"Any WorldTour team, outside UAE, would sign for a season like ours" - Tiesj Benoot insists Visma's 2024 wasn't as disappointing as first feared

In 2024, Team Visma | Lease a Bike were a shadow of the side that had proven all-conquering only a year prior. No Grand Tour victories and not even a top 10 in a monument this year ensured much disappointment, but on that last point, Tiesj Benoot insists, all hope is not lost.

"That's a statistic that makes my hair stand on end. That's nice for journalists, but it doesn't mean anything," says the Belgian about the lack of a top 10 in a monument this year, via the latest episode of the Kop over Kop podcast for Sporza. "First of all, we don't ride for the top ten, but to win," Benoot insists fiercely.

There were of course, plenty of mitigating circumstances behind Team Visma | Lease a Bike's quiet year. A number of high profile crashes and injuries to star riders proved damaging to the team's ambitions as the likes of Benoot, Matteo Jorgenson and Jan Tratnik among others, stepped up in the absence of the team's biggest stars.

"In the Tour of Flanders, after the Paterberg, I was in the group that was competing for second place, but then I crashed. At Liège-Bastogne-Liège, I came fifth on top of the Roche-aux-Faucons, but a large group came back," notes Benoot, remaining positive. "Similar things happened in those other monuments. You can look at that, but you can also look at the fact that we are still second on the World Tour ranking. That is also very impressive."

"Any WorldTour team, outside UAE, would sign for a season like ours. Of course, I realize that it was different from other seasons, and it is also something that will evolve. We will look at the crashes, or the injuries, but that is something difficult, because the risks are still associated with cycling," Benoot concludes. "I think we should rather look at it as: despite the bad luck we still achieved these results. It is frustrating, but on the other hand we can be proud of the battle we put up. Also in the Tour de France, because of us there was a battle in the Tour de France for two weeks."