Visma | Lease a Bike now pays the high price of success

With overall victories in no less than ten Grand Tours since 2019, Visma | Lease a Bike has established something remarkable in the cycling world. These wins, achieved with four different riders, highlight how successful the Dutch team’s approach has been. Naturally, this has not gone unnoticed by the competition. Wealthier teams are now simply buying knowledge from Richard Plugge’s team by attracting key staff members, hoping to take a similar step forward in the Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a España, and Tour de France.

During the digital press conference that Visma | Lease a Bike held around the departure of Grischa Niermann, it became clear that everyone was surprised. The fact that the German, after a career almost uninterruptedly connected to the same team as a rider, team director, and Head of Racing, is now making the switch to Lidl-Trek, hit hard.

The word ‘sad’ was uttered exactly twelve times by team manager Plugge and the new Head of Racing Marc Reef. Since 2017, Niermann has not only been one of the architects behind this success, but above all he has set a new standard within the professional workflow of the staff.

We cannot ignore that many key staff members have left Visma | Lease a Bike over the past three years. Coaches Marc Lamberts (who oversaw Wout van Aert and Primož Roglič) and Tim Heemskerk (who trained Jonas Vingegaard from day one) chose to join Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. Nutritionist Asker Jeukendrup also moved from the Dutch team to Ralph Denk’s German outfit. Team director Addy Engels was recruited last winter by the Swiss Tudor Pro Cycling.

However, the departure of Head of Racing Grischa Niermann to Lidl-Trek will hurt even more. Two years ago, he declined an offer from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, but now the lure of the new adventure at Lidl-Trek was too great. Firstly, he takes on the role of Chief Sporting Officer (CSO), responsible for the entire sporting operation. Additionally, he finds at Lidl-Trek an organization with enormous financial resources.

The team, which is changing from an American to a German license now that the supermarket chain has become co-owner, has not only recruited Niermann but also a second key figure who literally knows Visma | Lease a Bike inside out. From 2019 through 2024, Martijn Redegeld was the Head of Nutrition for the cycling team, before moving to Ajax. Now he is joining the Schwarz Group, which is making waves in multiple sports and for which Lidl-Trek is a major project.

A sensible choice, because in nutrition (and the nutrition app) Visma | Lease a Bike has made revolutionary strides in recent years and built up a lead over the competition. For this reason, Asker Jeukendrup was previously recruited by Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe.

Niermann’s departure will weigh heavily. Only a year and a half ago, the organization took a serious blow with Merijn Zeeman’s move to football club AZ. It was then decided to build a management team under Plugge, consisting of Niermann, Mathieu Heijboer, Jacco Verhaeren, Patrick Broe, and Robbert de Groot.

Niermann’s role within Visma | Lease a Bike’s organization was extremely important because he effectively led the men's WorldTeam. As the first team director (tactical strategist) and key figure in recruiting, he played an essential role. While Zeeman chose another sport back then, Niermann’s expertise is now going directly to a direct competitor.

In other sports, it is not uncommon for staff to move from club to club or team to team. In cycling, however, the support staff tends to be much more loyal. If an organization is well-established, the departure of a key staff member should always be manageable.

It is also logical that other top teams are currently shopping at Visma | Lease a Bike. Since 2015/2016, the team has built a significant lead over the competition in scientific support and guidance. That said, we must also admit that it is not rocket science. For a competing team, recruiting key figures from the Dutch team is simply the easiest way to acquire that specific knowledge and working method.

Especially now that Visma | Lease a Bike can no longer financially compete with teams like UAE Emirates-XRG, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, Lidl-Trek, and among others Decathlon-CMA CGM, it is logical that staff members are lured away with more attractive financial offers. This underlines once again the absolute necessity for Richard Plugge to secure a new main sponsor contributing at least 21 million euros. “It looks good,” he said about this during the press event. However, he used the same words two months ago as well.

Still, he must now ensure that the staff departures do not become too extensive. Iwan Spekenbrink had a scientifically and sportingly superior team with Sunweb in 2017/2018. Yet, at that time, he too easily let go of essential personnel, such as Aike Visbeek (now Intermarché-Wanty), Marc Reef (Visma | Lease a Bike), Arthur van Dongen (Visma | Lease a Bike), Hendrik Werner (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Addy Engels (Tudor Pro Cycling), Adriaan Helmantel (Tudor Pro Cycling), Teun van Erp (Tudor Pro Cycling), and among others Luke Roberts (Decathlon-CMA CGM). Since then, his team has been relegated to the worst performing WorldTour team.