“This was 'total cycling'" - Richard Plugge absolutely delighted with Jumbo-Visma's dominance

Jumbo-Visma have started the season on fire. Dominant on the Flemish Opening Weekend, the team took home the win at both Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne, much to the delight of team representative, Richard Plugge.

“This was 'total cycling', as we like to see it from time to time,” Plugge tells Het Laatste Nieuws. "The great thing is that when they take action, they don't spare themselves and always go full throttle. And follow up on that. See the Omloop and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. For the second year in a row, we showed that our approach does pay off.”

Alongside Dylan van Baarle's win at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Tiesj Benoot's success at Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne, Jumbo-Visma also had Christophe Laporte on the podium alongside van Baarle and Nathan Van Hooydonck runner up to Benoot, further expressing their dominance.

“Cycling has increasingly become a 'preparation sport', in which training sometimes takes precedence over competition. Pogacar, Van der Poel, Evenepoel and other tenors also apply that principle if they want to be 'top top top' somewhere. The general level has therefore become so much higher that you can hardly do anything else than follow. The opposite is even counterproductive,” Plugge reveals. 

Plugge isn't getting complacent though. “Well, don't underestimate Soudal - Quick-Step. Patrick still has the team to beat in the spring”, says Plugge. “With all those irons in the fire? Just keep an eye on them. Mathieu van der Poel does it on his own. But Soudal-Quick-Step can make the difference as a team. Just like Ineos, if they go full in.”