Jonas Vingegaard on Merijn Zeeman's rumoured departure from Visma: "Of course I hope he will stay with the team"

Last night, Wielerflits has reported that head DS Merijn Zeeman is on his way out of Team Visma | Lease a Bike so as to join Dutch football team AZ Alkmaar. The rumours have spread through the Dutch team like wildfire, and Jonas Vingegaard hopes that the man who has led him to two Tour de France victories remains in the sport and with the team.

"We haven't really heard anything official yet so for now I cannot answer on that. Merijn is of course very important for the team, he's been a big part of the team at least for my whole time in the team and before that so year. Of course it would be a big loss if he moves on," Vingegaard said in an interview this morning with CyclingPro.net. "Him and Richard [Plugge], Mathieu [Heijboer] and Grischa [Niermann] got the team where it is today so for sure he's one of the big architects behind it."

The experienced DS is a key part of the team's block in the Grand Tours, having led the team behind the wheel for several Grand Tour victories, and helped evolve riders such as Vingegaard himself or Primoz Roglic into the riders they are today. A depart is not yet official, but that is seemingly quite close. "We will have to see whether the rumours are true or not and yeah, if it is like that then it is like that, we cannot change it if it is his decision, but of course I hope he will stay with the team."

Onto Itzulia Basque Country, where the Dane is currently racing, he tells this morning that there is no set plan, and that possible attacks may come under the right circumstances. The route looks a bit harder today, there is a climb that finishes with a bit more than 10 k[ilometers] to go, so we will have to see what everyone else does," he says. Whether he will attack or not? "I don't know, we will see depending on my legs today, I'll never rule it out. For now, we also haven't had the meeting yet so I don't know what the plan will be."