Crying Uijtdebroeks at wit's end, Visma | Lease a Bike must keep calm after apparent relapse

Visma | Lease a Bike had high expectations for the penultimate stage of Tirreno-Adriatico. While Simon Yates seems to be slowly finding his form after a difficult winter, Cian Uijtdebroeks was in tears at the finish after a disappointing performance and significant time loss. The lower back issues that plagued him in 2024 appeared to have resurfaced…

Uijtdebroeks finished 46th, rolling across the line in the only true summit finish of this Tirreno-Adriatico. The 22-year-old Belgian lost 3 minutes and 7 seconds to stage winner Juan Ayuso, crushing his hopes of securing a top-10 finish in the general classification. After a strong opening time trial and recovering from a mistake in Friday’s stage, this was a devastating blow.

But it wasn’t the time loss that hurt him the most—it was the familiar pain in his back, accompanied by numbness in his legs. "This is the first time this year that I’ve had the same symptoms as last season. My heart rate was at 150 or something, but my body just wouldn’t respond. I had that numb feeling in my legs again, just like before. It’s just awful," he said, struggling to hold back tears.

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Uijtdebroeks crosses the finish line empty

Visma | Lease  a Bike and Uijtdebroeks worked hard on his recovery

On the opening day of Tirreno-Adriatico, Cian Uijtdebroeks proudly shared that he had worked tirelessly all winter to overcome a pinched nerve in his lower back. Team director Marc Reef confirmed this to IDLProCycling.com. "We worked a lot and very hard on his position, with exercises, and he had a really strong Tour of Oman. His first stages here were also very good."

When asked what had gone wrong, Uijtdebroeks had no clear answer. "I don’t have an explanation, and there’s not much I can do about it," he admitted. "It started on the final climb, and even now, when I touch my legs, I can still feel it. I can’t do anything about it. It’s incredibly frustrating that this is coming back now. I don’t know what we need to do—we have to investigate it with the medical staff. I thought I was past this, but now…"

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Uijtdebroeks just started smiling again in recent weeks

Visma | Lease a Bike wants to stay calm

Despite Uijtdebroeks’ tears, Reef emphasized the need to remain calm at the team bus. "First, we just need to take a step back. This is his first real disappointment, and we’ll evaluate later. This is just one moment, and we can’t overreact. We need to assess whether there’s really a serious issue, and if so, what it is."

According to Visma | Lease a Bike's sporting director, Uijtdebroeks’ struggles could be due to other factors as well. "Cian didn’t start in an ideal position and had to ride hard right from the base of the climb. That might have been just a little too much," Reef explained. Addressing Uijtdebroeks' unusually low heart rate, he added: "This type of effort isn’t something he has done often during the winter. This was eight kilometers of full gas racing."

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Simon Yates

Simon Yates shows improvement in Tirreno-Adriatico

While Visma | Lease a Bike and Cian Uijtdebroeks have work to do, his personal struggles somewhat overshadowed the performance of Simon Yates, who actually showed noticeable improvement in this Tirreno-Adriatico. "Simon was in a decent position, and we can really see an upward trend with him. What he showed today is a good sign. We can now look ahead to Catalunya and what’s coming next with confidence."

Both Uijtdebroeks and Yates will finish Tirreno-Adriatico outside the top ten, but according to Marc Reef, there’s a clear reason for that—beyond the Belgian’s new setback. "We came here with bigger ambitions than where we stand now. But Simon simply didn’t have an ideal preparation, and this was his first race for us."

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])     

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