[ad_1]
Regardless of being based in 2021, the Visma-Lease a Bike girls’s crew went via one thing of a rebirth in 2024: many of the managing and directing workers modified and an emphasis was positioned on bringing the ladies’s squad nearer to the all-conquering males’s crew.
There was not a dramatic change within the rider line-up, however that appears to be coming for 2025 because the crew’s redevelopment continues. They’re saying goodbye to stalwarts Anna Henderson and Riejanne Markus, and welcoming some of the talked-about transfers lately as Pauline Ferrand-Prévot makes her return to street racing after specializing in mountain biking for the final 4 years.
With Ferrand-Prévot being clear that her purpose is to win the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, the ambitions at Visma-Lease a Bike have ramped up dramatically. They’ve been Grand Tour contenders via Riejanne Markus, however by no means actually within the Tour, the place their goals have been extra centered on stage success via Marianne Vos.
“It’s good, eh? It’s at all times good,” the crew’s common supervisor Rutger Tijssen advised Cyclingnews concerning the added strain on the squad’s shoulders for 2025.
“What I actually like is when individuals dare to talk out about what their dream purpose is as a result of then not less than the worst factor that may occur is that you possibly can get actually near it. However making that journey with an athlete like Pauline is very nice. It’s good that she speaks out. I’ve the identical purpose in thoughts as effectively, as a result of as a coach, as a efficiency coach, I at all times try for the best, the best doable achievable purpose in a sport, and when the Tour de France is the largest purpose within the sport then we must always go for that.”
“Sure, [it’s] undoubtedly achievable,” Tijssen continued. “As a result of it begins with having a dream, after which we see how we will create an surroundings to make that dream come true. We imagine within the idea that we have now with the Visma-Lease a Bike crew, I imagine within the athletes that I’ve across the crew. In fact, there will probably be adjustments, that at all times occurs, as we began with the workers as effectively, that’s fairly regular, however when the organisation is there and the construction is there then it’s fairly straightforward to suit new individuals in there.”
The idea and construction throughout the crew are a number of the issues which have modified within the final yr. After the departure of common supervisor Esra Tromp and DS Carmen Small, Visma-Lease a Bike introduced in personnel from the boys’s aspect of the organisation in DS Jos van Emden, and labored on closing the hole between the 2 squads.
The most recent race content material, interviews, options, evaluations and skilled shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
“They began the crew 4 years in the past, they usually began it roughly as a standalone unit,” Tijssen defined. “And alongside the best way the administration noticed that there have been some issues lacking within the communication in the direction of our high-performance centre, the communication in the direction of different coaches, they usually slowly tried to vary that. Now we’re extra in an integration part.
“I’ve entry to all of the assets which might be there, and we don’t speak concerning the males’s crew or the ladies’s crew, we speak about Visma-Lease a Bike as one crew. Sure, we’re extra biking with girls and the others are extra biking with males, but it surely’s not that we have now a girls’s crew and a males’s crew, it’s extra that we have now an enormous organisation and each rider within the organisation has entry to the assets that we have now.”
Tijssen hopes that these adjustments is not going to solely assist their high riders succeed however elevate the entire crew and widen their probabilities of assembly their ambitions.
“It’s not primarily about constructing round Pauline, but it surely’s constructing round that purpose,” he mentioned of the crew’s recruitment and planning for 2025.
“It’s creating an surroundings, mentally and bodily, the place we will actually get near attaining that purpose. Sure after all Pauline will in all probability be our major character in that, however we by no means understand how Fem van Empel goes to develop, possibly she’s going to be alongside her, who knew that Jonas Vingegaard was going to win the Tour de France [in 2022], that was an enormous shock, so it’s not that we intention for it with one individual, however we intention for it as a crew. In fact Pauline is the one who says ‘I need to do this’ which is regular, you must say ‘I need to win this, I need to win that’ however as a crew we take a broader perspective and we began constructing a crew that may be actually, actually good.”
How precisely that crew seems for 2025 isn’t but clear – they solely have 10 confirmed riders on the time of writing – however Tijssen confirmed that they’re taking a look at mixing expertise and youth, after primarily choosing up younger abilities lately. Regardless of being the youthful riders on the crew, Tijssen picked out Maud Oudeman and Rosita Reijnhout as key climbing abilities, and extra signings and renewals are anticipated to be on the best way after their first new additions, neo-pro Imogen Wolff and Viktória Chladoňová.
The piece of the puzzle that may’t be forgotten is that amongst all of the adjustments, the crew nonetheless have their authentic star rider, Marianne Vos. The Dutchwoman has had one in every of her finest seasons in current reminiscence in 2024 and is displaying no indicators of slowing, giving the crew two big-name riders for subsequent yr.
“With Marianne, is it a shock to me that she’s performing? Probably not,” Tijssen mentioned. “We made some decisions, some completely different decisions than she did prior to now. We utterly embedded her within the crew, so every part is from contained in the crew – coaching coach, efficiency plan – in order that’s good for her, that offers a little bit of a relaxation. However you by no means understand how lengthy she will stand on this. I believe if we add one other season to it like this she will probably be performing the identical as this yr as a result of she continues to be keen and hungry for extra outcomes. Why do you have to cease? Age is a quantity and if you happen to’re bodily good and mentally good and also you’re tactically nearly as good as Marianne, then she will do what she’s doing proper now.”
Although Visma-Lease a Bike are in a self-described transition part and have some gaps to fill of their roster for 2025, the crew appears to be on the clearest path we have now seen since its inception, with the foundations to assist the expertise coming their approach this winter.
[ad_2]
Source link
