Visma | Lease a Bike saw a different Van Aert after Dwars door Vlaanderen crash, but tests and E3 proved that changing style is not an option

The Killer Bees found themselves down on their knees, after years of dominance. Crashes included Van Aert at Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Vuelta a España, Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour of the Basque Country, and multiple crashes involving Dylan van Baarle, Sepp Kuss, Wilco Kelderman, and Robert Gesink—it just didn’t stop. Van Aert missed his biggest spring goals, and Vingegaard couldn’t challenge Tadej Pogacar in top form during the Tour.

Throughout the season, Visma | Lease a Bike had to juggle injuries and illnesses across different lineups. Consider, for instance, Cian Uijtdebroeks dropping out due to COVID in both the Giro and Vuelta, Christophe Laporte’s illness in the spring, and many other riders facing setbacks. Bad luck? The Dutch team doesn’t really believe in that anymore. Because if you're crashing that often—unlike other teams—there must be something you can do better.

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All those hard crashes had physical consequences, but according to Heijboer, also mental ones. He noticed that Van Aert’s confidence—and with it, his technical ability on the bike—declined after his crash in Dwars door Vlaanderen. “After that, he crashed several times on his own, like in the Tour de France, where he was leading and misjudged a corner,” said the trainer about stage 11 of the 2024 Tour. “That was a crash that probably could’ve been avoided if he had been a bit more focused and, above all, more like his usual self.”

Heijboer also referenced the crash at the Paris Olympics, where Van Aert was part of a group with Mathieu van der Poel. “Remco Evenepoel was already up the road, so that wouldn’t have affected the outcome of the race. But Wout was the only one to crash in a spot he’d already ridden several times. That comes down to a lapse in concentration—but we also believe that the crash in Dwars door Vlaanderen had a bigger overall impact than we realized at the time.”

Heijboer attributes it to “fear” or “a certain burden that causes you to misjudge things,” though he ultimately finds it “difficult to pinpoint.” “It was striking that Wout used to be a rider who crashed relatively little. And after that crash, he was suddenly involved in quite a few,” he said. So Visma | Lease a Bike went into the analysis room, where riders were asked to review and analyze their own crashes. “It happened so often that it wouldn’t have been right to just dismiss it all as bad luck,” Heijboer explained.

The crashes haven’t suddenly stopped either. Vingegaard crashed in Paris-Nice, Niklas Behrens and Van Baarle both broke their collarbones earlier this year, and Olav Kooij did the same last Sunday at Gent-Wevelgem. Laporte is also dealing with a troubling virus. “That’s definitely not fun. But it’s also part of the sport. We’re looking at how to prevent crashes and how to reduce the severity of the consequences. It’s a process. But I can’t give you the one solution that’s going to prevent all of this,” team director Grischa Niermann told NOS.

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A deep-dive investigation revealed “about 20 to 25 co-factors,” such as rider position in the peloton, nature of the peloton, presence or absence of rain, racing style, equipment usage, and much more. “Crashes obviously have a huge impact on your season, especially when two of your best riders are sidelined for months,” Heijboer emphasized, calling it “a decline in success” in 2024. “There wasn’t one single factor that stood out, but we did notice that many of the crashes happened at the front of the peloton.”

Surprising, since Visma | Lease a Bike also always wants its riders up front at key moments. But: “If you divide the peloton into four parts, most of the crashes occurred in the first 25 percent. That makes sense too, because when you’re racing for the win, you’re often at the front. But it shows that being at the front doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in a safe spot. In addition, riders said far more often than we expected that the crash could have been avoided. That’s very interesting—when riders look back and analyze, and realize things could have been done differently.”

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According to Heijboer, the riders' self-critical attitude is a crucial factor. “Once the emotion is gone, it’s no longer just about blaming others or street furniture.” And so, riders at Visma | Lease a Bike are carrying those lessons forward. “But it still remains very difficult to do things differently,” he said. “A lot of riders want to be at the front, and if you decide to hang back a bit to stay out of danger, and a move goes up front, at today’s level you simply can’t close that gap anymore.”

We saw that again at the E3 Saxo Classic, where Visma | Lease a Bike—with Van Aert and Matteo Jorgenson—was sitting a bit further back when Mads Pedersen and Mathieu van der Poel launched their attacks. The battle was already lost. Heijboer acknowledges the increased speeds and level of racing, and with that, the “Visma dilemma”: taking risks they’d actually prefer not to take, based on their crash analysis. They’re trying to train reaction time, but in a sport that demands six hours of high concentration, that’s not easy. Visma | Lease a Bike is conducting cognitive tests. “We’re convinced that something can be done about it—but we’re going to fine-tune that even further.”