Johan Bruyneel believes Visma made a mistake teaming up Vingegaard and Jorgenson at Paris-Nice: "It should've been clear if it would've been my team that this is Jorgenson's race"
Cycling
Paris-Nice has delivered a lot of drama when it comes to Team Visma | Lease a Bike. Matteo Jorgenson's race has been ideal until the start of the final weekend of the race, but it was the combination of the American (the defending champion) and Jonas Vingegaard that was a mistake.
"I didn't see it, I don't know if it was on camera but he didn't look that banged up. But his hand appeared not to be ok he couldn't stand up," Spencer Martin said in The Move podcast. Johan Bruyneel continued regarding the Dane's crash: "His lip was split, there was blood, and then apparently he had problems with the hand".
"Then I read an interview of Campenaerts afterwards that he couldn't shift and almost not break. So they already knew that something was going on. Then I also saw the interview of Grischa Niermann (Visma DS, ed.) that said this morning (Friday morning, ed.) that 'we already he was out yesterday'. "
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Ultimately Vingegaard abandoned the race. But this did not in any way almost throw an obstacle in the way of Visma, who continued to lead the race with a very consistent and strong Jorgenson, and a collective that did a perfect stage 6 to create chaos in the crosswinds and distance several of their riders even further.
"If I would be the director or the manager of the team I would've tried to convince Jonas before the start of Tirreno. Because they all know how good they are, which level they are. If you have a guy like Jorgenson in their team who is the defending champion, who's super ambitious to try and win again... From before the start of Paris-Nice it should've been clear if it would've been my team that this is Jorgenson's race," Bruyneel argues.
The American has delivered on his expectations, and often Vingegaard seemed to have a free role within a team with a clear focus. "Jonas has a free role in case Jorgenson gets in problems. But he should put himself on the service of Jorgenson because he is of unbelievable value for Jonas in other races".
"Whether Jonas wins Paris-Nice or not it doesn't really matter. If Jorgenson wins Paris-Nice you have an extremely good rider with a great result, happy and super committed to the leader later on," the former team manager argued.
"I'm not saying that Jorgenson isn't going to do that now, even if Jonas would win and Jorgenson get third or fourth he would still do his job. But it's these little things that, in this case Jorgenson should've gotten more of a leader's role than Jonas, and it's something we've seen a few times with Visma".
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- I love listening to Geraint Thomas, he is such a great sportsman.awp26-03-2025
- Liege or Amstel are a little different. Only he knows what really works for him. I'm a bit disappointed that he is not going to focus on any other races potentially until the Dauphine. If you don't have race days in the legs no matter how good you are it generally gives a negative result. I had argued that he knew what works for him the other day but he seems to have maybe a mental block or is still a bit gun shy from last year's crash, which to be honest, was pretty bad. He might be in his last season or two. I hope not because he can still do quite a bit of winning if he gets his head right.awp26-03-2025
- Do you need a tissue since I seem to have offended you with my comment?frieders326-03-2025
- You mean Liege or Amstel or Flech doesn't play to his abilities ? That's a cop out !frieders326-03-2025
- He beat a field of second rate sprinters....yawn!frieders326-03-2025
- He didn't beat any top class sprinters in this race so slow the roll!frieders326-03-2025
- I think, sometimes, women's races are more interesting because of their unpredictability due to their silly mistakes. The most recent ones seem to always involve Demi Vollering against SD Worx. 11% is way too discriminative. Is there no guardrail in EU laws that prevent this sort of discrimination?
KerisVroom26-03-2025 - Good for him but not exactly the most competitive field, though better than what Froome would try ;-) Let’s wait and see if he can keep things up over time.Mistermaumau25-03-2025
- Huh? So when the men’s is boring and the women’s isn’t should they transfer money or how do you suggest to do things. Last I heard, it’s a bunch of mostly ageing chubby men who set the criteria for women’s races (and in most sports it’s still rather like how religions are run). Don’t think the girls are particularly against doing the same races as the men. Anyway, there’s a huge unjustified gap between 11% of and a difference of 11%. Doubt this happens at the Olympics.Mistermaumau25-03-2025
- C’mon, nobody has ever spoken of Ganna in the same breath as those two until a few months ago and he showed how close a thing it can be when he’s on form, nobody can know in advance what form Remco will have, his Olympic form would cause even Tadej problems, and Wout, well, we’ll just have to wait and see but you can’t really write him off in advance.Mistermaumau25-03-2025