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Teams & Riders Team Visma - Lease a Bike

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Is the other way around, Zeeman was crearly very pro Vingegaard like Niermann, he was talking always wonders about him even before he started to show any results. Before that era, he was very pro Kruijswijk and very pro dutch in general with Groenewegen and the signing of Dumoulin.

He acting like a Primoz friend always seems quite fake to me, and during Vuelta last year and after Primoz departure this was becoming more evident.

Plugge yes, I truly believe he has so much respect for Roglic as a symbol of the team, but he was not taking most of the sporting decisions anyway.
Haha, everyone puts their own spin on it, depending on who their favourite rider is, but in reality nobody knows who Zeeman really favours because he has never given any indication one way or the other. Yes, he is very pro-Kruijswijk, because that's one of the few riders he still coaches himself.

Maybe but let's not 'undersell' how much if a change this will be.

Zeeman for example built the classics team. He's responsible for the transfers of Van Baarle, Laporte etc. He'll be leaving the team with that item on the bucket list (i.e. monument victories) unfulfilled.

It's basically been a lot of change for Jumbo over six months, including the aborted Soudal merger.
I'm not underselling the importance, but you act like it's a massive surprise when it's really not. A coach needs a challenge, something to aim for, and other than Flanders or Roubaix they've won everything so there's not much left. Btw they did win Monuments under Zeeman's tenure, just not in the past two or three years.
 
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Zeeman being second in command, changes that high in the power structure almost always have some deeper causes.

he wants to show he's better at training a football team than Brailsford :D

I dont know there could be loads of reasons, boredom, theyve offered him more money, its a more stable work environment, AZ arent about to go out of business every year if their main sponsor ups sticks, or it provides better work/life balance options for him.
 
How quickly everything changes. Months ago, this team wins all three GTs of the year and is a threat in all other 1 week or 1 day races. They were so good, that they had big problems with own riders trying to kill themselves between each other for a shot at winning. They had 3 GT winners and one powerhouse for 1 day races complete with huge number of very good support riders. Plenty to go around, right?

Then one GT and 1 week race winner leaves, because he wasn't allowed to go to Tour. Then 1 day race powerhouse crashes and is out for some time. Then another GT and 1 week race winner crashes and is out for a long time. The last GT winner is nowhere to be found without any form (that would be Kuss).

Crazy.
 
How quickly everything changes. Months ago, this team wins all three GTs of the year and is a threat in all other 1 week or 1 day races. They were so good, that they had big problems with own riders trying to kill themselves between each other for a shot at winning. They had 3 GT winners and one powerhouse for 1 day races complete with huge number of very good support riders. Plenty to go around, right?

Then one GT and 1 week race winner leaves, because he wasn't allowed to go to Tour. Then 1 day race powerhouse crashes and is out for some time. Then another GT and 1 week race winner crashes and is out for a long time. The last GT winner is nowhere to be found without any form (that would be Kuss).

Crazy.
He didn't leaved because of that, but because he needed undisputed leadership in the Tour.
 
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Is pulling Jorgensen from P-R relatable to yesterday’s crash and does it all point to le tour?

They say it's because he isn't 100% fit but I guess it's probably an excuse, because his replacement (Laporte) should be even less prepared.

Either way, I guess it's the most sensible solution. Jorgenson is a 69kg rider who hasn't done Roubaix once in his life and I have doubts that this race would suit him. At the same time, from the Tour long list of riders, he is the only one that showed this season to be a possible contender for something that is fit, so no need to risk that for an unproven chance in Roubaix.
 
He didn't leaved because of that, but because he needed undisputed leadership in the Tour.
Source? No? I thought so... There is no indication by anyone inside the team that:
a. Roglic would have been allowed to go to the Tour again
b. Roglic had ever requested undisputed leadership status.

There is evidence to the contrary, though:
a. Roglic himself mentioned in his video interview after his Giro victory reception in Ljubljana that the team doesn't let him join TdF. Granted that was only valid for 2023 but still, conclusions could be made...
b. He rode 4 out of 5 TdFs at Visma as either a co-leader or protected rider. In 2020 he was about to share leadership with two other riders, even... Only in 2021 was he undisputed leader. In 2022, he was already back to his co-leader status. Never had a problem with that, it seems.
 
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Source? No? I thought so... There is no indication by anyone inside the team that:
a. Roglic would have been allowed to go to the Tour again
b. Roglic had ever requested undisputed leadership status.

There is evidence to the contrary, though:
a. Roglic himself mentioned in his video interview after his Giro victory reception in Ljubljana that the team doesn't let him join TdF. Granted that was only valid for 2023 but still, conclusions could be made...
b. He rode 4 out of 5 TdFs at Visma as either a co-leader or protected rider. In 2020 he was about to share leadership with two other riders, even... Only in 2021 was he undisputed leader. In 2022, he was already back to his co-leader status. Never had a problem with that, it seems.
Certainly Roglic didn’t wanted to go as a superdomestique of Vingegaard to the Tour 2024, because it was the only way for him to make part of the team.

He did the right thing, moving to Bora.
 
I would bet letting roglic go had as much to do about contract and age as any other reason. Probably the number 1 reason.

In the oddly presented “trade” they picked up Cian as youth, future, and better to manage contract

I would not be surprised if visma pulls Cian from the giro and take him to the tour
 
View: https://twitter.com/NairoInGreen/status/1776227513020088578


I mean, nothing to do with cycling, but as a Richard Plugge hater I find this very amusing.

When I see this sort of "look how bad this person is! look at his likes on X! It means he's a bad person!" by total random nobodies like that wouldbe influencer... all I see is vomit on screen. It leads nowhere other than totally derailing a conversation & causing flamewars over a totally off-topic subject. It's so passé as well. Politically motivated social media witch hunts & cancellations are boring as sh*t.

That's all I'll say on that subject.

As for Visma, it's been a bit of a surreal couple of weeks. Worst case scenarios like Wout van Aert & Jonas V getting badly injured like that is something no team can prepare for.
 
- Their two biggest stars get sidelined in the space of a week with severe injuries that compromise their main season targets;
- Their classics team goes from being the inquestionable strongest block to a wreck due to multiple crashes and illnesses;
- Their main rider left for the Ronde blows up and the next best one gets his final result compromised because team mechanics give him the wrong bike;
- One of their DSs leaves to a football team
- Their CEO is exposed as an admirer of right wing lunatics

Is Rabobank planning a comeback and no one told us so?
 
When I see this sort of "look how bad this person is! look at his likes on X! It means he's a bad person!" by total random nobodies like that wouldbe influencer... all I see is vomit on screen. It leads nowhere other than totally derailing a conversation & causing flamewars over a totally off-topic subject. It's so passé as well. Politically motivated social media witch hunts & cancellations are boring as sh*t.

That's all I'll say on that subject.

As for Visma, it's been a bit of a surreal couple of weeks. Worst case scenarios like Wout van Aert & Jonas V getting badly injured like that is something no team can prepare for.
Look, have any political belief that you want, but to me it is pretty darn hilarious to see someone engage in these type of conversations and actively liking tweets that hint towards being somewhat right wing oriented, whilst sitting on the other side of the table with those same people you just criticised, begging for their money.

You are killing the west :mad: , but can I per chance interest you in buying western cycling stocks :)?
 
Look, have any political belief that you want, but to me it is pretty darn hilarious to see someone engage in these type of conversations and actively liking tweets that hint towards being somewhat right wing oriented, whilst sitting on the other side of the table with those same people you just criticised, begging for their money.

The most I'm willing to delve into on this subject is Plugge should probably be more careful with his social media activities considering he has sponsors who probably expect some form of professionalism. But it's not unusual from him, is it? There was that whacky moment when he claimed FDJ were essentially a bunch of drunkards in the TdF last year. I mean... the man has a certain different 'personality' which might go unnoticed because Lefevere gets all the 'outrage attention' but... yeah.

As for the Saudis, I don't know whether he wanted their money. I do know the merger with Soudal was presented as an attempt to do battle against the oil rich teams on an equal footing.