Visma director signals agreement with Voigt's interview: "Only young riders at the Olympics"

The Olympic Games are a point of contention for many cycling teams on the cycling calendar, occurring once every four years. Former rider Jens Voigt highlighted this issue in an interview with Tutto Bici, a stance openly supported by Richard Plugge, director of Visma | Lease a Bike.

Now 52 years old, Voigt transitioned to a cycling analyst role for Eurosport after his racing career, and he doesn't hold back his opinions, even on the subject of the Olympics. According to Voigt, the event lacks significant prestige in the cycling world. "As far as I'm concerned, only young riders or amateurs should be at the Games," he asserts firmly.

"I understand Patrick Lefevere on this point," Voigt says, referring to the team boss of Soudal-Quick Step. "He says: I pay my professionals all year, but in an Olympic year, I lose them for almost a month. To me, it makes no sense that professionals are racing in the Olympic road race. They already have three Grand Tours, five Monuments, a European Championship, and a World Championship every year. And the Olympic winner doesn't even get the chance to ride around with a symbol of their victory. That would be a nice bonus."

Voigt's remarks were widely shared on X (formerly Twitter), where Richard Plugge is also active. The Visma | Lease a Bike director clearly agrees with Voigt, as evidenced by the numerous retweets on his timeline. Cycling teams release their top riders for the time trial and road race during the Olympics. The time trial is scheduled for Saturday, July 27, and the road races will be held on the weekend of August 3 and 4.

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Voigt calls 273-kilometer distance a "crazy mistake" at the Olympics

According to Voigt, the Olympic organizers have made a "crazy mistake" by setting a 273-kilometer route for the men's road race. With each country allowed to send only a few riders (four for the top nations, three for the next tier, and down to one per nation), Voigt fears a dull race. "There will only be ninety riders participating, with such a treacherous final circuit. What are they thinking? It’s likely to be a boring race, with only a few riders finishing."

Voigt, who retired from professional cycling in 2014, points out that many countries will be sending essentially amateur riders. "They won’t be able to provide any real competition, especially with so few teams having the manpower to chase. If you’re going to have so few riders, you should have reduced the distance by fifty kilometers. Now you have Mathieu van der Poel and Remco Evenepoel as favorites, but Tadej Pogačar isn’t participating, and someone like Tom Pidcock prefers the Olympic mountain bike race. I don’t see any other riders who can win such a grueling race. Only Milan-San Remo is longer than the Olympic road race, and only the best teams in the world compete in that."