Teams & Riders Team Visma - Lease a Bike

[Cycling111]

Nordhagen and Cian crashed in France.
The number of crashes Visma riders suffer is incredible.

Between illnesses and crashes, Nordhagen isn't getting off to a good start to the season.
Last year, he missed many days of competition due to illness.

 

[theyoungest]

Nordhagen and Cian crashed in France.
The number of crashes Visma riders suffer is incredible.

Between illnesses and crashes, Nordhagen isn't getting off to a good start to the season.
Last year, he missed many days of competition due to illness.

Nordhagen clipped the back wheel of Uijtdebroeks on the final climb and crashed. I didn't see Uijtdebroeks crash though, he just went backwards.

 

[theyoungest]

I have plenty of hot takes regarding 'formerly' Jumbo. It's a fun topic.

I mean straight off the bat it's sport. High level, no mercy, take-no-prisoners top level sport. Visma were the team to beat and now they're getting beaten. A bit like years ago Quick-Step were the team to beat in classics and now they're 'beaten'.

People are throwing around reasons right now and there's some truth in all of them (loss of Zeeman, injuries, overly scientific approach etc. and whatever else) but honestly I could throw in 'natural passage of time' as well.

Their riders might just not be as strong as they used to be for whatever reasons, i.e. also because it's really freaking hard to maintain that top level for so long. I mean Benoot looks semi cooked compared to a few years ago. Kelderman the same. Their entire TdF 'monster dream team' from 2022/23 looks bang average now. Yates has shown nothing since he joined (no progression) and Kuss has just totally collapsed from his 2023 level.

I also think Jorgenson is being misused (he won a major one day race last year so he's in the classics team when he really should be doing Catalunya/Itzulia and winning stage races. Maybe even doing the Giro as well).

Just my opinion.

Even though this post is already slightly dated because they weren't all that bad in the races since, I'd say that they were performing way above their pay grade for two or three years and now they are not. Also a massive brain drain won't have helped them. Strangely, it doesn't seem to have helped Red Bull to "buy" these brains either, because they're performing even worse so far. Visma's nutrionist went to Ajax though, and they're about to become champions of the Netherlands, so there's that.

Finally I think Visma's dominance was always slightly overstated. For instance, they won all three GTs in one year, but if you look at how they did it... especially the Giro with Roglic, it was a miracle he won because he actually wasn't all that great. In the Vuelta where they filled the entire podium UAE were just ridiculously bad tactically. And in the Monuments Visma weren't much better than they are now.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Strangely, it doesn't seem to have helped Red Bull to "buy" these brains either, because they're performing even worse so far.

In 2024 season they won a GT and were runner up at another one, among some other prominent results. This season stage racing is only really starting so we will see if they can do even better in 2025 season. Fingers crossed!

 

[theyoungest]

In 2024 season they won a GT and were runner up at another one, among some other prominent results. This season stage racing is only really starting so we will see if they can do even better in 2025 season. Fingers crossed!

But they also clearly invested in, and had big ambitions for, the classics season... so far with little to no results. Stage races are another story, but the same goes for Visma of course.