How Wout van Aert's crash caused the Van Dijke brothers to leave: "I could follow Mathieu in the Forest of Arenberg"

The Van Dijke brothers were guests on the podcast De Rode Lantaarn. There, they told me the reason for leaving Visma | Lease a Bike. "Sporting conditions" is the short but clear answer. "Our dream is to win a cobbled classic one day," Tim told us, "preferably Flanders or Roubaix. But that's a dream, and lots of people have that dream. It became a reality when I crossed the line in Roubaix in eighth place. That was such a fantastic experience."

In Paris-Roubaix the Van Dijke's showed themselves to other teams. And that usually wouldn't have happened. However, Visma | Lease a Bike struggled with bad luck in the spring. Several big crashes caused significant shifts in the selection. "If that hadn't happened, we would never have shown what we managed to show this year. That's something that opened my eyes," Tim stated. Mick agreed: "In Roubaix, the camera captures it all. I could follow Mathieu (Van der Poel, ed.), Jasper (Philipsen, ed.), and Mads (Pedersen, ed.) in the Forest of Arenberg."

Usually, the program in spring was planned to be very limited: there were no big classics or big tours. "Now we were riding in the finale in Roubaix with those guys and managed to follow these four guys in the forest. That was brilliant, and quite a few teams noticed it." Not only Primoz Roglic's team was interested: several teams were interested in the brothers, including INEOS Grenadiers. "We were able to make a nice choice because we were in the spotlight."

The brothers are a package deal together: they will ride for the same team at all costs. But they don't want to take advantage of each other's opportunities. "That was the main reason for leaving. At Visma, we were also a bit in each other's way. Tim and I always fought for the last spot; that was just difficult."

At Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, they will not have to fight for a spot. "They also didn't want us just for the classics, but we showed that we can be a lead-out for sprinters. We also cared very well for Matteo (Jorgenson, ed.) in Paris-Nice. They noticed that, too. Of course, that's what you want in a grand tour, to have guys who can drop off the climbers."

The departure from Visma | Lease a Bike was difficult: the 24-year-old brothers had been riding for the formation since 2020. But in the end, they chose their own careers. "We all wanted to look at our options. For us, it was straightforward: we would only leave if we improved athletically. That leaves only a small group of teams anyway.' Because Visma | Lease a Bike, they say, is still the best team in the world. 'In every discipline, there is a world-class rider there. Even in the U23 category, it is tough to compete with them."