Bruyneel criticizes Visma: "They're too focused on the small details and lose the essence of bike racing"

With the E3 Saxo Classic and Gent-Wevelgem, the Holy Week began, and we saw Mathieu van der Poel and Mads Pedersen, two riders who rode solo to victory and made a big impression. But some teams and riders made less of an impression. In the podcast, TheMove, Johan Bruyneel looks back on the past weekend and certainly does not mince his words.

Bruyneel, former US Postal team manager, did not see Team Visma | Lease a Bike live up to expectations during the E3 Saxo Classic. "Something is not right at Visma | Lease a Bike. It goes wrong too often in the spring classics, so we can conclude that it is not working. In other races, they do well, but it does not work out in the classics. I do not know what it is."

Bruyneel thinks that van Aert should have competed in Gent-Wevelgem

Van Aert, who made his comeback in the Belgian spring classic, did not stand out last Friday. The Belgian finally finished in fifteenth place, which many analysts attributed to a lack of race rhythm. There was much criticism of the decision not to let Van Aert start in Gent-Wevelgem. Bruyneel also disagreed. "Personally, I believe that Wout van Aert should have been at the start of Gent-Wevelgem."

"They have a plan they do not deviate from under any circumstances. They are unable to adapt to the circumstances. I see that with more teams," the 60-year-old Belgian continues. "At Visma, they are very rigid, focusing on the plan and the small things. The extremely short 150-cranks are an example of this. They're too focused on the small details and lose the essence of bike racing."

Read more below!

Can Van Aert still impress in the coming weeks?

Van Aert stands no chance against Van der Poel and Pogacar, according to Bruyneel

Bruyneel also believes that Visma | Lease a Bike is no longer among the top three teams of the spring. "Alpecin-Deceuninck and Lidl-Trek are the complete opposite. They also pay attention to detail but race and adapt to the circumstances. Visma is not succeeding in this. Normally, they would be among the three dominant teams in these competitions, but that is not the case now."

But can the Dutch team still turn the situation around? The analyst does not think so: "It will not be easy in the big Monuments coming up. After all, miracles do not happen in cycling. Jorgenson and Van Aert are the big men at Visma, but I don't believe they can touch the level of Van der Poel, Pogacar, Ganna, and Pedersen in Flanders and Roubaix. Van Aert simply doesn't have the legs right now."

Read also

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Cycling legend De Vlaeminck doesn't hold back criticism: from "Van der Poel sat in the wheels for 250 kilometers" to "We used to ride all the races too"

🎥 Visma | Lease a Bike loses Kooij for the time being — a major blow, but what exactly happened?

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