🇪🇸 #LaVuelta23 Yesterday we celebrated Sepp's red jersey ♥️
Jumbo-Visma not worried about Primoz Roglic's possible departure: "If he were to leave, he'd potentially have to compete against formidable rivals like Vingegaard or Kuss"
CyclingFriday, 22 September 2023 at 11:10
Merijn Zeeman, leader of Jumbo-Visma on the car throughout most of the biggest races of the year, has talked about the preparation that goes behind a triple Grand Tour win, conflicts within Jumbo-Visma and the topic of Primoz Roglic's possible departure from the team.
"With all the team leaders, performance managers, coaches, and other staff members, we are going to discuss literally everything," Zeeman told In de Leiderstrui. "A lot went well, but we will also look at what can be improved. After all, there are always areas for improvement. We won the Giro, Tour, and Vuelta, but did we do that in the best way? But, of course, in Spain, it went nicely. On the other hand, you always have to leave the door open for room for improvement. If you start believing that your own way is the best way, then decay has already set in. We too look at other teams and what we can learn from them."
As had already been stated this week, the team is very happy with it's recent success but it does not think that there's nowhere they can improve. Aside from that, he also points out that with so many proven winners within the team, it also becomes important to manage internal battles and difference in goals between it's leaders: "Certain conflicts naturally always arise in a group of people working together, because you then have to deal with different ideas and ambitions. The question is then, how do you reach a consensus that everyone continues to support?"
"If you put a number of top riders together, it is an illusion to think that nothing will ever happen, in any way. In recent years, we have experienced such things several times, but we have actually always come out of that stronger," he says. The test that appeared at the Vuelta a España was one Zeeman could not have predicted, where the team was early on in a position to decide which of their riders was going to win. All three main climbers of the team were within a shot of winning a Grand Tour, but mostly between the riders there was a consensus in the end that Sepp Kuss deserved it.
Jonas Vingegaard was ok with it, but Primoz Roglic was not as satisfied, after having prepared throughout months specifically for the race and not stepping a foot wrong. Rumours enhanced of a possible departure, despite his two years of remaining contract. "To be honest, I'm not overly worried about that. Additionally, we are continually developing talented riders ourselves. Primoz has grown into the undisputed leader of the team with us;" Zeeman replies to that quite directly. Movistar Team, Lidl-Trek and INEOS Grenadiers are all teams mentioned over the past months. Most of the argument lies in his inability to lead the Tour de France because of Jonas Vingegaard's presence.
However he presents another obvious point that is often ignored by those claiming his chances of success would improve elsewhere. "I believe it's in Primoz's best interest to strive for a Tour win while wearing the Jumbo-Visma jersey. If he were to leave, he'd potentially have to compete against formidable rivals like Vingegaard or Kuss," Zeeman adds. "Being a teammate to such strong riders is a better position than competing against them."
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- No, it didn't. It has been debunked by the team that there was anything wrong with his feeding. Pogacar went too early and paid the price.maaiikeen31-12-2024
- Strong team around Jonas and pray each day that Tadej forgets to eat in the decisive stages (col du Granon). It also happened this year, stage 11 when Jonas won the sprint (incredible! Tadej was empty).
maria2024202430-12-2024 - Not quite yet I’d say but she could reach and surpass. You probably forgot Vos’ 2 track WC titles that outweigh the total and it has to be said more of PFPs MTB titles are a bit far fetched than Vos but yes they are comparable. It’s strange that with her consistent participation in xc she’s never ever managed to win even one race, Marie Schreiber can at least retire with that achievement ;-)Mistermaumau30-12-2024
- He may be known as “The goat” but I can’t realistically consider him a top ten candidate taking together all forms of cycling. Vos had 28 UCI WC wins, Absalon 33, Schurter 34, MVDP 41 and counting. As far as world championships they are all ahead too Longo, MVDP, PFP, Merckx, de Vlaeminck, TP and at least a half dozen others from long ago are surely higher up, or what criteria are you privileging other than a nickname?Mistermaumau30-12-2024
- and yeah, i’m a ridiculous blowhard for writing THAT MUCH. seriously, f me…OCexile30-12-2024
- this has diverged from being a per se cycling discussion, but that’s cool with me. so i live in the united states. for background, i grew up in southern california, educated at UC Irvine and UC Berkeley, and except for chunks of a 22 year Navy career i’ve lived here most of my life. there are things about this country, the way its social, political, and economic institutions function that IN MY OPINION fail considerably in comparison to other developed democracies. BUT, one thing that i think the US does excel in is that we have an extraordinarily high level of freedom of speech. now, that certainly opens the door for the alex joneses of the world to weaponize/monetize speech in utterly disgusting ways that do actual damage. it also gives freedom to politicians to say that the press is corrupt and should be jailed, like in russia, iran, or venezuela. these are DANGEROUS uses of freedom of speech. but as much as that freedom may imperil the well being of individuals and ideas — like the idea of liberty itself — it’s that freedom that has, over time, marked the SLOW movement toward greater equality and well being. this extreme level of free speech is certainly the primary fundamental right in the united states that has functioned, over time, to actively drive social progress. i mean, quack quack quack, right? the kind of speech that MOST needs protection is UNPOPULAR SPEECH. we KNOW this. but if you can only engage in unpopular speech IN PRIVATE, as you suggested, and be BARRED from a public platform to share those unpopular ideas, then your freedom to speak means very little and the whole project of social change and social progress grinds to a halt. “YES, you can talk about all races being equal to your friends, but you can’t publish any articles making that argument.” “YES, you can say that homosexuality isn’t a dangerous perversion that must be legislated against so long as you ONLY say it to your friends, but you can’t say it on a radio show.” so the problem is, if there’s going to be prior restraint of speech, the only person I’M gonna trust to decide who can say what before they say it is ME. if somebody wants to let me and my friends make all those decisions, then i’m IN. i’d expect a little pushback on that idea though. alex jones would probably like that job, too. lance would love that kind of power i bet. sooooo…. maybe it’s better to just leave things like they are. it’s ugly and messy and people get hurt, but once you SURRENDER that nearly unlimited freedom you’ll never get it back. and yes, society has drawn lines: still can’t threaten to blow up a mosque or share child pornography, etc. — that’s a pretty good idea. but erring on the side of freedom rather than censorship has been critical in preserving valuable free speech rather than seeing it slowly winnowed and legislated away. so yeah, there WILL be another alex jones, neonazis get to deny the holocaust, and lance gets to talk about cycling all he wants. and if you don’t like the source or the content then YOU are free to rail against it, or just not listen. as always, totally appreciate and respect YOUR perspective, brother. and i do get where you’re coming from. there are individuals in the US who have (or are about to have) the biggest platform there is who say things that drive me mad because i find them so dangerous and misleading, but the american version of democracy, with all its notable failings, has survived by preserving freedom of speech in the face of these types, not by limiting it.OCexile30-12-2024
- There is a cyclist, recently retired who raced as a Junior in 1997, and is known as 'The Goat'. Downhill legend, Greg Minnaar......wipperman9530-12-2024
- The road bias of this site shows up as PFP isn't mentioned - who is as successful as Vos, and from memory has more World titles.wipperman9530-12-2024
- his wife was surprisingly accurateabstractengineer30-12-2024
- Its the wrong thing to do the Vuelta after getting exhausted in the TDF. This is going to reduce his career potentialabstractengineer30-12-2024