"It is clear that Tadej and Mathieu are the favourites" - Visma DS Niermann

Grischa Niermann will be in the car this Sunday to lead Team Visma | Lease a Bike on what will be the very difficult task of trying to obtain a victory. Against colossal figures such as Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel, the team will have to innovate.

First and foremost however was the need to get through the disappointing Dwars door Vlaanderen. "After that disappointment, we have also had time to look at the positive aspects of that race. We perfectly executed our plan to take control of the race early and attack and largely imposed our will on the peloton," Niermann said ahead of the race. "That is what we stand for and we must remember from Wednesday".

"The race and the competition are much tougher in the Tour of Flanders. We don't have the top favourite in our team, but we have to play our strengths across the board," he adds. "We are confident that we can play our part. Everyone is in good shape: from Edoardo Affini and Tosh Van der Sande to Matteo Jorgenson and Wout van Aert. The Tour of Flanders is one of the most beautiful races of the year and is always one of our main goals. So everyone is looking forward to making it a great race".

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Earlier this week the team for the first time showed their collective power, and put in a surprising move that completely split the peloton and saw three riders go up the road, dropping even the likes of the in-form Mads Pedersen who will be a clear podium contender for Flanders.

Doing the same this time around will be very difficult, but the team is looking into potential ways to surprise the stronger competition. "It is clear that Tadej and Mathieu are the favourites and they also have a strong team, but we also have a strong team. So we have to find a solution to compete for the win with this formation".

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Flanders is a race that is very difficult, and with the 'big two' specialists at the start, the differences made in the climbs are so big that the race loses some of it's tactical aspect. "We make analyses of how we can win and we also analyse our opponents, but again: at the moment Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel are so strong. Then it is very difficult to come up with that one tactic that we have to do it this way or that. If you still have it, you can still bring it along".

"In those analyses we look at ourselves, but also at our opponents. We prefer to find a weakness that we can exploit, but that is not so easy with Tadej and Mathieu for these races. We have to be honest about that," he admits.

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The crosswinds forecast may provide with a good opportunity however: "We definitely need to take more risks. How? We’ll look into that, but if you go all out all day, there’s one rider in a rainbow jersey who thinks: perfect, keep going. So it’s not that easy. We’re going to sit down together and make a really good plan on how we can use all seven riders to maximize our chances of winning. But it’s not easy".

However, the team does slightly benefit from not having the responsibility to work throughout the day, against such rivals. "The pressure isn’t extra high. We’re realistic about it, but our biggest goal is to win. If we say here that we’re going to do the polonaise if Wout finishes in the top ten, then we don’t have the right mindset. We want to win and we’re going for the best possible result".

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