In the wake of Visma’s White Jersey Group | Lease a Bike: "Everyone is now after talent"

While Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard win Grand Tours and top classics for Visma | Lease a Bike, the Dutch WorldTeam is quietly building the team of the future. It is not always a rewarding task, but it is absolutely necessary, Visma team director Maarten Wynants told us at the Antwerp Port Epic.

With Per Strand Hagenes, the team won the one-day race in Antwerp with its own homegrown talent. The Norwegian was, apart from the experienced Filippo Fiorelli, the second youngest rider at 22 years old in the squad with which Visma | Lease a Bike traveled to Antwerp on Monday. The very young Ashlin Barry (18), Ian Kings (20), Jonas Høydahl (20), Mikal Uglehus (21), and Pietro Mattio (21) completed the Visma seven-man lineup.

"That is very deliberate. When we go out with the White Jersey Group, we always put together a good mix of riders who potentially can win the race and others who may be able to contest finishes in the future," Wynants explained to us.

Giving chances
White Jersey Group is the name the management of Visma | Lease a Bike gave to its youth project a few years ago. Throughout the calendar year, they select various .1 and .Pro races specifically to give young riders from the main squad and the Development Team opportunities within the WorldTeam. "The hope is that when we race here, we have the classic core of the future. To keep growing, you have to give those guys chances," says the team director.

Hagenes: "It feels like coming home. When I was still in the development team, I always enjoyed getting the chance to race in pro races with the big guys. Those were the moments when you could learn from the pro riders. Now I am suddenly the one who has to pass on his experience, although it is not very extensive yet. But it is also good for me to take a step back to a race at a level below and focus on my own chances instead of working as a domestique for the leaders."

The approach is that young riders learn how to race finals and make extra progress that way. "Making the right tactical decisions is an art in itself," Wynants says. That Hagenes managed to outsmart a group of ten riders in the last kilometer will help him in the classics in the coming years. "That is just as much part of a rider’s development as the physical side."

Rush for talent
Organizing the youth program has not become any easier, Wynants explains. "The rush for talent starts earlier and earlier. A few years ago, we were one of the only WorldTeams with our own development squad. Back then, it was easier to recruit top talents. But now everyone is chasing that talent. It makes it increasingly difficult every year to make the right decisions. The trick is to identify guys who are not yet really standing out and are still behind in their development."

"Besides that, you just see that everyone develops differently," Wynants says. "For some, the growth curve shoots up steeply. For others, they stagnate for a while and break through later. It does not always have to be fast for us, which is why we also have our development team and the White Jersey Group. But it is important that everyone keeps developing."

Hagenes recognizes himself in that. "After a flashy start to my pro career, my progress stalled for a while. But I was given the time not to skip steps and this year I reached the level where I could compete in the classics. I am actually quite satisfied with my growth path. Sometimes you also encounter things you would rather avoid. My sinuses kept me sidelined for half a year."

However, patience has its limits at some point. "Places are limited," Wynants says. "Both in the development team itself and for riders who want to move up to the WorldTour. You can’t move five riders up every year. That’s why sometimes we have to say goodbye too early to riders you do believe in but who then grow elsewhere. That is a shame, but young riders remain unpredictable. In football, you can loan young players out, that would be simpler."

Leading the way
Visma | Lease a Bike remains a leading youth institution, according to Wynants. "We went after Jonas Vingegaard back when, so to speak, no one wanted him. Then he grew with us into a Tour winner. It’s nice how that sometimes happens. Recently, Matthew Brennan moved up from the development team to win a classic, and Per went through the entire pathway. Riders see that we provide the right guidance. That strengthens our scouts and then the story we tell becomes even stronger."

In the Antwerp one-day race, we saw the generation after Hagenes at work again. "With the American Ashlin Barry, we have someone who we think has a very big future. Alongside Matisse Van Kerckhove, he is the talent who is furthest along. Those guys are already winning races. We have to go along with that story and keep challenging them."