Roubaix, Giro for Van Aert, and will Vingegaard make the Tour? Zeeman takes stock on behalf of Visma | LaB

Visma | Lease a Bike has been on the receiving end of countless setbacks in recent weeks, preventing the team from competing for its big ambition: winning the Tour of Flanders and/or Paris-Roubaix. Sports director Merijn Zeeman reflected on the situation in northern France, and IDLProCycling.com was there so that we can bring you up to speed.

Wout van Aert: out with multiple fractures. Jan Tratnik: out with a knee injury. Matteo Jorgenson: out due to illness. Dylan van Baarle: out due to illness. Christophe Laporte: missed the entire spring due to illness/a cyst and then got a flat tire just before the first cobblestone section. Who were left? Per Strand Hagenes (with a broken nose) and the brothers Tim and Mick van Dijke, who admirably saved Visma | Lease a Bike in the Hell of the North.

And that's not even counting Jonas Vingegaard's injury. One thing is clear: the lofty ambitions Visma | Lease a Bike had for the first week of April were severely clipped. "We had great plans for these weeks, but unfortunately, it didn't work out. We didn't win the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix, but to now evaluate or judge that fairly… It doesn't make much sense when you've had these kinds of setbacks. With the Opening Weekend and Dwars door Vlaanderen, we've managed a consolation, but it's clear we had higher expectations for this spring," Zeeman concludes.

The sports director naturally tries to highlight the positives - there certainly were some on Sunday in France. "What I observed? Tim and Mick van Dijke have really shown that they will be contenders in the coming years. And Laporte finishes 25th, which is a real pity. He got a flat before the first cobblestone section and the fact that he could still get back into the race after that is really impressive. Over the last three weeks, he hasn't been able to train more than two hours a day, so that's very strong. I didn't expect that. Furthermore, I saw that Alpecin-Deceuninck was the strongest. Starting from the first cobblestone section, they took control of the race, with Mathieu van der Poel standing out above the rest by a lot. In the fastest edition ever, so that says something," he compliments the competition.

Zeeman on Van Aert, Vingegaard and the rest: "It's an extreme season"

Zeeman is of course a team manager, but right now he seems more like the guardian of a battered battalion than a group of healthy warriors. And all of this in the week when he announced his impending departure from the team. "I've just had a long talk with Dylan. Those are difficult moments. For us, but also for the guys themselves. They need attention, but that's also cycling: one moment you're at the top, then you're down. It was the same with Dylan last year: he became the Dutch champion and won the Tour and Vuelta with the team, but he also crashed in Arenberg. For us, it's just an extreme season."

What does the near future look like in such an extreme season? "It's hard to plan. Many scenarios need to be made: does Wout make it to the Giro or not? Does Jonas make it to the Tour or not? If not, then what? When do we make those decisions? It's going to be a busy few weeks... We've already started, I've also been studying the situation with Grischa for a long time. I hope some things will be cleared up in the next two weeks, but it's clear they need to show up at the start at a hundred percent. Wout and Jonas are riders who aim for the main prizes, they don't race just to participate. There is no question about that."

Current situation: "For Wout, we're on a tight schedule, but there's a bit more wiggle room for Jonas. In the coming weeks, we need to see whether the plans are feasible for Wout or not. We're still lacking clarity on what's possible or not: it's a combination of his ribs, lung and burn injury. There's progress, for sure, but how quickly? We'll have to wait and see," Zeeman says, unable as of yet to make any concrete statements or set dates.