Team priority Kooij "showing improvement", yet it's Uijtdebroeks who really steps up amid Visma | Lease a Bike's disastrous week

During the first week of the Giro d'Italia, being part of Visma | Lease a Bike was no joke. The Dutch team has seen one or more riders crash nearly every day, and Wednesday's stage to Lucca was no exception, with Christophe Laporte and Attila Valter both falling. This has negatively impacted the ambitions of their sprint leader Olav Kooij, who has also experienced crashes. Conversely, general classification rider Cian Uijtdebroeks has managed to get through the first days without incident. With an important gravel stage and a time trial coming up on Friday, it's time to assess the situation. Team director Marc Reef shared insights with IDLProCycling.com.

Can you still manage a smile after five days?

"Phew, it was quite a tough day again. First, we more or less lost Christophe for today, and we have to see what the damage will be. He was able to get back on the bike and rejoin the peloton, so that's a good sign at least. But we still need to take some pictures."

Where exactly is he in pain?

"Mainly the chest. There was a hole of a few centimeters deep that he hit, and the handlebars slipped from his hands. From what I understand, he had his weight a bit more towards the front and he slammed his chest onto the handlebars. He managed to come back and after that we were pretty good again on the road and were where we needed to be. Just when we wanted to get involved in the chase again, Attila went down. Then we were mostly dealing with that, and in addition, it was a strong breakaway."

You had every reason to lay low in the finale, right?

"Well, we're here primarily to sprint with Olav, but the situation wasn't right to do that straight away. The responsibility was a bit more on the rest, and the peloton was also looking at what Alpecin-Deceuninck was doing because they chased back the breakaway quite quickly in the first part of the stage and were going full throttle uphill. Eventually, there was cooperation, but too late..."

We've had three sprinting days, and today (Wednesday, ed.) wasn't one of them. Focusing just on results, we can draw some conclusions, but how do you think Olav is doing in the race?

"I think everyone saw that he crashed hard in stage two and that always has an impact. The racing has been full throttle these past few days, but we have a combative Olav and someone who's definitely ready. He's improving every day, so it's a shame that we couldn't defend our chances in a good way here."

Cian keeps staying out of trouble, even when there weren't many men around him at one point. Is that perhaps a quality of his, or just a bit of luck?

"True, but we always have someone keeping an eye on him. And he can just sit with the team, that's something we tell him throughout the day. We keep him out of trouble that way. In the finale, he primarily needs to follow the team, where we always have someone behind him in case something goes wrong or he needs a bike."

A gravel stage is next on Thursday... You can't say much about it yet, but were Christophe and Attila targeting this stage?

"Yes, for sure! Both us as a team and them in particular. Now we mainly have to assess the damage, see how they get through the night, and then see how we approach the stage."

Have you scouted the stage?

"Cian has, and we've been there with Maarten Wynants as well. So, we know what's coming and have footage of it. It's going to be tricky, especially downhill."

It's going to be a crucial day, right?

"Well, yes, in the sense that you need to stay out of trouble. I don't think it's tough enough to really make a difference, although we've seen more surprises in this Giro. The main thing is to keep Cian out of trouble and then see how we tackle the stage with the rest."

Check our recon of the last two gravel sections in stage 6 of the Giro!

Cian is one of the few guys who hasn't crashed yet, but let's not jinx it... Addy Engels said a few days ago that you don't want to discuss potential ambitions for him at this point. Is there now gradually more of a feeling in the team, where you take his ambitions more seriously?

"We always take Cian seriously, it's just that we started the Giro with a particular goal. We're only five stages in, and we've had two tough stages. They didn't include long climbs, that's really more of a thing in the last week. We wanted to keep him out of trouble in these stages and we've succeeded very well. We've seen a good Cian, but the race continues and things can change in the blink of an eye. Then you're in trouble, so we're very cautious with him in that respect. He didn't start with the pressure to have to deliver on a classification, so we continue to take it day by day. We support him in that and then we'll see."

But now that almost the whole team has hit the ground, will you increasingly rely on Uijtdebroeks later?

"We're also very much working with him and he's consistently come through. We're doing well with him and will continue those efforts!"