"At some point we have to be done with that bad luck" - Visma enter the 2024 Tour de France hopeful more than expectant

2024 has so far not been a year to fondly look back upon for Team Visma | Lease a Bike. Crash after crash, illness and illness, there is barely a rider in the team to have not suffered some form of bad luck during the campaign. As such, they enter the 2024 Tour de France more in hope than expectation.

"We have had a lot of bad luck. In the meantime, we have achieved very good performances with Olav Kooij in the Giro, and also Matteo Jorgenson in the Dauphiné. Yet there is a contrast from last year, when everything seemed to be going well. It feels different that way," the team's sports director, Grischa Niermann tells the team's new official podcast. "At some point we have to be done with that bad luck. It may sound harsh, but in a certain way it is part of it and you have to keep going."

Whilst the recoveries of Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert are the main talking points heading into the Tour de France, Niermann is backing Matteo Jorgenson to continue quietly impressing over the next month. "We have already proven that we can keep going with Matteo, among others," he explains. "He has proven that the spirit is there both in Dwars door Vlaanderen, after the fall of Wout, and in the Dauphiné."

On Vingegaard however, Niermann remains coy. "Given the circumstances, Jonas is doing very well, but he is still dealing with the consequences of his fall. We don't know exactly how competitive he will be, but four weeks ago we wouldn't have dared to dream that he and Wout would be this far," Niermann assesses. "Our dream is still to win the Tour, but we can't call it a goal. It's different than the last two years."

For van Aert also, Niermann isn't totally enthusiastic. "He is here hopefully for stage wins, but he also had to recover for a long time and will still have to grow," the sports director concludes. "Matteo Jorgenson has already exceeded our expectations and is now also very well prepared, so he will play an important role. He has never gone for a classification in a grand tour, but hopefully he can stay with Jonas for as long as possible and thus also defend his position. We expect UAE-Team Emirates and Tadej Pogacar to test us immediately, these first two days suit him very well."