Jumbo-Visma performance: Will the cake be cut into equal pieces? | cycling

The check mark was put on July 24.

Thanks to Jonas Vingegaard, Jumbo-Visma has finally obtained its holy grail: the yellow in Paris.

And now?

Jumbo-Visma proudly bears the stamp of the best team, but not all wishes and dreams have yet been fulfilled.

Jumbo-Visma’s most important victories in 2022:

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (Van Aert), 3 stages and overall victory in Paris-Nice (Roglic), E3 Saxo Bank Classic (Van Aert), stage in Tour of the Basque Country (Roglic), 2 stages in the Giro (Bouwman), 3 stages and overall victory in the Dauphiné (Roglic), 6 stages and overall victory in the Tour (Vingegaard), 2 stages in the Vuelta (TTT and Roglic), Bretagne Classic (Van Aert), World Championship time trial (Foss)

Thanks to Primoz Roglic and Wout van Aert, Monuments have already been won in recent years, but Van Aert will not rest until he has finally put the Tour of Flanders and/or Paris-Roubaix on his honors list.

That tea light has also become a blowtorch among his team management. They are also obliged to do so by their status.

No one doubts Van Aert’s capabilities and his team doesn’t seem to have the slightest weak spot either.

What’s more, with Dylan van Baarle, a significant quality injection has been made.

Jumbo-Visma had been courting the pédaleur de charme for a while and a few days after his triumph in Paris-Roubaix, sporting director Merijn Zeeman was on the phone.

The Dutch eagerness convinced Van Baarle, but that he joins the team as winner of Paris-Roubaix is ​​not an unimportant detail.

Will Van Baarle be placed on the same level as Van Aert or is he just one step lower on the yellow ladder?

An issue. And not the only thing.

Anyone who looks at the tactical picture will see that Van Aert always has an extra weapon thanks to his sprint, but that can also return just like a boomerang.

With such a powerful block it often comes down to being the first to leave. The fastest man is sometimes – against will and thanks – imprisoned.

Just ask, say, Tom Boonen and Niki Terpstra. Or to Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel.

If anyone has a nose for the right moment, it’s Van Baarle.

And then we haven’t even mentioned the freedom of movement of especially Christophe Laporte and Tiesj Benoot.

Although Van Aert says he does not see the (possible) problem at all.

He skilfully brushed off the questions about the interaction under the heading of “bullshit”.

Anyway: Jumbo-Visma is more than ever the block to beat in the Flemish Ardennes (but by no means in the Walloon counterpart).

However, if no spring monument is won again, just like in 2022, that will be a blot on the blazon.

In addition to Dylan van Baarle, Jumbo-Visma attracted another Dutch billboard with Wilco Kelderman.

However, the return of old acquaintance Kelderman is at odds with what Zeeman announced a while ago in Helden Magazine.

In it, the Dutch strategist said that his team should no longer attract riders who have already been on the podium of a grand tour.

Read: Jumbo-Visma wants to knead its own choirboys from A to Z. “Young riders can grow with us, we can guide them through the whole process.”

However, Zeeman and co believe that they can get even more out of Kelderman and the Dutch main sponsor is also not insensitive to orange blood.

After the farewell of Tom Dumoulin, a new leader was needed. It has become a double blow.

In the colorful classification company of Jumbo-Visma, Kelderman is scheduled for the Giro as a superdomestic, in Tirreno-Adriatico, among others, he is given a safe conduct.

Assigning everyone a place is certainly a full-fledged task package in itself for the Dutch.

Jonas Vingegaard passed Primoz Roglic after his overall victory in the Tour, but the yellow shirts only reacted lukewarm to the atypical Tour course.

The architects fear that between Bilbao and Paris, with all the predicted unpredictability, they will not be able to make a good return on their qualities.

The Dane was often mentioned in the same breath as the Giro, but in Ride Magazine itself put the dots on the i.

“I want to go back to the Tour. My first feeling was that this was a Tour de France more suited to Tadej Pogacar. But the more I look at the course, the more I discover that the 2023 Tour has me very well located.”

At the team presentation, Vingegaard confirmed that he will pin number 1, but the yellow tandem will be split.

Primoz Roglic indicated in an interview shortly before that his preference was the Tour, but it will be the Giro. Is that change of course completely voluntary?

The doubts of the Slovenian are / were fueled by the long rest period he had to take after shoulder surgery after his fall in the Tour of Spain.

Roglic – already 33 – has been silent for almost 3 months and is in the dark about his condition.

That hard reset may prove to be a blessing in the long run, but a considerable backlog must be cleared up towards May. His agenda is currently limited to the Tour of Catalonia.

No matter how the legs turn: in the Tour there is now only one outspoken leader – a risky gamble? – and the tactical plan asks for an update again.

The first sketches will already have been drawn, although of course they will not show the back of their tongue yet.

• the selection for the Giro: Roglic, Kelderman, Bouwman, Foss, Gesink, Tratnik, Affini, Hessmann
• the selection for the Tour: Vingegaard, Kruijswijk, Kuss, Van Aert, Benoot, Van Baarle, Laporte, Van Hooydonck

bron: wielerflits.nl

At that Dutch drawing board, it will also be noted that the young guard is banging hard on the door.

Not immediately or not all together for the leader, but after his surprising world title in time trial, Tobias Foss will want to prove that there is a full-fledged tour rider in him.

Moreover, during the winter, the Norwegian openly doubted whether he should do so in this environment. “There are so many good leaders here”, was his clear hint. Soon his contract will end.

As a neo-pro, Olav Kooij finished in double figures and may also be looking forward to a grand tour, Koen Bouwman is also more than just a luxury servant after his sneukeltocht in the Giro.

Trainee Thomas Gloag – with Attila Valter and the heavily underestimated Jan Tratnik he completes the list of newcomers – immediately excelled in the Italian autumn and goldcrests Per Strand Hagenes, Johannes Staune-Mittet and Loe van Belle have already been secured for 2024.

Let there be no doubt about it: this Jumbo-Visma looks stronger than ever and is fully occupied with the (distant) future, but can all the roosters in this yard get their share?

Giving everyone a piece of the cake now and then will be the greatest balancing act in 2023.

There is plenty of choice in the Dutch supermarket, but hoarding behavior can be a divisive issue in the long run.

His contract ends in 2023:

Robert Gesink, Rohan Dennis, Steven Kruijswijk, Christophe Laporte, Sam Oomen, Tosh van der Sande, Olav Kooij, Tobias Foss, Edoardo Affini, Gijs Leemreize, among others

bron: procyclingstats.com

View the full cycling calendar in 2023 here.