Interview | Richard Plugge wants “even more” with Jumbo-Visma and cycling in general: “Tour de France is our Super Bowl”

After the presentation and the opening of the Efteling attraction ‘The Vélodrome’ (which Plugge himself decided not to ride), the boss of Jumbo-Visma took the time to chat with In de Leiderstrui. "My leadership style? Well, I can talk to you guys in a relaxed way while other people are doing the important work and taking responsibility," he said. He quickly corrected himself, saying, "I said relaxed, but I'm never truly relaxed. I'm always busy."

This is indicative of the professionalism of Plugge, who calmly answered every possible question. This includes the question of whether or not the sponsorship agreement with supermarket chain Jumbo will come to an end. "We have time to remain calm, but Jumbo also has time to think about it. There is no immediate panic, which is why I am relaxed. We want to take the next step, which we have thoroughly discussed with them. We have won the Tour and have been number one in the world for three years. How are we going to maintain that? We want to go further, even more and even higher."

"We also don't know what will happen, but what we do know is that we are very grateful to Jumbo for what we have achieved so far and that we would like to continue with this project," says the team leader. "Or rather: will continue with this project. These are the steps we are now investigating together. Hopefully, this will be done together in the spirit of Karel van Eerd, as we discussed a few years ago. With Jumbo."

Our suggestion that Jumbo-Visma, as the best cycling team in the world and with riders from all over the world, has now outgrown the supermarket chain Jumbo – which is mainly located in the Netherlands and Belgium – is contradicted by Plugge. "It's a gigantic company that suits us perfectly. The past few years have shown that yet again," says the man who does admit that the budget may need to be slightly higher. "We are currently in fifth or sixth place in the budget ranking and, in order to stay there, we need to grow. Last year, the average budget of around 25 million grew again substantially."

Those who know a thing or two about sports marketing, know that the big bucks are in the United States. With partnerships with Amazon and Netflix and rumors surrounding Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), Jumbo-Visma is also linked to various initiatives, albeit cautiously. "Cycling can be compared to the NFL and the Tour de France is like the Super Bowl. Everyone in the world knows the Tour de France, so globally things become interesting."

"I think those documentaries, with Amazon and Netflix, are very good for the sport in general, which can still take a very big step forward," says Plugge. "We are also working on this in the background – on how we can take the sport as a whole to the next level."

The boss of Jumbo-Visma is considered one of the revolutionaries in modern cycling. "Competition for our sport comes from the outside. Football, Formula 1, American sports... those are our competitors. We need to see how we can compete with them and in my opinion we can still create an even better product. In Western Europe, cycling is a very big sport, but globally it can become even bigger.'

What helps with that is recognizability. Plugge has mentioned that subject several times before and he does so again now. "I am a big advocate of giving everyone a race number, so you know that, for example, Wout van Aert is number 28 with us. And as for the calendar: you all know how important the Amstel Gold Race or Dwars door Vlaanderen is, but try asking your neighbor about it. You just want to know that it's a top race with the top riders at the start. You don't want to have just Pogacar at the start of the Amstel Gold Race, but also Roglic, Van Aert and Van der Poel. That's what I want to aim for: a smaller calendar at the highest level, where you see the top riders racing against each other more often."

Is there still room in that plan for the current format of the Giro and Vuelta as three-week tours, alongside the Tour de France? “Of course, the Giro and Vuelta still have their place, they are historic races. It depends on how you would structure the season. The Giro and Vuelta, as three-week tours, are of course something special in cycling and you shouldn't just abandon them. You just have to look at how you can schedule them.”

Marc Madiot (Groupama-FDJ) spoke in favor of budget caps, but Plugge is not immediately on board with that idea. "If you use good arguments, I think it's a very good idea. When I read his arguments, I think you're not going to solve the social security problem in France just like that. They will always need more money because they have to pay their social security in France. I can't do anything about that," says the head of Jumbo-Visma, who does have a caveat to add: "I do think you have to be careful not to create mediocrity. It's still a sport. There are teams that are better than others – you see that in football and other sports as well."

It is clear that Plugge and Jumbo-Visma do not want to rely too much on the successes of recent years. They are more focused on the future than the past. "For me, it's about wanting to make sports history, with 2030 as our benchmark. Then we close a decade. Why 2030? A deadline works very well for me. Continuing to dream takes a lot of energy, it's better to have a deadline."

"It's about the track record, but also the way it's achieved," Plugge says about setting his goals. "We demonstrated that wonderfully this spring, but also during the Tour. People congratulated me on that Tour victory, but also often said, 'the way you did it...' that made me very proud," he smiles. "We will continue this project for the long term. 2030 is our ultimate moment, by then we want to have made sports history. It would be great if we could continue this for a few more years – and inspire many children in doing so."

Of course, the absence of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix was also discussed – two races that Jumbo-Visma really wanted to win this year. "Our objective was to win Paris-Roubaix or the Tour of Flanders. I think we came closest to winning Paris-Roubaix, but it was just sheer bad luck. Without that mishap, Wout had a very good chance of winning, but if you get a puncture on Carrefour de l'Arbre, it's just too late. There's nothing you can do to recover from that. And in Flanders, Pogacar was just too strong," says Plugge.

We sense no disappointment from the head of Jumbo-Visma, who enjoyed the team's way of racing and winning this spring. "I look back with great pride on the first few months, looking at what we have achieved. We have never had such a good spring. We won 24 times and we are in first place in the UCI Ranking. If we can't be satisfied with a spring like that, we will never be satisfied."

"We have our main goals that we set. If we don't achieve them, it's disappointing on one hand," Plugge admits. "But when you see how well the rest of the spring went, that makes up for a lot. It's just SO good. If you see what we've won, that's unprecedented," Plugge notes, with a caveat. "We really want to win Flanders or Roubaix, and you can hold us accountable if we don't. But bad luck is bad luck – nothing to be done about that."

The fact that we are already talking about the spring classics in hindsight, while the Amstel Gold Race has just ended and Liège-Bastogne-Liège is yet to come, is partly due to the goals that Jumbo-Visma set for this spring. "We’ve set other goals for this year. We have been doing this for years, since we started to move in the right direction with our team. We are not going to change that all of a sudden," Plugge says in response to the question whether Primoz Roglic should now be flown in for Liège after all.

"We also want to win the Amstel, but we have determined our main goals and we are really going for those. The Amstel is a beautiful race, especially for a Dutch team," says Plugge. "But in today's modern cycling world, we have to choose our priorities. We can easily set aside the Amstel, but not Roubaix, for example. It's not that I'm taking it lightly, but Roubaix was a main goal."

"I think we have potential winners for races like the Amstel and Liège in our team, but we are deploying them at different times. If Attila doesn't fall and Tiesj is better placed, that’s a different discussion. But, it just wasn't good, period," the team leader summarizes his team's performance in the Amstel Gold Race.

The fact that Wout van Aert did not manage to win a Monument this spring doesn't diminish his achievements during the spring, according to Plugge. "It's not like I'm looking at Gent-Wevelgem differently now, for example. That's typical for our team, it represents how we work together and win. You never know what's going to happen later on, but it's just beautiful what happened there."

After Van Aert, Christophe Laporte was the man of Jumbo-Visma's spring season – and, according to the rumors, he will extend his contract with the Dutch team for three more years. "We're in talks with Christophe. His win in Gent-Wevelgem has nothing to do with that. If Laporte stays, it's because he's one of the best riders currently racing. Christophe can be used in a lot of areas, he's one of the best riders," says Plugge, who understands that French teams would potentially pay a lot of money for him. "The disadvantage for our team is that riders generally tend to perform better over time, which means not a single rider becomes cheaper."

"I agree with Adrie van der Poel's words," Plugge summarizes the spring season of the big boys. "We now have a great generation and we should take the time to enjoy that more often. Sometimes we criticize someone too quickly when things don't go well," the team manager concludes. In mid-April, he doesn't want to look too far ahead towards the Tour. "What Wout can do in the Tour is written in the stars. He surprises us every year with what he can do, but let's see what's in store for us this summer. Give us some more time."

"Vingegaard, however, is on schedule. He now has some rest before he starts his build-up, but he is feeling good and doing fine," says Plugge, who also explained the switch of Wilco Kelderman to Sepp Kuss for the Giro. "If we go to the Giro with Roglic, we won't do it just to ride along. Whether Kuss will also ride the Tour is something we will consider after the Giro. That depends on the toughness of the Giro. Wilco, in the meantime, is doing well. He is back to training and things are looking up again."

Tom van der Salm (Twitter: @TomvanderSalm) | email: [email protected])