Two years ago, Visma-Lease a Bike were the dominant team at the Cobbled Classics, taking wins at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, E3 Saxo Classic, Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen. They may have lacked the absolute peak to compete with Tour of Flanders winner Tadej Pogačar, and a puncture robbed Wout van Aert the chance to battle Mathieu van der Poel for Paris-Roubaix glory, however, as a unit over the bergs and cobbled roads, Visma looked the most complete.
Fast forward to this year's E3 – a race Van Aert won back-to-back in 2022 and 2023, and the start of a big run of targets – and their best result was ninth, the worst for the well-oiled Dutch machine for four years since Van Aert took 11th in 2021.
