The final pieces are coming together for the 2024 Jumbo-Visma outfit with their remaining signings and eventual team name for next season yet to be revealed.
The Dutch side were dominant throughout this season and took wins at all three Grand Tours, but Sporting Director Merijn Zeeman has expressed this unprecedented triple won’t be a goal for the coming year.
Zeeman also laid out the bare bones of a plan in conversation with NOS to achieve the only key objective missed by the Dutch team in their historic season, a win at either the Tour of Flanders or Paris Roubaix.
“Win three [Grand] Tours? That will no longer be the objective in 2024,” said Zeeman. "What was good enough this year will not be good enough next year.
"We have to realize that the competition does not sit still. We will really have to continue to evolve and innovate, otherwise, there will come a time when the rest will pass us by."
Bart Lemmen was the most recent addition to the squad after Matteo Jorgenson and Ben Tulett joined from Movistar and Ineos Grenadiers respectively. And with the development team trio of Loe van Belle, Per Strand Hagenes and Johannes Staune-Mittet all stepping up to WorldTour level, the team's roster is up to 27 riders.
Visma-Lease a Bike is reportedly going to be the team name as the Pon-owned leasing company comes in to bolster the team’s budget after the merger/takeover with Soudal-QuickStep failed to materialise.
“It's not completely finished yet, we're working on it. I'm still working on a few men. We expect to announce them in the coming weeks,” said Zeeman. “Enough has already been said and written, but I think Richard Plugge will soon come with great news.”
Flanders and Roubaix
Zeeman also relished the challenge the team faces to compete with Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) if they are to win either of the cobbled Monuments in 2024 with Classics leader Wout van Aert.
“Pogačar and Mathieu [Van der Poel] in particular did not make it easy for us, to use an understatement. They were really a lot better than us in the Tour of Flanders,” said Zeeman.
“We have to come up with a trick to beat them. That is a nice challenge, that is also what sport is about. It is up to us to make a good plan in the coming weeks.”
Van Aert, a Flandrian himself hailing from Herentals, came closest to winning De Ronde in 2020 in a photo finish with Van der Poel, but since then has either been off the pace of his long-term rival and Tadej Pogačar or missed out due to COVID-19.
The Belgian race will of course remain a dream of his, but Zeeman believes Paris-Roubaix is the better option for Van Aert given how only a puncture stood in the way of a famous battle developing in the Roubaix Velodrome with eventual winner Van der Poel.
“In Paris-Roubaix, I think he is really Mathieu's equal. There it just depends on how things turn out and the bad luck factor also plays a role,” said Zeeman.
“So Roubaix is definitely the race that suits him best. But the Tour of Flanders is something very special for him, so we will do everything we can for it again next year. Because it is the most difficult match for us to win.”
The Belgian will have the added support on the cobbles of young American, Matteo Jorgenson, who finished fourth at the E3 Saxo Classic behind the tremendous trio of Van Aert, Van der Poel and Pogačar and ninth at the Tour of Flanders.
He'll likely make up part of a super squad in the Cobbled Classics alongside Dylan van Baarle, Jan Tratnik, Tiesj Benoot, Edoardo Affini, Christophe Laporte and Van Aert, with the essential aim of claiming a Monument in the sprint.
As a squad they were prolific in Belgium from Opening Weekend onwards, winning all of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, E3 Saxo Classic, Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen, but missed out on the big one into Oudenaarde.
"We have brought together many ambitious riders and deep in their hearts they all want to win themselves, but we continuously approach cycling as a team sport. That is essentially what we stand for,” said Zeeman.
"That starts with inspiring, and very emphatically making plans and strategies together. So that everyone feels part of that and wants to feel part of it. Continuously convey that you will win the Tour de France together, that you will win a Classic together. That is now so deep and we continue to insist on that together."
