"We're not going to do the conga line just because Wout finishes in the top 10"; what does Visma | Lease a Bike need to do to win the Tour of Flanders?

The first spring season with Grischa Niermann as the sporting director at Visma | Lease a Bike isn't going quite as hoped. Heading into the most crucial week of the season, with the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, the team had only managed to win the GP Denain among the one-day races. Still, Niermann is the first to point out that he saw enough positive signs on Wednesday in Dwars door Vlaanderen to approach the Tour of Flanders with confidence.

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Team leader Grischa Niermann (Visma | Lease a Bike) ahead of the Tour of Flanders

Niermann, along with his two team leaders, also joined the press talk of the Dutch squad, where he briefly looked back on Wednesday. “We made a mistake in the finale, that’s clear. We wanted to win and that didn’t happen, so we have to take responsibility for that. But we win together and we lose together. We rode a great race, but in the end, it turned into a disappointment. That hurt, but it’s also human. No hard feelings. We won’t make that mistake again.”

The challenge for Sunday doesn’t change much, Niermann knows. “It’s clear that Tadej and Mathieu are the favorites and they also have strong teams, but we have a strong team too. So we need to find a way to compete for the victory with this lineup.”

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Visma | Lease a Bike struggles to find weaknesses in Van der Poel and Pogacar

And that’s something Visma | Lease a Bike has been working on since winter. “We analyze how we can win, and that includes analyzing our opponents, but again: right now, Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel are so strong. It’s very difficult to come up with the one tactic that says we should do it this way or that way. If you’ve still got that tactic, feel free to bring it to us.”

So what’s the way forward? “We definitely have to take more risks. How? We’re going to look into that, but if you go full gas all day, there’s one guy in a rainbow jersey thinking: perfect, keep going. So it’s not that easy either. We’re going to sit down and come up with a really good plan to use all seven riders in the best way possible to maximize our chances of winning. But it won’t be easy.”

Visma | Lease a Bike hasn’t managed to win in Flanders yet, but… “The pressure isn’t extra high. We’re realistic, but our main goal is to win. If we were to say we’re going to do the conga line if Wout finishes top ten, then we don’t have the right mindset. We want to win and go for the best result possible,” Niermann reiterates the team’s objective.

Read also

Tadej Pogacar analyzes Mathieu van der Poel, but says: "If I can choose between staying home with Urska or racing against Mathieu, I would rather stay home"

EF sports director after Powless beat van Aert: "They know Neilson well at Visma, they are familiar with all his data"

Pogacar understands Vollering's reaction and supports van Aert: "It's the cancer of our current society"

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