Team manager of Visma | Lease a Bike women shares secret winning race plan for Paris-Roubaix: "There's one thing we knew for sure"

Rutger Tijssen was a happy man on Saturday afternoon in Roubaix. The team manager and director of the Visma | Lease a Bike women’s squad watched his riders execute an almost flawless race, earning a well-deserved victory in the Hell of the North, the team’s first Monument win in a long time. “Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has an incredible hunger. In everything she does,” said Tijssen.

Tijssen, a former speed skater and skating coach before switching to cycling in 2022, had nothing but praise for his riders after their performance on the cobbles of northern France. “What happened was exactly the race plan. We needed to be in a position where we were up the road and others had to chase us. The riders had to sense that moment themselves, that's the essence of team strategy. And that’s what we stand for right now.”

And that also meant a champion like Marianne Vos, who would love to add this race to her palmarès, staying back to protect Ferrand-Prévot’s breakaway. “In the end, you’re a team, and Marianne did exactly what a great champion does: give up her own chance to win in order to secure a certain victory for the team,” Tijssen said post-race at the team bus, speaking to gathered Dutch media.

With that plan, SD Worx-Protime’s challenge, led by Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes, was effectively neutralized. “Not just SD Worx, but also Trek and other teams, we analyzed them, their strengths and weaknesses. One thing we knew for sure: we didn’t want to go to the velodrome with Lorena. That Kopecky sacrificed herself, that was exactly what we hoped for. They had to make a move.”

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Tijssen impressed with Ferrand-Prévot: "Winning: she devours that"

That Ferrand-Prévot—even after being ill—was able to contend for the win didn’t really surprise team manager Rutger Tijssen all that much. “Pauline has been focusing on the road since October, and when you see what she does and how she approaches everything, she does it all really well. But yeah, you know what it is? Talent. That makes everything easier,” he pointed out. “Hope doesn’t get you that far. I did expect her to perform well, because we knew her data and so on.”

“This race was pretty high on her wish list, because now she doesn’t have to look at Dylan’s cobblestone anymore,” Tijssen added with a grin, referring to Ferrand-Prévot’s partner, Dylan van Baarle. “She wins as a Frenchwoman on home soil, but above all it’s that unbelievable hunger to win. In everything she does: she devours it. And I bet she’s going to want to do the same in the Tour.”

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"The Gravaa system works, No need for the Visma | Lease a Bike man to call me for that"

And finally: the Gravaa system does work, that much is clear. “For those paying close attention, it was obvious we were going to use it. We were convinced of it, otherwise, we wouldn’t have raced with it. That much is clear,” said Rutger Tijssen. A good example for the men’s team? “Whether they’ll adopt it, that’s not for me to say. They make their own choices, and we’re not about to tell them what to do. That would be a bit odd. But hey, they don’t need to call us anymore to see that it worked,” Tijssen added with a grin.

There’s been quite a bit of buzz around the Gravaa tire pressure system. Most cycling experts already agree that the Dutch team has a serious technological edge. Thijs Zonneveld called it a “weapon,” and Sep Vanmarcke, who had the chance to test it extensively, saw it as an “undeniable advantage.” But he also acknowledged the downsides, most notably, the time it takes to reinflate the tires. That, according to Vanmarcke, is exactly where rivals can strike: “If I were a competitor, I’d attack Van Aert right after a cobblestone section, because his tires would still be softer than yours,” he remarked.

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