Visma-Lease a Bike’s MASTERPLAN To DOMINATE In 2024

Visma-Lease a Bike’s MASTERPLAN To DOMINATE In 2024

Even though Jumbo-Visma doesn’t exist anymore, we’ve got the freshly renamed Visma-Lease a Bike, and while their name is different, their goals are the same. They want to repeat the historic 2023 season, not only with some new-look jerseys, but with a wild new masterplan that just got confirmed by the team at their media event, looking to assert their dominance in the upcoming season.

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Even though Jumbo-Visma doesn’t exist anymore,  we’ve got the freshly renamed Visma-Lease a Bike,   and while their name is different, their goals are  the same. They want to repeat the historic 2023   season, not only with some new-look jerseys, but  with a wild new masterplan that just got confirmed  

By the team at their media event, looking to  assert their dominance in the upcoming season.  See, Visma-Lease a Bike just sketched out the  roadmap, and looking at it even just slightly,   it’s obvious what their main quest is. To tend  off UAE Team Emirates and Bora-Hansgrohe in  

2024 and keep their position in the comfortable  throne at the top of the men’s World Tour. The   team also presented its women’s continental  and man’s development teams for the 2024,   but what everyone’s been waiting for was the  first look at the new bright yellow Lease a  

Bike-branded jersey for the upcoming season. The Dutch crew is very aware that this upcoming   year will mark a pivotal season for them.  Sure, they did completely rip apart the   entire World Tour in 2023, but that’s when  they had Primož Roglič, and their long-time  

Partner Jumbo in their ranks. Now, both of  them are gone, and while a sponsor swap might   not affect the peloton directly, the exit of  one of the best cyclists in the world could.  The Team Director was clear on their goals for  next year, saying: “You can expect ambitious goals  

From our team. We want to continue creating sports  history, and we will do so if we achieve these   goals together next year”. Perhaps one of the most  expected announcements was that Jonas Vingegaard,   the reigning Tour de France champion, will return  to the Tour to defend his 2023 title. What came as  

A surprise though, is that the team hasn’t yet  decided whether they’ll let Sepp Kuss defend   his red jersey at the Vuelta or not. It would  make sense for Kuss to partner with Vingegaard   and defend his Vuelta a España title, but Zeeman  stated it’s too early to fully confirm the leader  

And their ambitions for the Spanish tour. Regardless though, they made it clear that   keeping both of those two in the team is  their top priority, awarding both of them   long-spanning contract extensions at the event  in Amsterdam. Vingegaard signed a contract  

That books him in until 2028, and the Eagle of  Durango is secured until 2027. With that move,   the team made sure Roglič’s departure won’t  make them go short of grand tour captains and   ensured a bright future. But it wasn’t only  the men’s team that holds the potential. The  

Multi-discipline ace Fem van Empel also signed  an extension with the women’s team through 2027.  What’s also important is that the riders love  being with Visma-Lease a Bike as well. Kuss   openly admitted that the team is like a family and  it feels like home, claiming that the excellent  

Results they’ve achieved, and his personal victory  at the Vuelta as well, are clear proof of that. He   also said it’s a good feeling to be able to build  on this for the coming years, and that together,   they’ll be even more successful. But even  though they’re a family, Kuss and Vingegaard  

Are clearly positioned at the center of the  squad, which showed on their presentation,   where they sat alongside the team CEO Richard  Plugge and their sport director Merijn Zeeman.  But the two champions are far from the only thing  Visma have. There’s also the great Wout van Aert,  

Who will tread a new path in the next season. He’s  set to lead the team through the northern classics   and focus on a little something he’s been wanting  for quite some time. A cobbled monument title at   Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. After that,  Wout will enter the Giro d’Italia, where rather  

Than going for the GC, he will hunt stages, making  it one competitor less for Tadej Pogačar’s Giro   dream. He will still be a co-captain though,  alongside the sensational sprinter Olav Kooij,   who finally got the chance to make his grand  tour debut and show what he’s really made of. 

Wout said: “It’s exciting to explore the Giro,  I hope to win a stage, or maybe more than one.   It’s a tough course. It’s a different approach  than usual for me, but I’m looking forward to   going to the Giro and picking my days.” He’s  still aware this is the Giro lite though,  

And it seems almost inevitable for him to  claim some stages. He also hinted at entering   the Vuelta a España as well, but we’ll see what  his wild new program for 2024 takes us through.  But see, Visma-Lease a Bike isn’t simply relying  on their established talent for 2024. They already  

Confirmed that their newly signed American talent  Matteo Jorgenson will lead the team at Paris-Nice   and then move straight to the role of a domestique  for the others at both the classics and the Tour   de France. And looking at his portfolio of  top-tier results in the northern classics,  

It’s expected that Matteo will be one of the  key wingmen to Van Aert’s northern classics run.  There’s one more important thing to mention  though. Cian Uijtdebroeks attended Visma’s   event, after their high-profile fight with  Bora-Hansgrohe, in its efforts to sign the  

Young star. And while Uijtdebroeks was presented  as a Visma rider for 2024, he was registered as   under contract with Bora-Hansgrohe for 2024 on the  UCI website, which had fans going wild. However,   UCI recently released a statement which says:  “The UCI has taken note of the agreement reached  

Between Belgian rider Cian Uijtdebroeks, his  current team Bora-Hansgrohe and his future team,   Visma-Lease a Bike. Having received the  documentation relating to the agreement,   and in compliance with the rules in force,  the UCI confirms that Cian Uijtdebroeks is   authorized to join the Dutch team from the  coming season.” Therefore, things have been  

Sorted out and he’ll be riding for Visma  in 2024. In fact, the 20-year-old is set to   race his second grand tour at the Giro d’Italia,  following his breakout ride at the 2023 Vuelta.  Even though the men’s team is what pretty much  everyone is talking about, there have also been  

Some notable changes at the top of women’s Visma  squad as well. Their lead staffers Esra Tromp and   Carmen Small both decided to leave the team for  the newly formed EF Education-Cannondale team.   Therefore, the Dutch rider Reijanne Markus is the  one set to lead the team’s ambitions at the Tour  

De France Femmes, which is set to start on her  home soil in a historic first grand depart. As of   right now, there’s no news about Marianne Vos and  her return from the surgery on the iliac artery  

In her left leg. Only Van Empel, who is currently  dominating the CX calendar, spoke briefly at the   event, yet declined to reveal any information  when asked about her road program for 2024.  But while everything might look wonderful,  Visma-Lease a Bike’s got one unavoidable  

Problem they’ll be facing till the very end  of the 2024 season. The pressure to repeat   what they’ve done in 2023. The good thing is that  the team management is well aware of the problem,   and even openly admitted that the pressure  will be on their yellow shoulders in 2024. 

Jumbo-Visma pretty much swept all three grand  tours of the past season and couldn’t be stopped   on the marquee stage races either. However, the  era they’re facing is going to be different from   what they’re used to, especially after Roglič  and Jumbo’s exit, which we already talked about. 

UAE Team Emirates, by far their biggest  competitor, was also active in the transfer marker   and managed to further strengthen their roster  for 2024, where they’re looking for an all-out   push to see their main star, Tadej Pogačar,  score what very little have been able to do.  

A historic Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double. And then, there’s Bora-Hansgrohe. Roglič’s arrival   gives the team a whole new focus, and while it’s  crazy to think about it, Roglič gives them such a   level-up they just have to be seen as a consistent  grand tour contender for the upcoming years. 

Even Visma’s sports director Zeeman admitted  that the Tour de France showdown we’re about   to witness in 2024, between Vingegaard,  Pogačar, Roglič and Remco Evenepoel,   will test the true strength of their team  like never before. In the past two seasons,  

It was really only the UAE Team Emirates that were  competing with them. But now, there’s suddenly 4   teams in the mix, all wanting to come out yellow. Zeeman also said: “It’s going to be very hard.  

Remco is coming up, and we all know what Primož  can do. In the end though, in sport all you can   do is have your plan as good as possible and  prepare as well as possible. We have a fantastic  

Group and a fantastic leader, so we are also very  confident, but it’s going to be very difficult.”  Whether Visma-Lease a Bike can repeat what they’ve  been able to do under the Jumbo-Visma name though,   remains to be seen, and it’ll be in around  10 months when we’ll know whether it was  

Their backer, or their superstar,  that did, or did not do it for them.