Benoot on Visma’s underwhelming spring: "We missed two important riders at crucial moments"

"I don't think it was really Pogacar's plan to go at that moment," Zonneveld began. "On La Redoute, he looked over his shoulder and saw that Evenepoel had disappeared. Then he pushed a few teammates aside, tested his legs without leaving his saddle, and set the fastest time. That's just really intimidating."

Not much later, when Pogacar was already out of sight, Evenepoel threw in the towel on the Roche-aux-Faucons. "He let them go and basically just gave up because he could easily keep up with those riders, but he was just mentally broken," said Zonneveld. Former cyclist Jip van den Bos also expressed her opinion on the incident: "Later, it was said that he wanted other riders to be in the spotlight, but it's just his ego that doesn't want him to be caught on camera while he's being dropped."

Despite the disappointment of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Zonneveld thinks it has been a wonderful spring overall. "For the most part, we've had a fantastic spring. We've had a lot of duels this spring, but you can see that when Pogacar isn't challenged by another exceptional rider like van der Poel, it can be quite uneventful."

The absolute highlight of the spring for the Dutch analyst was seeing Pogacar's human side. "We saw Pogacar push himself to his limits, which was wonderful. Watching how he sat on van der Poel's wheel in Paris-Roubaix and suffered so much was beautiful. I was cheering in front of the television."

The Dutch team Visma | Lease a Bike hoped to play a leading role in the spring again this year, as in previous years, but it didn't happen this year. "Several factors contributed to us being unable to play a leading role," Tiesj Benoot reflected. "Dylan van Baarle crashed in the Tour Down Under, which means he's approaching the classics more apprehensive."

"We're also missing Laporte, who could not race in the spring due to illness," the Belgian rider continued. ”Those are two hugely essential riders you miss at crucial moments. In addition, Wout may still be a little wary after his crashes last year, and the level of the competition is always getting stronger, and the races are also getting tougher."

And why are those races getting tougher? Because of the high pace in the spring classics. "We started the Tour de France with Jumbo-Visma, riding as fast as possible to try to break Pogacar. And that's what we're seeing now in the classics. UAE is strong and rides fast throughout the race to eliminate Pogacar's opponents."