Jumbo-Visma sign swimming coach Jacco Verhaeren - "It is important for us that we continue to look for improvement and new insight"

Jumbo-Visma have already reached the top of cycling. One cannot argue against that after wins in all three Grand Tours this year, alongside a complete podium overhaul at the Vuelta a Espana. However, the team does not want to stagnate and is looking for ways to innovate, which has led them to sign a coach that is famous in the swimming background - Jacco Verhaeren.

"After our best season ever, it is important for us that we continue to look for improvement and new insight," team DS Merijn Zeeman said in a press release. "Together with Mathieu Heijboer (team coach, ed.), I came to the conclusion that Jacco can give us these new ideas and other insights from another sport. We are starting with a modest collaboration, which will hopefully lead to more in the future."

Verhaeren himself said in words to L'Équipe that he will not be taking on a full-time job at the team, but instead be part of the staff and provide insight and new ideas. The team has lost one of it's main coaches to BORA - hansgrohe this winter (alongside Primoz Roglic) in Marc Lamberts, which plays a role. However, it is the hunt for new and perhaps more efficient training methods that has motivated the Dutch lineup to make this move in the market.

"With Jacco we have now acquired one of the top performance coaches in the Netherlands," Richard Plugge believes, having talked to In de Leiderstrui. "He can hold up a mirror to us and say: why are you doing this, why are you doing this like this? We can learn a lot from this and thus take the next step in our development."