How do you replace the departing Kooij, Uijtdebroeks and Benoot? Niermann explains Visma | Lease a Bike's transfers

Winning two Grand Tours and still feeling disappointed? It sounds strange, but at Visma | Lease a Bike they are not calling 2025 a completely successful season. The team is heading into a year full of change, with several major stars set to leave. But how will those losses be absorbed? Grischa Niermann explains the team’s approach on the transfer market.

The German Head of Racing is not unhappy with 2025. “I look back on it with a good feeling,” he says in the podcast Inside the Beehive. “The big, big goal was to win all the Grand Tours, and we won two of them. We can certainly call it a success, although we would have liked to win the Tour de France, the biggest race of the year.”

Still, there was plenty to enjoy. Niermann points to the breakthrough of Matthew Brennan as one of the highlights of the season. “That was by far the most unexpected performance of the year. He came from the development team, and we had him on a fairly light schedule. Of course, we knew he had enormous talent, but he started winning straight away. He made a very big impression.”

Despite those positives, UAE Team Emirates - XRG remain a step ahead of the Killer Bees, meaning change is inevitable. “I can’t tell everything, but we have to improve in many areas,” says Niermann. "We always have to try to beat our opponents whenever possible. We have to congratulate UAE Team Emirates after a season with almost 100 victories, and we were quite a long way off that. But it inspires us.”

The departure of Olav Kooij means the team is losing a prolific winner, but according to Niermann it was unavoidable. “We knew it would be very complicated to keep Olav with us for longer,” he explains. “We knew he wanted to ride the Tour de France with a full lead-out. We have Jonas, so that creates a complicated situation. Is it impossible? Probably not, but it was difficult.”

Kooij was not the only rider to leave Visma | Lease a Bike. Riders such as Dylan van Baarle, Tiesj Benoot and Cian Uijtdebroeks also moved on. How do you compensate for that? “We looked for riders who have had consistent seasons in recent years, with plenty of race days and without too many injuries or illnesses,” Niermann explains. "We also looked at big talents, such as Davide Piganzoli, but also riders with experience, like Owain Doull.”

Piganzoli is seen as one of the most important signings for the future. “I don’t want to put too much pressure on Davide,” Niermann stresses. “He is a talented general classification rider, and hopefully he can develop well within our team. But I also think that Louis Barré is someone who could be very important for us in the future.”

Another signing that has flown somewhat under the radar is Timo Kielich, who joins from Alpecin-Deceuninck. “We knew we had to replace Tiesj Benoot,” says Niermann. “That’s very difficult. He’s a great guy and rider, extremely versatile. We will definitely miss him, but in terms of support in the Grand Tours – and especially in the Classics – we have found someone in Timo who is very underrated.”

Kielich brings his cyclo-cross background with him. “He is very good at positioning,” Niermann explains. “He impressed us at moments when the TV broadcast hadn’t even started yet. We saw Timo being first into a corner five times in a row, while 180 riders wanted the same thing. He has a big engine, and we think he can surprise people in the Classics.”