New setback for Visma | Lease a Bike: Tim van Dijke replaces sick Koen Bouwman in Giro selection

On Tuesday afternoon, Visma | Lease a Bike announced its selection for the Giro d'Italia (May 4-26). One notable absentee in the group of the Killer Bees: Koen Bouwman!

The 30-year-old Dutchman had hit top form at the end of March with stage and overall victories at the Coppi e Bartali, but unfortunately fell ill during the Tour of Romandie. Bouwman did not start the final stage in Switzerland and has not sufficiently recovered from that illness. Tim Van Dijke is his replacement and will make his debut in a Grand Tour. The 24-year-old Dutchman has already shown impressive performances this season in the Flemish classics and finished in the top six in both the prologue and the final stage in Romandie.

"We have lost Wout van Aert and Wilco Kelderman in recent weeks," team manager Marc Reef begins the press release. "Koen Bouwman was to replace Wilco, but he fell ill during the Tour of Romandie. Koen will in turn be replaced by Tim van Dijke. He, Edoardo Affini, and Christophe Laporte will definitely strengthen Olav's sprint train. He will also have the opportunity to achieve results for himself in certain stages."

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Visma | Lease a Bike "will be satisfied if it wins more than one stage"

Other than that, all eyes are on Olav Kooij. The 22-year-old sprinter will also be making his debut in a Grand Tour, and Visma | Lease a Bike is of course counting on his fast Dutch legs to win stages, which is "the main goal" of this Giro according to Reef. "We mainly aim to achieve stage victories in the flat sprints with Olav. We will also not hide in the stages where a breakaway has a good chance of succeeding. We can say that we would be satisfied if we win more than one stage. We have a team that can compete for victories on multiple fronts, so we start with confidence."

Cian Uijtdebroeks is allowed to take his chances in the Italian mountains, but that is not a priority for the Killer Bees. "We are approaching this Giro differently than in previous years. This time, we don't need to fight for every meter every day with the general classification in mind. This is a big difference compared to the last six Grand Tours we participated in. We always started those with the overall victory as the main goal, but that is not the case now. Cian may take his chances in the general classification. The main focus is on learning. We will see what he is capable of in the coming weeks. However, the confidence is certainly there. We have been working together for a few months now, and it's going very well. We are learning more and more about what we can expect from each other."

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Attila Valter, Jan Tratnik and Robert Gesink are the other three riders of the group and seem to be given a somewhat more free role. The 25-year-old Hungarian champion is already participating in his fourth Giro and was in the pink for three days in 2014, while the 34-year-old Slovenian won a stage a year earlier. 37-year-old Gesink is participating in his 23rd Grand Tour, but only his third Giro. His previous participations date back to 2018 and 2013.

Selection Visma | Lease a Bike Giro d'Italia 2024

Attila Valter
Tim Van Dijke
Christophe Laporte
Jan Tratnik
Edoardo Affini
Robert Gesink
Olav Kooij
Cian Uijtdebroeks