"It was a nervous ride. The wind picked up a lot" - Team Visma | Lease a Bike survive opening of Tour Down Under unscathed

In their first stage race of 2024, Team Visma | Lease a Bike were relatively quiet as the Tour Down Under got underway. As sports director Addy Engels says post-stage however, emerging incident free must be considered a positive.

"That was the most important thing,” reflected Engels post-stage in conversation with the official website of Team Visma | Lease a Bike. "It was a nervous ride. The wind picked up a lot and even got a bit tricky. You could see that everyone was on their toes. With forty degrees, it was also super hot today.”

With a fresh look to their team, not just because of the new sponsors and new jerseys, the likes of Bart Lemmen, Loe van Belle and Johannes Staune-Mittet were all new faces. "They made a good impression on me," Engels analyses. "They are in good shape and have a lot of power. That's always good."

Another challenging day awaits on stage 2. Will Visma have more of an impact? "Quite early on, we'll come to a lap that we'll do three times. There is a tricky climb, and the last summit is eight kilometres from the finish," Engels previews. "Our first goal is to get through the day well and then make sure Milan Vader is in a good position when the climb starts.”