Jumbo-Visma's key to success - It may have little do with money

INEOS Grenadiers is by far the biggest budget team in cycling, yet it has clearly been overtaken by Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates in terms of sporting success.

Jumbo and UAE have in common that they have managed to sign big stars when they were in training in small teams, thus attracting them with little expense and small salaries in their early days.

In fact, Jumbo's strategy is much sharper than that of UAE. Matxín has attracted to the Emirates young riders who were already stars in the lower categories, such as Tadej Pogacar or Juan Ayuso, but what the Dutch have done is to look at riders who were also not making much of a name for themselves and have turned them into stars.

Thus, as journalist Raul Banqueri points out, they signed Primoz Roglic from Adria Mobil in 2016, Sepp Kuss from Human Powered Health in 2018 and in 2019 they attracted Wout van Aert from Vérandas Willems and Jonas Vingegaard from ColoQuick.

Four of the best riders of the moment were found in mid-tier development teams. Leaving aside van Aert, who was obviously already a cyclocross gem, the rest have a lot to do with extraordinary scouting work that has paid off in the long run.

In addition to this scouting work, there is of course the strategic work of training cyclists with the best care in terms of nutrition, training and rest. Yes, it should not happen like Matteo Jorgenson that he has to pay for his high performance training out of his own pocket.

Cycling has taken a leap forward and, of course, economic factors have an influence, but these stars have not come from the check book but from the meticulous planning of a job in which even the smallest detail matters.