Visma change tact to target "riders who had consistent seasons without too many injuries or illnesses" after exits of Van Baarle, Benoot & Uijtdebroeks among others
Cycling
The clearest sign of how Team Visma | Lease a Bike are reacting to a changing roster is not a single signing or headline. It is the filter they used before anything else.
“We looked for riders who have had consistent seasons in recent years, with plenty of race days and without too many injuries or illnesses,” says Head of Racing Grischa Niermann on the team's Inside the Beehive podcast.
With a number of established names leaving, including Dylan van Baarle, Tiesj Benoot and Cian Uijtdebroeks, Visma’s approach has been to reduce risk rather than chase reputation. The emphasis is on riders who can withstand a full calendar and keep performing across long blocks of racing, not simply those who flash brightest on a handful of days.
A deliberate mix of youth and experience
“We also looked at big talents, such as Davide Piganzoli, but also riders with experience, like Owain Doull,” Niermann added.
That mix matters because it signals intent. Visma are trying to protect the present while building the next layer underneath it, especially as the departures remove depth across both stage races and the Classics.
Managing expectations around Piganzoli
Piganzoli is a good example of how carefully they want that transition managed. “I don’t want to put too much pressure on Davide,” Niermann said. “He is a talented general classification rider, and hopefully he can develop well within our team.”
Rather than casting him as an instant answer, Visma’s language frames Piganzoli as a rider to be shaped steadily inside their environment, with progression measured over time rather than demanded immediately.
Italian prospect Davide Piganzoli joins Visma from Team Polti VisitMalta
Replacing Benoot’s role, not his profile
The same logic appears in how they have gone about replacing Benoot’s influence on the road. Visma are not pretending that sort of versatility is easy to reproduce, but they believe one signing in particular has been undervalued.
“We knew we had to replace Tiesj Benoot,” Niermann said. “That’s very difficult. He’s a great guy and rider, extremely versatile. We will definitely miss him, but in terms of support in the Grand Tours and especially in the Classics we have found someone in Timo who is very underrated.”
That rider is Timo Kielich, and Visma’s rationale for backing him is grounded in qualities that rarely make highlight reels. “He impressed us at moments when the TV broadcast hadn’t even started yet,” Niermann said. “We saw Timo being first into a corner five times in a row, while 180 riders wanted the same thing.”
Why 2025 still fell short internally
Only once the recruitment logic is laid out does the broader context of Visma’s mindset become clear. The team may have delivered major results in 2025, but their internal framing makes it obvious they are still measuring themselves against their highest objective.
“The big, big goal was to win all the Grand Tours, and we won two of them,” Niermann said. “We can certainly call it a success, although we would have liked to win the Tour de France, the biggest race of the year.”
Measuring themselves against the benchmark
And that final point feeds directly into how they view the competitive landscape they are trying to close down, particularly against the team that set the pace for overall output. “We have to congratulate UAE Team Emirates - XRG after a season with almost 100 victories, and we were quite a long way off that,” Niermann said. “But it inspires us.”
For Visma, then, the transfer market response is not being sold as a rebuild or a panic move. It is a deliberate tactical shift, built around a simple belief: consistency and availability are now non-negotiable foundations if they want to keep winning big, and win even more often.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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