with the press, your own training, managing your expectations… He is the youngest Belgian in the Giro since 1974. We have to keep our feet on the ground. Cian understands that well. He is very sensible. We can imagine all kinds of things, but let’s first see what it’s like here to ride a big tour in three weeks very well with such a young guy.”
Visma Lease-a-Bike is not a team that says: ‘Just ride along, we’ll see’. You have a plan, right?
“Of course we have a plan. We know how good he is and how we can get him as high as possible in the rankings. We are going to do everything we can and we have talked to him about it a lot.”
Belgians are always demanding for their riders. What is realistic for Uijtdebroeks? He says he wants to do better than his eighth place in the Vuelta?
“That is very realistic. That’s why Cian is a sensible boy. A Grand Tour is really a special subject. You have to grow into this slowly and put in a lot of hours. Discovering what it’s like to perform for three weeks takes a few years. Last year he finished eighth in the Vuelta. Now let’s see if he can get close. Top ten would be fantastic. Anything better than eighth is the icing on the cake.”
The other spearhead is Olav Kooij, a sprinter. While the contract of your previous top sprinter Dylan Groenewegen was terminated because you were completely focused on rankings…
“I wouldn’t say we only focused on rankings. We then wanted to move towards a complete team. With Wout we had someone who could participate in bunch sprints and Olav was already there at the time. With Olav we knew Dylan was leaving, which was sad, but at the same time we had the next Dylan in house with Olav.”
The fact that Kooij signed last year was a feat. The interest from other teams was great. The bags of money were ready.
“Money is important. But over a period of ten or fifteen years they will earn a lot of money anyway. What matters at the end of the ride is that you have a few photos hanging on the wall of things you accomplished. These cannot be expressed in money. You only get that picture with a good team with a very good structure, in which you can take steps as an athlete. Olav sees that. He says: I want to achieve the highest possible results for myself with this team. That is what we can offer. He clearly chose that. You also see that with Cian. He knows, I first have to develop myself as a rider.”
If Kooij was the new Groenewegen, is Uijtdebroeks the new Roglic that was ready?
“We hope so. He has everything it takes to become a great player. However, he is still a long way behind Primoz’s development. We have to give him time so he can get there.”
The Tour will soon follow after the Giro. How are Vingegaard and Van Aert doing?
“Wout is a bit further along than Jonas. They are cycling again. Wout already more than Jonas. Initially it was important that they become healthy people again. Now I’m happy that they can do some things physically. Afterwards they can think about when they will become an athlete again. Only afterwards can we talk about planning. The way things are going, we can talk to them again as athletes in a week or two. With Wout we have to see how we can plan for the coming week. As far as Jonas is concerned, the Tour is not out of the question for us.”
Until this weekend, Vingegaard only cycled on rollers. Then reaching the Tour in top form is a utopia, isn’t it?
“We’ll see about that. We will only go to the Tour with Jonas if he is one hundred percent. He is someone who picks it up quickly and has an astonishing amount of talent. In a maximum of two weeks we will know the answer to the question of whether the Tour is feasible. Not before. I still have high hopes for it.”
Suppose it doesn’t work out, then your GC rider will go to the three Grand Tours.
“That has to do with one gigantic crash in the Basque Country, where not only Jonas fell, but also Remco and Primoz, and where the top of the entire spring was destroyed. Because, with all due respect, it is fantastic how Pogacar wins Liège, but you missed riders of his caliber who could make it difficult for him. That has been a tragedy for cycling.”
You only think about your own team, right?
“Disagree. It didn’t help any team that we looked three times at a monument where a rider pulls away at forty or seventy kilometers before the end and rides alone to the finish. Without Wout or Remco or Primoz or Jonas making it difficult for them. People want to see a spectacle. Solos of forty kilometers are fun once in a while, but I think all fans want to see the battle until the last moment. I certainly think about that, because this was extremely harmful to cycling.”
Tags: extremely damaging cycling Richard Plugge CEO VismaLease Bike
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