Is there an explanation for the many crashes at Visma | Lease a Bike? "Riders are often the cause themselves"

2024 is almost history in terms of cycling violence. On Saturday, there is still a race in the Tour of Lombardy, and in China, another WorldTour race is on the menu, but the major races are over. The big change from a year ago is the freaky season of Visma | Lease a Bike. Michael Boogerd looked at the year of the yellow shirts and highlighted several issues.

In De Telegraaf Boogerd writes a column and tries to identify causes for the team's many crashes. In doing so, he noticed that the riders of the Dutch squad also fractured more often than other riders. "I don't know what's going on and don't want to stir up odd things either, but I think many riders at Visma-Lease a Bike fracture something when they crash.''

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"Van der Poel said it all: the riders really crash themselves"

"There is some truth in that. Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert, Steven Kruijswijk, and Dylan van Baarle even crashed several times. That's not all. They all fell badly and suffered nasty broken bones. Initially, there were quite a lot of crashes at that team. That has caused many personnel problems, not with their least riders. That can be bad luck, but sometimes it is also unnecessary. Perhaps the pressure of performing plays a role at Visma, but that is speculation."

Boogerd cites Mathieu van der Poel as someone who has given an earlier look at the crashes. "He indicated several times that riders in the peloton are often the cause of crashes. It will be an accumulation of factors. But apart from that, I notice that riders from Visma fracture something very often. I wonder what causes that. On that team, they check and know everything. However, are there dietary patterns that cause the bone structure to become imperfect? Is there a point where they miss the mark? Again, I don't know what it is, but I think it's pretty much when a rider fractures something two or three times a year."