Merijn Zeeman admits 2020 Covid lockdown almost brought an end to Jumbo-Visma: "Extremely stressful for us"

The almost worldwide covid lockdown of 2020 had a big impact on the sporting calendar. In cycling, one of the teams to most greatly feel its effects were Jumbo-Visma as their sports director Merijn Zeeman has revealed.

“2020 was also extremely stressful for us. We had to work hard in the background to keep the team going," the Dutchman opened up in an interview with RIDE Magazine. "Everyone thought we had nothing to worry about with Jumbo Supermarkets as the main sponsor. That is indeed our main sponsor. However, the vast majority of our budget comes from other lenders."

As is often the case in these things, the main issue came down to money. Due to a whole lot of cycling races being cancelled or postponed, the finances of the Jumbo-Visma team were greatly affected. “Many of those companies then asked whether they should continue to pay the full fee. We then had to put a lot of energy into activities to keep these sponsors on board. We had to be creative and worked our butts off to ensure that the budget was kept intact.”

Jumbo-Visma managed to overcome these difficulties, going from strength to strength in recent years with multiple Grand Tour wins, most recently through Primoz Roglic at the Giro d'Italia. And, later this summer, Jonas Vingegaard will return to the Tour de France looking to defend his Yellow Jersey.