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Teams & Riders Team Visma - Lease a Bike

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Zeeman said in an interview Vingegaard can try to ride a GC without any pressure from the team. No harm if it doesn't work out. I assume that's why they aren't even trying to support him (why is Kruijswijk here anyway?) with someone to look after/over him in the mountains. In a way that might actually work, just stick to following or choosing your own tempo. But it's clear the team is drifting. Kuss can't even follow 2nd rate climbers anymore, Kruijswijk gets dropped when there is a bump in the road. If Vingegaard can follow Kelderman, Carapaz, Uran... he can actually go for a podium if he keeps it up, with the ITT in mind. Maybe van Aert can still go for a stagewin. Van der Poel gone, Merlier gone, Démare gone...

It might still turn out to be an "ok" Tour for the team, but they could also go home empty handed.
They're probably once again going to dominate and win the Vuelta a Espana with Roglic later on, but yeah zero clue why Kruijswijk's even here with that bad shape. That's certainly not his normal level. This is in fact far worse than 2011, 2015 or even 2017 when he at least was 3rd in Switzerland!

I said it before, but that teams lacks a sports director with competence and tactical insights ever since they fired Breukink!

It's a complete misery to me why Breukink hasn't been hired by either DSM or Jumbo lately, with the tactictal blunders both teams produce.
 
First time I heard someone praising Breukink's tactical prowess. Any examples of his strategic masterstrokes?

I'm aware that Menchov won two grand tours with Breukink at the helm. But these 'successes' are probably also the reason why he hasn't been picked up lately by DSM or Jumbo.
 
What has happened to Kruijswijk anyway? Went from being a fringe GT podium contender to pack fodder in the span of 2 years? He always struggled in first weeks of GTs but this is something else.

He and Kuss look miles below their best form. At last wout can point to an appendectory.
I really thought Roglic had an even chance against TP, in large part because I thought TJV would be better than UAE -- I could see SK & SK, plus Vingegaard, pulling Roglic up the mountains -- but after seeing how the team, with the exception of Vingegaard, is going, I'm not so sure they would have been an asset.
 
Rest day

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Is it just me or does this sort of take the pressure off Roglic to absolutely win the Vuelta "to save JV's season"? I mean don't get me wrong I'm sure he'll be totally dialled in & committed to getting that third title, but until 10 days ago the best results for Jumbo this season were Amstel & Basque Country.

Now they've won the Ventoux, a Pyrenean stage with Kuss, a TT with WVA & the most famous sprint stage of them all with WVA again. And got 2nd overall in GC. All just with 4 riders.

What a wild Tour.

Jumbo turning disaster into victory at the TDF with half the team crashed out. Four stage wins, including Ventoux and on the Champs, plus 2nd in the GC.

Chris Horner is going to be having knucklehead nightmares for a while.
 
Aren't Amstel and Basque country still the best results?

I'd say the Tour as a "package of wins" equals the other major victories this season, certainly considering the context. They didn't get what they came for (Roglic in yellow), but they got the second best result possible.

Queen mountain stage (Ventoux), queen sprint stage (Champs) & a TT + another mountain stage. Good job. Now I want to see Roglic fully recovered in the Vuelta.
 
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Is it just me or does this sort of take the pressure off Roglic to absolutely win the Vuelta "to save JV's season"?
Sure, but another Vuelta win wouldn't add much, regardless. It's the least prestigious GT by a wide margin. Olympic gold would be something else, however...

Maybe a third Vuelta win matters to Roglic or to the team, but putting yourself into the red too much probably won't extend your career.

He still thinks he has at least one good Tour de France left in him, so I hope the team keeps that in mind.
 
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Sure, but another Vuelta win wouldn't add much, regardless. It's the least prestigious GT by a wide margin.

I don't think so, certainly not when we're talking about multiple GT victories.

Just compare Roglic to some of the Tour winners of the past 20 years with a single victory, i.e. would anyone say these guys had better careers & more prestige than Primoz Roglic? For example Wiggins, Evans, Sastre, Thomas or Pereiro. I'd take 3 Vuelta wins in this era (& all of Roglic' other victories) over 1 Tour win.

I also think in this current cycling epoch where races are televised on Eurosport & easily accessible everywhere, the Tour de France is no longer the massive crushing "behemoth" it once was. For example even Froome totally benefitted from diversifying his GT portfolio & winning the Vuelta/Giro when that was unthinkable just 15 years ago for guys who won the Tour (i.e. who viewed other GT's as crud by comparison).

So nope, perhaps the Vuelta once was the lesser GT by far, but now? And considering the competition at this level (Bernal will be there)? I think the Tour result is disappointing, but that will quickly be forgotten "if" Roglic can take Vuelta number 3 next month.
 
I don't think so, certainly not when we're talking about multiple GT victories.

Just compare Roglic to some of the Tour winners of the past 20 years with a single victory, i.e. would anyone say these guys had better careers & more prestige than Primoz Roglic? For example Wiggins, Evans, Sastre, Thomas or Pereiro. I'd take 3 Vuelta wins in this era (& all of Roglic' other victories) over 1 Tour win.

I also think in this current cycling epoch where races are televised on Eurosport & easily accessible everywhere, the Tour de France is no longer the massive crushing "behemoth" it once was. For example even Froome totally benefitted from diversifying his GT portfolio & winning the Vuelta/Giro when that was unthinkable just 15 years ago for guys who won the Tour (i.e. who viewed other GT's as crud by comparison).

So nope, perhaps the Vuelta once was the lesser GT by far, but now? And considering the competition at this level (Bernal will be there)? I think the Tour result is disappointing, but that will quickly be forgotten "if" Roglic can take Vuelta number 3 next month.

For us it might be different, from a financial or mainstream point of view the Tour still crushes every other race by far, far.
 
I don't think so, certainly not when we're talking about multiple GT victories.

Just compare Roglic to some of the Tour winners of the past 20 years with a single victory, i.e. would anyone say these guys had better careers & more prestige than Primoz Roglic? For example Wiggins, Evans, Sastre, Thomas or Pereiro. I'd take 3 Vuelta wins in this era (& all of Roglic' other victories) over 1 Tour win.

I also think in this current cycling epoch where races are televised on Eurosport & easily accessible everywhere, the Tour de France is no longer the massive crushing "behemoth" it once was. For example even Froome totally benefitted from diversifying his GT portfolio & winning the Vuelta/Giro when that was unthinkable just 15 years ago for guys who won the Tour (i.e. who viewed other GT's as crud by comparison).

So nope, perhaps the Vuelta once was the lesser GT by far, but now? And considering the competition at this level (Bernal will be there)? I think the Tour result is disappointing, but that will quickly be forgotten "if" Roglic can take Vuelta number 3 next month.
We might finally get Bernal vs Pogacar vs Roglic but none of them should even be bothering cause it's only La Vuelta.
 
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And the winner of that battle might just get the Vélo D'or... like last year's Vuelta winner.

No chance for Roglić to win Velo d'Or with the season he's having unless he dominates the Olympics + Vuelta. Pogačar is the main favourite after LBL + Tour win but I wouldn't look past Van Aert in that battle with Olympics, Worlds and Roubaix still to come.
 
If Roglič will be healthy and motivated then Vuelta 2021 makes sense. Otherwise no. As for the future GT races. For Roglič and JV Tour is likely something that comes naturally and he will likely do the Tour in at least the next two seasons. Hence he might not do Giro in this time frame.

If rumours JV is signing Rohan Dennis are true, that would be welcomed. Tony does a great job protecting Primož, but once race organiser eliminates Tony, troubles emerge. Here Rohan would be a perfect fit. Lets say Sonny takes a swing Liston will hit back. During such moments Wout van Aert is occupied with other things and this likely won't change anytime soon.

On GT races it looks like Pogačar will be his main rival. JV will need to figure some things out. Like neutralise the attack. Some tempo riding by Kuss and Vingegaard might do. As such pressure will happen more than once or twice per GT race fit Kruijswijk and/or Dumoulin would be much appreciated.

Roglič should get a bit of the stomp back. Starting on smaller races. No special reason on why a healthy and motivated Roglič wouldn't be able to do what he already did a stellar job at in the past, including Pogačar.
 
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