Van Dijke brothers on how Van Aert's Spring crash triggered butterfly effect resulting in their Visma departure: "That's something that opened my eyes"

For the 2025 season, Mick and Tim van Dijke will depart Team Visma | Lease a Bike after coming through the Development team of the Dutch-based side. As it turned out, the butterfly effect that started their journey to Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe can be traced back to a Spring crash for Wout van Aert.

Back at Dwars door Vlaanderen, both Tim and Mick van Dijke were present for Visma in support of Van Aert, as their leader crashed out hard, ending his spring before even getting a shot at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. Instead, those chances were then left for the rest of the Visma team, among them, both Van Dijke brothers, who especially excelled at Paris-Roubaix as both secured a top 20 finish.

"Our dream is to win a cobbled classic one day. Preferably Flanders or Roubaix. But that's a dream, and lots of people have that dream. It became a reality when I crossed the line in Roubaix in eighth place. That was such a fantastic experience," explains Tim on the De Rode Lantaarn podcast. "If that (Van Aert's crash ed.) hadn't happened, we would never have shown what we managed to show this year. That's something that opened my eyes."

"In Roubaix, the camera captures it all," adds Mick in total agreement. "I could follow Mathieu van der Poel, Jasper Philipsen, and Mads Pedersen in the Forest of Arenberg. Now we were riding in the finale in Roubaix with those guys and managed to follow these four guys in the forest. That was brilliant, and quite a few teams noticed it."

Not just the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe team called for the Van Dijke brothers' signature. "We were able to make a nice choice because we were in the spotlight," they explain, expressing how they come as a package deal. "That was the main reason for leaving. At Visma, we were also a bit in each other's way. Tim and I always fought for the last spot; that was just difficult."

So how did their eventual suitors manage to convince them? "They also didn't want us just for the classics, but we showed that we can be a lead-out for sprinters. We also cared very well for Matteo Jorgenson in Paris-Nice. They noticed that, too. Of course, that's what you want in a grand tour, to have guys who can drop off the climbers," they conclude. "We all wanted to look at our options. For us, it was straightforward: we would only leave if we improved athletically. That leaves only a small group of teams anyway."