Dutch analyst Zonneveld understands Visma | Lease a Bike’s Tour selection without Dutch riders and predicts Giro without Van der Poel

After a short winter break, the podcast In het Wiel is back. Thijs Zonneveld and Hidde Warmerdam discuss the route of the Giro d'Italia and the formation of Visma | Lease a Bike, which revolves around Jonas Vingegaard. There is no place for a Dutch rider for the first time since the team's existence.

With few real mountain stages and a fair number of sprint and hill stages, the Giro, unlike previous years, seems to want to get a larger group with different riders at the start, according to Zonneveld. "The route seems very interesting for Wout van Aert," he repeats the texts of his Eurosport colleague Jan Hermsen earlier this week.

According to the AD journalist, the Giro will undoubtedly have hoped for the most prominent names at the start, but they choose the Tour de France. 'The organization itself knows that the chances of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard at the start are slim, so the Giro has tried to make the route attractive to a large group of riders, with the hope that some of the top riders will still make the trip to Italy.'

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Wout van Aert in La Vuelta 2024

Giro route golden opportunity for Van Aert?

According to Zonneveld, Van Aert's chances of facing Mathieu van der Poel in La Corsa Rosa seem slim. "Of course, it is also a route Van der Poel might fancy, but the Tour also seems to have anticipated Van der Poel's arrival with the first week. And with the World Mountain Bike Championships in mind, the Giro-Tour combination is almost impossible, especially if he's planning another busy spring."

"There is a chance that Van Aert will ride in pink for two weeks," Zonneveld continued. "Until last week, there have been almost no tough mountain stages. I think it mainly depends on the riders whether it will be a spectacular or very boring Giro. There are plenty of opportunities, but if they wait until the last week, it may remain undecided for a long time. Even though many riders will be thinking, 'This year is my chance.' But I don't think Van Aert can win the Giro."

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Jonas Vingegaard together with Wout van Aert

Nice Visma selection, but no place for Dutch riders

Once Van Aert has had fun in the Giro, the Belgian may start preparing for the Tour de France, where he will again be an essential part of the selection surrounding the two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard. What is surprising about the Tour team of Visma | Lease a Bike is that there is no place for a Dutch rider.

According to Zonneveld, this is not surprising in the current era. "As a Dutch team, it is essential to keep Dutch riders on your team, but if you want to win the Tour de France, you go with the strongest team. And the team that Visma | Lease a Bike has formed around Vingegaard is simply extremely good."

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Visma | Lease a Bike

Zonneveld sees Visma selection as striking example of Dutch cycling problem

According to Zonneveld, it should not happen too often that a Dutch formation goes to the Tour de France without Dutch riders. However, the problem lies with Dutch cycling and not with the Dutch teams, who line up their best team each year for the biggest race in the world, Zonneveld points out in his column in AD. "Nor do I fear that it is a one-off."

He explains: "The successes of the Dutch top athletes in recent years have camouflaged a problem: the bottom of the pyramid has slowly but surely crumbled. Cycling in the Netherlands has been under pressure for years; there are fewer and fewer races, and fewer young people are joining cycling clubs."

"And even though teams such as Visma and Picnic-PostNL are doing their best to bring in Dutch talent, it seems to be getting harder every year, if only because the pond they are fishing from is shrinking. That won't get any better in the short term - if you only look at the problem of bike support, it will be a tough job in the coming seasons to organize any cycling races in the Netherlands," it concludes.

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