“It is very special to now be on the same side” - Former world champion who twice denied Marianne Vos rainbow glory joins Visma as sports director
Cycling
One of Marianne Vos' biggest former rivals will be on her side from 2027. Giorgia Bronzini, the two-time road world champion who twice beat Vos to the rainbow jersey, is joining Team Visma | Lease a Bike as a sports director from the start of next season.
Bronzini arrives with extensive experience from both sides of the team car. The Italian moved directly into sports directing after ending her racing career in 2018 and has since worked with Trek-Segafredo, Liv Racing and Human Powered Health.
Her move to Visma now puts her alongside a rider she spent years trying to beat.
"Marianne and I raced against each other for many years, and there was always a lot of respect between us," Bronzini says. "It is very special to now be on the same side and to have the opportunity to support Marianne achieve her goals. I'm really looking forward to that, as well as to working with the whole team and seeing what we can achieve together."
Marianne Vos has 259 pro wins on her palmares to date
Twice standing between Vos and the rainbow jersey
Few riders played a bigger part in Vos' World Championship frustrations than Bronzini. The Italian beat her to gold in Geelong in 2010 before doing so again in Copenhagen 12 months later. That second defeat left Vos with a remarkable fifth consecutive silver medal in the elite road race before she finally regained the rainbow jersey in Valkenburg in 2012.
Bronzini finished her own career with three elite world titles across road and track, but outright speed was only part of what made her successful. Reading opponents and judging how races were developing became hallmarks of her approach, something she carried into the team car almost immediately after retirement.
Early in her directing career, Bronzini spoke about wanting riders to understand tactical decisions rather than simply wait for instructions over the radio. Seven years later, that philosophy closely matches the job Visma have brought her in to perform.
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Visma hand Bronzini key development role
Team manager Rutger Tijssen says Bronzini will work particularly closely with the younger riders in Visma's squad. "Giorgia will be dedicated to working with our younger riders, particularly on their tactical development and understanding of how to read a race," he explains. "She also wants to help us to take the combination of performance and racing a step further."
Tijssen had already crossed paths with Bronzini at races before the appointment and says her enthusiasm, work ethic and approach to supporting riders stood out alongside her experience.
Bronzini herself was attracted by Visma's emphasis on development as well as results, saying she was "really inspired" by the team's philosophy and its constant pursuit of improvement.
Her move continues a coaching career that began almost as soon as her racing one ended. Bronzini signed off as a professional by winning the final race of her career in Madrid in 2018; by the time she takes her place in the Visma team car next season, she will have spent eight years putting that racing experience to use from the other side of the radio.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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