"Some teams need to step up their game" - Cyrille Guimard critical of lack of competition for Team Visma | Lease a Bike on Opening Weekend

On Opening Weekend of the 2024 Classics season, there was no doubt about who was the dominant force in the peloton as Team Visma | Lease a Bike immediately came to the fore, dominating both Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne.

With their victories coming through Jan Tratnik and Wout van Aert respectively, there is seemingly no stopping the all-conquering Team Visma | Lease a Bike. For the vastly experienced, French cycling expert, Cyrille Guimard however, more could be done by the rival teams to challenge the superiority of the yellow and blacks.

"It's very difficult," Guimard answers when asked by Cyclism'Actu how to bring a halt to Team Visma | Lease a Bike's dominance. "In any case, there will be gaps, there always are, so we'll have a few surprises from time to time. Some teams need to step up their game. We're in a period where there are too many races and the opposition is a bit scattered."

The lack of outright rivals for the likes of Wout van Aert is expected to change in the coming weeks though. "Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic haven't made their comeback, so we've got three riders who aren't here at the moment," Guimard assesses. "These are the riders who have the potential to cause problems for the Visma team."

And with the likes of Paris-Nice, Strade Bianche and Tirreno-Adriatico coming up, Guimard is excited for the prospects of the battles to come. "A great show. Perhaps the weather conditions will be decisive. I'm very curious to see these races, with two great stage races, events that really fit in with the teams' objectives," he concludes. "These are events that get a lot of media coverage, that have a history, that allow the greatest riders to raise their profile and sometimes begin to create legends."