Teams & Riders Team Visma - Lease a Bike

[CyclistAbi]

Tour is still lightyears away. If healthy then Vingegaard and van Aert are likely a sure thing. Beyond that it's anyone's guess. What will likely happen is after Giro things will get evaluated and for the selection to be made. Bringing Kuss to Giro shows JV is really committed to this goal. Thinking about Tour in definitives at this point is premature. As Giro takes precedence.

 

[YavorD]

I don't think Sepp Kuss will have a problem to the Giro-Tour. Usually helpers are okay with doing 2 GT's, plus he's been doing the Vuelta after the Tour 3 years in a row, always good enough to help Roglic there.
So as long as they don't keep him as a second option, he may easily cruise first part of the Giro. He may as well turn in only for Monte Lussari, should be steep enough for him.

I really wouldn't risk sending Vingegaard with only Kruijswijk and Wilco as a mountain domesiques. And the classics 4 or 5 are a lock.

 

[CyclistAbi]

He may as well turn in only for Monte Lussari, should be steep enough for him.

On that stage Kuss can't be much of a dom due to it being an ITT.

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

There seems to be some kind of „curse“ on Kelderman. He crashes oftenly, and as soon as he crashes, he is out for weeks or months. It has happened so often, now.

Teams now will become more cautious when negotiating contracts. You can sign the best rider - if he is injured half of the time, it‘s still a problem.

I saw Kelderman‘s 2023 Tirreno crash and thought, „OK, good, this time it was not this bad - he will be able to continue the race 100%“…

Now, he had to leave Tirreno, was out, and cannot even compete in May (at least not at the Giro)… I feel sorry for him, because he will feel depressed, again.

His Tirreno crash few weeks ago really looked so harmless. You have guys like Jakobsen, surviving terribly violent crashes like the one in Poland 2020, just to come back and win Green Jerseys and European Championships. And then there‘s Kelderman, and maybe Gesink, and others, who really seem to suffer of some kind of curse…

 

[Valv.Piti]

Giro-Tour is optimal for a rider like Kuss who really doesn't offer much of anything else than support in the high mountains and can take big breaks throughout a stage race because his only job is to help on mountain stages. Jumbo-Visma understands that, and they understand that supporting a rider like Roglic is extremely important - the Giro is a major race, but you also have to pay the man some respect for what he has done for your team, even though he didn't win the big thing and probably never will.

Of course, all that could backfire in July, but chances are it wont.

 

[Rackham]

Giro-Tour is optimal for a rider like Kuss who really doesn't offer much of anything else than support in the high mountains and can take big breaks throughout a stage race because his only job is to help on mountain stages. Jumbo-Visma understands that, and they understand that supporting a rider like Roglic is extremely important - the Giro is a major race, but you also have to pay the man some respect for what he has done for your team, even though he didn't win the big thing and probably never will.

Of course, all that could backfire in July, but chances are it wont.

Roglič needs Kuss more than Vingegaard does. Yesterday's Itzulia demonstration shows it'll be Pog versus Vinge mano-a-mano in July & everyone else will get dropped super fast when they drop the watts bombs.

Vingegaard will be at most risk on the flat stages tbh, hence why Jumbo will take a strong classics core to the Tour.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Personally i don't believe that Kuss would get delegated to Giro roster only based on the past achievements and due to paying some respect to Roglič. Furthermore i don't feel that Roglič has all that much against the strongest possible in Tour form Vingegaard. If both end up participating this year. Another detail from Itzulia. At Dauphiné 22 it was widely suggested Jonas was looking back all the time. Not to drop Rogla. It turns out it was more of a riding style thing after all.

 

[Rackham]

Personally i don't believe that Kuss would get delegated to Giro roster only based on the past achievements and due to paying some respect to Roglič. Furthermore i don't feel that Roglič has all that much against the strongest possible in Tour form Vingegaard. If both end up participating this year. Another detail from Itzulia. At Dauphiné 22 it was widely suggested Jonas was looking back all the time. Not to drop Rogla. It turns out it was more of a riding style thing after all.

I think Kuss was consulted as well. Jumbo isn't a dictatorship where riders get sent into GT's they don't want to ride, so they'll have made the decision with Kuss himself agreeing to ride the Giro. Otherwise a rider isn't going to do well at all if he's half-hearted about the whole selection.

As for Vingegaard, he's an extremely aggressive rider with a certain amount of twitchiness. He's got an Alaphilippe vibe going on which I haven't seen mentioned much but it's there. He's super fast to jump on someone's wheel, look around, jump on a wheel again, fight for position & look around some more.

 

[CyclistAbi]

@Rackham

I agree that riders get consulted. With my post i was leaning more in the direction of this being a thing in the first place. Kuss going to Giro alongside Roglič. That can't only be due to respect to past achievements. Expectations are much higher.

As for Jonas now being the next Alaphilippe. Best to wait and see. This years Itzulia lacked both ITT and some really hard climbs. Jonas won it convincingly. Beyond that is hard to draw a whole lot of conclusions. What we can say is cyclists like López, Evenepoel, Vingegaard, Pogačar and Roglič all won a stage race in this spring campaign rather convincingly. Hence they should be on track for the GT season.

 

[Red Rick]

Yeah I largely agree. It makes a lot of sense to bring Kuss to the Giro if Kelderman can't race it.

• I think Jumbo is quite serious about wanting to win the Giro, and it's not just "sigh Primoz, if you really want to go to the Giro we'll let you"
• Roglic needs a team, and the Giro squad is was kinda suss and light on climbers where you really need Kelderman to be really good cauce otherwise Roglic may find himself alone in a 20 man group too often.
• Kuss can do back to back GTs at a high level, especially if he can take his sleepy days.
• Kuss sacrifices a designated leader spot for Romandie and Switserland, but I can see maybe the situation arise that he gets a chance to stagehunt should the right stage go to a breakaway

I'd think the only alternative to switching Kuss to the Giro is switching Kruijswijk, and Kruijswijk has a slightly lower peak, is more prone to crashing, and is honestly still building back form from last years Tour crash, so he's probably better for the 2nd climber domestique than Kuss.

There's only 2 issues I see, and they're somewhat minor.

• Kuss needs to prepare for the Giro, is the timeline long enough to get there in good shape? I would think it should be, he last raced in Catalunya and he'd only be like 2 weeks late to do really Giro specific schedule
• Do they bring Kelderman to the Tour or not? I'm actually thinking they won't do that. I think backup leader in Giro is the sort of stuff Kelderman signed up for, he doesn't like the Tour that much I think, and my guess it's more likely he'll just go for Switserland and later Vuelta.

 

[noob]

I think Kuss was consulted as well. Jumbo isn't a dictatorship where riders get sent into GT's they don't want to ride, so they'll have made the decision with Kuss himself agreeing to ride the Giro. Otherwise a rider isn't going to do well at all if he's half-hearted about the whole selection.

As for Vingegaard, he's an extremely aggressive rider with a certain amount of twitchiness. He's got an Alaphilippe vibe going on which I haven't seen mentioned much but it's there. He's super fast to jump on someone's wheel, look around, jump on a wheel again, fight for position & look around some more.

Never thought anyone else had thought of Alaphilippe when watching Jonas. I have. For a long time! I see it in the body languge and "itchiness" on their bikes. I imagine they were a pain in school running around up the walls in a the class room because of all that high energy

 

[CyclistAbi]

With Kruijswijk i don't feel that they would have a dom on Sepp terrain. If Kelderman will go to the Tour or not. I feel that that is anyone's guess ATM. I don't believe the Tour roster is set or will be set until after the Giro.

 

[Open Horizon]

Kelderman unfit for the Giro, Van Baarle sick for De Ronde and crashing out of Roubaix.

This coming after the Dumoulin disaster, it seems Jumbo's big Dutch signings are cursed.

 

[KZD]

Well I would say that the team seems cursed in monuments. Since 2020 when they won both MSR and LBL they haven't won a single monument and I don‘t think that they will win either LBL or Il Lombardia this season even though they have some chances in the latter. This of course is in stark contrast to shorter classics and stage races (including Grand Tours) were they are the most successful team around.

I suspect that their training method could be behind their lack of monument wins though but atleast in Roubaix they had no luck in the last two years.

 

[Red Rick]

Well I would say that the team seems cursed in monuments. Since 2020 when they won both MSR and LBL they haven't won a single monument and I don‘t think that they will win either LBL or Il Lombardia this season even though they have some chances in the latter. This of course is in stark contrast to shorter classics and stage races (including Grand Tours) were they are the most successful team around.

I suspect that their training method could be behind their lack of monument wins though but atleast in Roubaix they had no luck in the last two years.

Competition in monuments has been extremely high since 2021 started. Arguably in 2021 they simply didn't get Van Aert in optimal shape to Vlaanderen and Roubaix, and maybe the raced Roglic too hard before Liege and Lombardia, but after that I don't think there's any such issues.

 

[DNP-Old]

Pretty much every rider of the classic core is having career bests this spring, so I don't think preparation is the issue. Tactically, they made some questionable calls in De Ronde, but they made the best out of the situation yesterday after Laporte went down. They did fine in that regard, just did not have the luck that's needed in such a race, twice even.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

the level of competition is just insane atm. I don't think Jumbo did much wrong.

 

[Wyndbrook]

Unfortunately for them they have just been beaten in each monument by a rider who was just better than them on the day.
Other than signing VdP and Pog theres nothing they could have done.

The only race they currently appear to not be focusing on is Liege.

 

[Red Rick]

the level of competition is just insane atm. I don't think Jumbo did much wrong.

Having only Van Hooydonck in that Ronde attack was a big mistake. If that's Laporte then you can really win from that group and Van Aert never has to take a pull with Pog or MvdP

 

[Salvarani]

Unfortunately for them they have just been beaten in each monument by a rider who was just better than them on the day.
Other than signing VdP and Pog theres nothing they could have done.

The only race they currently appear to not be focusing on is Liege.

Roglic won it in 2020 and Van Aert finished third last year, so it is not like they been terrible in the past three editions.

Van Aert probably rides again this year? He will be motivated.

Both Benoot and Valter could be in the top 10 on a good day.

If Roglic also rides, then they have one of the strongest teams... which is pretty incredible if they appear to not be targeting it.

 

[Red Rick]

Roglic won it in 2020 and Van Aert finished third last year, so it is not like they been terrible in the past three editions.

Van Aert probably rides again this year? He will be motivated.

Both Benoot and Valter could be in the top 10 on a good day.

If Roglic also rides, then they have one of the strongest teams... which is pretty incredible if they appear to not be targeting it.

I guess they shat the bed in not managing Roglic' injury so he couldn't race LBL. Rog was pretty clear about not racing again before the Giro.

I don't think anyone is gonna be close to Pogacar and Evenepoel.

 

[Netserk]

Van Aert probably rides again this year?

I don't think so: “But I was good and I am happy to end the spring with a good performance".

 

[Salvarani]

I don't think so: “But I was good and I am happy to end the spring with a good performance".

That does not sound very promising, but it could maybe change in the coming week or so.

 

[CyclistAbi]

At Flanders a crash prevented from achieving more. At PR two key riders had 4 flats combined. Likely there was an error in judgement involved. In regards to tires. And on top of that van Baarle is out with an injury. Not all that much to be happy about. Hopefully things to turn around for the better next year.

 

[cen]

I really wish Roglic gave Flenche one more try but it goes against his schedule..