Visma-Lease a Bike have sketched out their Grand Tour plans for 2024, with Wout van Aert revealing during the team's presentation that he will definitely not race the Tour de France and is most certainly not going to target the overall classification at the Giro d'Italia.
Cian Uijtebroeks revealed his target is the general classification of the Giro, while Matteo Jorgenson will aim for Paris-Nice and a support slot at the Tour de France.
Van Aert's programme starts with the Volta ao Algarve before a limited Classics campaign, including Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kurune-Brussel-Kuurne, E3 Saxo Classic, Gent Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen and then the two major goals, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
"My main focus now and in the coming months will be the Classics," Van Aert said. "Without Nathan (van Hooydonck), we have a big loss in the Classics team, but with Matteo and Jan Boven, we have a lot of strong guys coming to that squad.
"I'll be hunting again to win [Tour of Flanders] and/or [Paris-]Roubaix, that's the first real target. We'll do a bit of a different approach. I'll go to the Giro and later on prepare for the Olympics as good as possible, so no Tour de France. Then I'll end the season with the Vuelta and World Championships in September."
Uijtdebroeks joined the team presentation in Visma-Lease A Bike colours despite his ongoing contract dispute with Bora-Hansgrohe and outlined his goals for 2024.
"It will not be at the Vuelta but it will be at the Giro - the Giro will be the second Grand Tour of my life and I'm really looking forward to that race to see how it goes there," Uijtdebroeks said.
"We really have big ambitions to win stages and then for myself, I want to try to be good in the GC. There's not a lot of pressure on me - I have a free role and we'll try to see where we are. It's nice that guys like [Tadej] Pogačar are also there to see how they are and how much we still need to improve."
A new addition to Visma-Lease A Bike for 2024, Jorgenson has been given an ambitious schedule that includes the Classics as well as an important early-season target before stepping in Van Aert's place at the Tour de France.
"I was really lucky to have a good programme given to me by the team. I'll participate in most of the Classics... hopefully we can find a victory in either Flanders or Roubaix among us and then in the summer, I should also - which is really special for me - help Jonas to a third Tour victory or at least help try. It's kind of a career goal of mine to be on Tour winning team. So something looking forward to a lot.
"As far as personal ambition, I don't know if I'm even allowed to say but I'm hoping to go to Paris-Nice and do GC there, which I've done in the past a few times. I'm really looking forward to it and see how much I can improve there."
