Success comes on foot and goes on horseback. Jumbo-Visma won the 3 Grand Tours in 2023, a year later Visma-Lease a Bike cannot chase away the dark clouds. Will the top team in this Tour de France become outsiders for yellow or will Jonas Vingegaard rise like a phoenix from the ashes?
“It seems like they used up all their karma points last year.”
Even the Netherlands’ most famous cycling analyst Thijs Zonneveld had to scratch his head after yet another sledgehammer in the Dauphiné.
How much bad luck can you accept as a team? If 2023 was almost too good to be true, 2024 is, as it were, too miserable to take for granted.
Visma-Lease a Bike, the team that figures out everything from A to Z – the plan, you know – has had to constantly change its scenario in recent months.
Even before the latest proposal had gained credence, the scrap of paper could be thrown back into the trash bin. Code yellow has been code fire red for quite some time.
Lots of overtime is spent at the drawing board. How many versions of the plan are already in circulation? The conclave with the Dutch masterminds would really be a ratings bomb.
The spring of Visma-Lease a Bike largely fell through.
GC Kuss
At the end of last year, Visma-Lease a Bike already put its eight players on the table for the Tour. Jonas Vingegaard would be supported in his hunt for a clean hat trick by Sepp Kuss, Steven Kruijswijk, Matteo Jorgenson, Dylan van Baarle, Christophe Laporte, Tiesj Benoot and Jan Tratnik.
We will not rattle off the seemingly endless list of injuries and illnesses again, but anyone who has followed the Dutch household in recent months knows that only Kuss – as far as we know – has escaped the deluge of adversity.
Unfortunately, peanut butter: in the Dauphiné the sick American – still more superdomestique than leader – struggled with his form curve.
After the Vuelta, Kuss hinted that his appearance as leader was in need of more, but GC Kuss is already gathering dust again almost a year later.
Can Sepp Kuss step up as Jonas Vingegaard’s stand-in?
95 percent
After the Dauphiné, Kruijswijk and Van Baarle were permanently deleted, poster boy Vingegaard was a doubtful case until last week and the sporting cell did not hesitate for a second when Wout van Aert himself offered his services.
Visma-Lease a Bike will of course not be a follower between Florence and Nice, but the fact that guys like Bart Lemmen, Ben Tulett and Koen Bouwman were mentioned as potential Tour participants according to the fanfare says something about how the wasps suddenly ended up with the low-hanging fruit.
Ex-rider Tom Dumoulin even formulated “a plan D”. If Vingegaard is not ripe and Van Aert is not feeling well, why shouldn’t sprinter Olav Kooij be thrown to the lions as a stage hijacker?
The final eight remains impressive, although it is not reinforced concrete. With Van Aert and Kelderman as luxury substitutes you do not compromise on quality, but the foundations are fragile.
Visma-Lease a Bike realizes that it cannot lose face by only sending Vingegaard and/or Van Aert to Florence at half speed, but how much can you as a superpower afford to swim along as possible cannon fodder in the biggest race of the year? ?
There has been a race against time in Tignes in recent weeks. Can you even devise a flawless strategy like in previous editions if – as communication goes – you only decided at the last minute whether the green light would be given to the leaders?
For those who have already forgotten: Vingegaard has not raced since the beginning of April and that damned sinking of the Olaeta. He spent more than 10 days in a Spanish hospital.
This contains inserted content from a social media network that wants to write or read cookies (Instagram). You have not given permission for this.
Click here to still allow this
From enemy to ally?
The think tank around nest leaver Merijn Zeeman is being challenged more than ever before. The Dutch strategist will at least want to pass on his child with his head held high. The doomsday scenario must be averted.
Innovation is the mantra for the yellow shirts, but this year they will have to be very creative. They have to approach the Grand Départ as underdogs, but it is precisely from that angle that they can strike razor sharply. Said Zeeman: “Last year there was pressure, now there is a lot of excitement.”
Only in the coming weeks will the outside world be able to find out the truth, but for now only our own household knows how refined Jonas Vingegaard will race.
The new shirts from Visma-Lease a Bike for the Tour.
The Dane may have a backpack full of doubts himself, but those doubts and reservations also exist among the competition. How should they assess Vingegaard? That guesswork will also occupy Pogacar and co. Everyone is in the dark and that plays into the Danish hands.
If a supreme Vingegaard won last year with a margin of 7’29”, can you completely write off the Dane at roughly 95 percent?
Time (read: the final week is Vingegaard’s center of gravity and often the strongest week) can turn from enemy into ally, unless of course Vingegaard has already been dealt a gigantic blow in the first part. It can therefore be guessed that the opposition will put him on the roster in the first few days.
A new Tour victory would be a major stunt, completely against cycling logic. But in 2024, the classic script no longer exists and Visma-Lease a Bike has already extensively proven that it can write history.
With Vingegaard as the author of a new bestseller? If one team has known for several months that things can turn quickly…
Related:
Tour de France
ridedatestart – finishtyperidetotalwinnerleader
1
29/06 Florence – Rimini
206 km
2
30/06 Cesenatico – Bologna
198,7 km
3
01/07 Piacenza – Turijn
230,8 km
4
02/07 Pinerolo – Valloire
139,6 km
5
03/07 Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne – Saint-Vulbas
177,4 km
6
04/07 Macon – Dijon
163,5 km
7
05/07 Nuits-Saint-Georges – Gevrey-Chambertin
25,3 km
8
06/07 Semur-en-Auxois – Colombey-les-Deux-Églises
183,4 km
9
07/07 Troyes – Troyes
199 km
rest day 08/07
10
09/07 Orléans – Saint-Amand-Montrond
187,3 km
11
10/07 Évaux-les-Bains – Le Lioran
211 km
12
11/07 Aurillac – Villeneuve-sur-Lot
203,6 km
13
12/07 Agent – Pau
165,3 km
14
13/07 Pau – Pla d’Adet
151,9 km
15
14/07 Loudenvielle – Plateau de Beille
197,7 km
rest day 15/07
16
07/16 Gruissan – Nîmes
188,6 km
17
17/07 Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux – Superdévoluy
177,8 km
18
07/18 Gap – Barcelonnette
179,5 km
19
19/07 Embrun – Isola 2000
144,6 km
20
20/07 Nice – Col de la Couillole
132,8 km
21
21/07 Monaco – Nice
33,7 km
2024-06-25 05:32:51
#favorites #Tour #Jonas #Vingegaards #race #clock
