Visma | Lease a Bike considers extra measures to prevent illness

Wout van Aert’s illness ahead of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is one thing, but anyone looking at the bigger picture knows this is not the first time something like this has happened to one of the Visma | Lease a Bike team leaders. Even within the Dutch WorldTeam itself, which this year is under more pressure than ever, they are aware of that. Grischa Niermann, Head of Racing at the team, says they are also considering additional solutions.

It was CEO Richard Plugge himself who floated the idea on Thursday at Visma | Lease a Bike’s press conference in Deerlijk. Plugge was there to introduce his new artificial intelligence partner Mistral AI to the media. The French company not only brings a sizable financial contribution but also provides technical support with the team’s challenges and helps to improve performance.

“Maybe with that data, we can also prevent illness within the team,” he said. Plugge said it with a smile, but it shows that the frequent illnesses might indeed be a theme within the team.

Frequent illness
Three years ago, Van Aert missed his main target, the Tour of Flanders, at the last moment due to illness, and since then the issue has played a role more often than he would have liked in the lead-up to other important races.

Last year, he had to postpone the start of his cyclocross season due to illness, his Giro start was affected by the same problem, and just before the 2025 Tour de France, he had to skip the Belgian Road Championships in Binche. Not to mention the illnesses during his preparation.

We see a similar phenomenon with the other team leader, Jonas Vingegaard. Is it a coincidence that the yellow jersey wearers often get sick right before their goals, or is there a pattern? Van Aert himself noticed it and told a podcast that he found it frustrating to have been sidelined by illness more frequently over the past couple of years. He personally cited having children and the aftermath of the coronavirus as possible causes.

But what can the team — which places a strong emphasis on innovation — do extra to prevent this in the future? “That’s definitely something we are thinking about as a team, because if we find an answer here, it would be very useful,” confirms Head of Racing Grischa Niermann to our camera. “The only problem is that at this moment, there is no clear-cut answer yet.”

Negative perception
It’s not just the illness. As we wrote earlier, the negative perception surrounding Visma | Lease a Bike is gradually gaining the upper hand. Not just the frequent illnesses and injuries, but also the stories about the strict team atmosphere and the subsequent sudden departures of Giro winner Simon Yates, successful coach Tim Heemskerk, and world champion Fem van Empel have contributed to this.

It’s something Niermann understands but does not want to endorse. “Of course, it’s very unfortunate that Simon quit and that we no longer have Tim as our coach. But that’s just the reality.” According to the Head of Racing, we shouldn’t make more of it than it is. “Those departures might be more visible in the media now. In other years it might have been mechanics or other staff members; then we dealt with it on a different level and it didn’t come to the surface.”

“I look at all these events with the mindset: this has happened now. We can’t turn back the clock, so how do we move forward? In the past, we have repeatedly proven that we are good at this. That we can adapt very quickly to a new reality. We have to make new plans and try to adapt, even though it’s very unfortunate,” concludes the German sporting director.