Visma-Lease a Bike were the dominant men’s Grand Tour team in 2023 as they took a historic triple and won the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España with three different riders. But at the first three-week race of 2024, they’ll be taking an unfamiliar approach and chasing stage wins without a GC favourite.
They lost last year’s Giro winner Primož Roglič to Bora-Hansgrohe and neither Sepp Kuss nor Jonas Vingegaard will take the start in Turin on Saturday.
They will have young Cian Uijtdebroeks as their GC hope after he took eighth on his Grand Tour debut at last year’s Vuelta, but he’s still yet to develop into a rider capable of challenging proven three-week winners like Tadej Pogačar and Geraint Thomas.
"We are approaching this Giro differently than in previous years", said sports director Marc Reef in a team statement. "This time, we don't have to fight for every metre every day with the GC in mind. It's different from the last Grand Tours we did. Then we always started with the GC as our main goal.
"Our main objective is to win stages. We want to achieve that mainly in the flat sprints with Olav [Kooij]. We will also not hide in the stages where a breakaway has a good chance of succeeding.
“We will be satisfied if we win more than one stage."
Sprinter Olav Kooij will be the centrepiece of their ambitions at the upcoming Giro d’Italia as he makes his Grand Tour debut and eyes the six or seven flat finishes en route from Turin down to Rome.
Kooij, 22, has already established himself as one of the top sprinters in the world and has four wins this season from the Clasica de Almeria, UAE Tour and Paris-Nice.
He was meant to take the start with a strong lead-out featuring Wout van Aert, but the Belgian’s high-speed crash and broken bones ruled him out of making his first appearance at the corsa rosa.
Instead, Kooij will have the top replacement Christophe Laporte working as the last man in the lead out trian. The Frenchman is a fast finisher in his own right and has combined well with Kooij in the past, best shown at the 2022 Tour of Denmark where his lead out on the third stage was so strong that the pair finished one-two on the day.
"It is of course incredibly frustrating that he [Van Aert] cannot be there. Both for him, for me and the team. We were looking forward to this moment and had made a goal out of this Giro. But it is what it is," said Kooij.
"Christophe [Laporte] is an experienced rider who knows what to do. Someone you can absolutely count on. We have already achieved great results together.”
Visma have also lost mountain support for Uijtdebroeks with both Wilco Kelderman and former Giro King of the Mountains winner Koen Bouwman needing to be replaced.
"Cian can take his chance on the GC. The main thing is to learn. We will see what he can do in the coming weeks. We are confident,” said Reef.
Tim van Dijke made up the final spot on the eighth sport on the roster after an impressive Classics campaign. He’ll make up part of the sprint train with Laporte and Edoardo Affini, while the Frenchman will also be allowed some freedom after illness and bad luck ruined his Spring Classics.
They will have their work cut out if they are to position the fast Dutchman in place to challenge the likes of Tim Merlier, Jonathan Milan, Fabio Jakobsen and Caleb Ewan, who make up part of one of the strongest Grand Tour sprint fields in recent years.
“Year after year, I can take big steps here in all aspects of the sport. I knew this year's Giro would be my first grand tour and I am looking forward to it immensely," said Kooij.
"It is a very nice and strong field of participants. It won't be easy, but I believe I can beat them."
