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Teams & Riders Team Visma - Lease a Bike

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Kruijswijk has been written off a thousand times, and he always returns to a good level. Benoot I would personally replace by Gesink, who controlled a couple of stages in the Vuelta pretty much on his own and will ride his final year. Benoot is not a natural domestique, Gesink has long ago resigned himself to his new role.
Yeah, but 2019 simply is 5 years ago in 2014 and Kruijswijk has been around since 2011 on top level.
 
Yeah, but 2019 simply is 5 years ago in 2014 and Kruijswijk has been around since 2011 on top level.
The team knows what he can do. If he's fit they'll always take him to the Tour. They did so last year, wanted to this year but he got injured beforehand. People tend to forget since he crashes a little too often but when healthy he's probably their third or fourth best climber behind Vingegaard, Kuss, and possibly Kelderman.
 
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Kruijswijk has been written off a thousand times, and he always returns to a good level. Benoot I would personally replace by Gesink, who controlled a couple of stages in the Vuelta pretty much on his own and will ride his final year. Benoot is not a natural domestique, Gesink has long ago resigned himself to his new role.
You dont need both Kruijswijk and Gesink.

Benoot has very good experience in the Tour and has been part of both their victories. He is all-round and goes well on multiple terrain. He is perfect to send up the road and ride in the breakaway. Especially since UAE will likely try to send 1-2 guys some days as well.

Keep Kuss, Kruijswijk and Kelderman with Vinge.

While Laporte, Tratnik and Van Baarle pace the peloton.

Gesink is likely Vuelta-bound and only stand-by for the Tour.
 
You dont need both Kruijswijk and Gesink.

Benoot has very good experience in the Tour and has been part of both their victories. He is all-round and goes well on multiple terrain. He is perfect to send up the road and ride in the breakaway. Especially since UAE will likely try to send 1-2 guys some days as well.

Keep Kuss, Kruijswijk and Kelderman with Vinge.

While Laporte, Tratnik and Van Baarle pace the peloton.

Gesink is likely Vuelta-bound and only stand-by for the Tour.
Gesink is different these days, he's not really a climber anymore. Totally different than Kruijswijk. With Van Hooydonck gone they need someone to pace them for the first 100 k of mountain stages. Gesink can perfectly fulfill that role, as we've seen in the Vuelta. In the Tourmalet stage even for almost the entire day.
 
Gesink is different these days, he's not really a climber anymore. Totally different than Kruijswijk. With Van Hooydonck gone they need someone to pace them for the first 100 k of mountain stages. Gesink can perfectly fulfill that role, as we've seen in the Vuelta. In the Tourmalet stage even for almost the entire day.
Laporte, Tratnik and Van Baarle more than capable of doing that.
 
You dont need both Kruijswijk and Gesink.

Benoot has very good experience in the Tour and has been part of both their victories. He is all-round and goes well on multiple terrain. He is perfect to send up the road and ride in the breakaway. Especially since UAE will likely try to send 1-2 guys some days as well.

Keep Kuss, Kruijswijk and Kelderman with Vinge.

While Laporte, Tratnik and Van Baarle pace the peloton.

Gesink is likely Vuelta-bound and only stand-by for the Tour.
Kuss, Kruijswijk and Kelderman. What a trio. Should we start calling them the KKK?
 
Well, no. At some point Gesink was there until the group was about 10 to 15 riders. With all due respect to Laporte, I can't see him doing that. He'll probably be used more as a bodyguard... another of Van Hooydonck's tasks.
But they dont need Gesink to be there for that long. Not with all the others. The Tour is way different from the Vuelta.

Kruijswijk, Kelderman, Kuss and probably Van Baarle could all be there.

Laporte and Tratnik will handle the flat and early climbs.

Then probably Benoot as an all-rounder. Send him in breaks to mark other UAE riders. Useful rider to complement the others.

I dont get the adamant suggestion Gesink should be there over any of the others. Of course, he could still be there but not for the reasons you are mentioning.
 
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Jorgenson by benoot, and tratnik by van hooydonck, just this.

Vingegaard
Kuss
Kelderman
Jorgenson
Van aert
Laporte
Van baarle
Tratnik

I think they missed a better climber than Benoot this year, things were great but not perfect, even if Vingegaard won with a great advantage.
 
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Jorgenson by benoot, and tratnik by van hooydonck, just this.

Vingegaard
Kuss
Kelderman
Jorgenson
Van aert
Laporte
Van baarle
Tratnik

I think they missed a better climber than Benoot this year, things were great but not perfect, even if Vingegaard won with a great advantage.
They missed Kruijswijk... not that it mattered whatsoever anyway.

Jorgenson has only done three GTs, none as a top domestic. I would be surprised if he starts the Tour for them this season. He will probably do classics and Giro, imo.

Valter is probably more ahead of starting the Tour, than Jorgenson.
 
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They missed Kruijswijk... not that it mattered whatsoever anyway.

Jorgenson has only done three GTs, none as a top domestic. I would be surprised if he starts the Tour for them this season. He will probably do classics and Giro, imo.

Valter is probably more ahead of starting the Tour, than Jorgenson.
I think jorgenson can be a great climber next year at visma. I think, he will improve a lot, so i think he can be a better climber in july than vallter and Kruijswijk, but visma know better than me.
Maybe Kruijswijk will reborn again next year but he is 36 years.

Kruijswijk was replaced by kelderman. I really doubt that Kruijswijk would do better than kelderman this year, even if kelderman wasn't at his best.
 
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I think jorgenson can be a great climber next year at visma. I think, he will improve a lot, so i think he can be a better climber in july than vallter and Kruijswijk, but visma know better than me.
Maybe Kruijswijk will reborn again next year but he is 36 years.

Kruijswijk was replaced by kelderman. I really doubt that Kruijswijk would do better than kelderman this year, even if kelderman wasn't at his best.

I see Jorgenson more as a Van Baarle 2.0 long-term.

With the gravel-stage in mind, I would pick Benoot or Valter above him.

The order in the team will probably be Kruijswijk, Kelderman and Kuss before Vinge on the climbs.

Kruijswijk can pace a penultimate hard climb on his own and beginning of the last climb.

Jorgenson is still unproven as a top domestic. He only has done three GTs. I think he will do classics and Giro.
 
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Yeah, I'm gonna just call them Visma.

I will call them "Lisa Bike"
Lisa_bike.png
 
What other sports allow team names to be carried exclusively by sponsors? This seems insane to me
Because it is a logistical nightmare and very expensive. The sport has always needed sponsoring for all the equipment, traveling and organisers making the races happen.

Where does the income come from? Tv rights? Ticket prices from the audience that attends the races? Merch?

It is not football or any sport that takes place in an arena. It uses the infrastructure that everyone in the world uses.

I mean most motorsports and so on are carried by sponsors.

A lot of other sports use advertising to finance, tv-rights and contributions from the government or other commitees.

It is all just entertainment.
 
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It might be a fun thought exercise, though, to estimate what the teams would be called without the use of the sponsor names.

Would they use the name of the company who owns the team? For the Belgian teams that would be:
  • Decolef (Luxembourg based) for Soudal Quick-Step;
  • Captains of Cycling for Lotto-Dstny;
  • Continuum Sports Belgium for Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert;
  • Wielerteam Cyclismo Mundial for Alpecin-Deceuninck.
Or would they use a location based name like in most sports or maybe just made up names like The Wolfpack or The Empire?