Intermarché-Wanty not feeling pressure as they search for maiden win of 2025
Aike Visbeek talks about budget disparity, the expense of climbers, transfers, and focusing on the process rather than results
By approximately 4:30 pm CET, this story might become irrelevant. At least the first half, anyway.
If sports director Aike Visbeek has his way, Biniam Girmay will race to victory on stage 3 of the Volta ao Algarve, and Intermarché-Wanty will clinch their first win of the 2025 season.
So far, the team with the smallest WorldTour budget has come close to achieving its first victory, securing several top-ten finishes and podium places, yet no wins as of now. Although it is still early in the season, they remain one of only three men’s WT teams without a road victory this year, the others being XDS Astana and Alpecin-Deceuninck.
At the start of stage 2 in Portugal, we caught up with Visbeek, who was calm yet entirely focused on giving his riders the support they needed to end this mini-drought.
“There’s been a lot of good work, but we still miss the results,” he told us.
“I think there’s been a good level with the new riders, but the coin is falling to the wrong side a few times. Biniam is in really good shape; you could see that in Figueira. In the sprint, he was pushed to the barriers and hit his hand, which prevented him from taking the podium. Step by step, the team is growing, and there was good teamwork from the team on stage 1,” he said.