Grischa Niermann: Following setbacks, Visma-Lease a Bike are moving in the right direction 🐝
Simon Yates has recovered from a crash in training ahead of Tirreno-Adriatico, as Vingegaard and Jorgenson spearhead Paris-Nice ambitions
Although Visma-Lease a Bike may not have commenced the season at full throttle, sports director Grischa Niermann is confident that the Dutch squad is on the verge of finding its form as it aims for consecutive victories in Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice.
Visma-Lease a Bike made history last season by becoming the first team to win both races in the same year, thanks to Jonas Vingegaard in Italy and Matteo Jorgenson in France. Both riders have teamed up to compete in Paris-Nice this week. They successfully completed stage 1 unscathed, with Jorgenson even earning bonus seconds.
New signing Simon Yates will make his team debut at Tirreno-Adriatico on Monday. Despite a recent crash, the team hopes the British rider can regain his form as the race progresses. Olav Kooij is also in Italy, targeting stage wins, while Cian Uijtdebroeks could also play an important role in the race.
“The goal is always to win every race that we do. Last year was the first time that a team ever won Paris-Nice and Tirreno. Of course, we’ll try to do that again, but we’ll see how it goes. The guys are fit, although Simon had some setbacks in the last few weeks, but he’s still good for Tirreno, where we also have Olav for the sprints, and clearly in Paris-Nice we come with Jonas and the winner from last year, so we want to be competitive,” Niermann told us.
“Simon had a little crash on the altitude camp a few days ago. He’s not 100 percent fit but it’s all good again. We have to see how he goes in Tirreno. He’s very motivated to take his first races with us, and we’ll take it day by day,” he added.