Visma keen to peak for Tour de France amidst slow start to 2025: "To support Jonas Vingegaard and compete with the one who is the strongest of them all"

Team Visma | Lease a Bike haven't had the greatest of starts to the 2025 season. With just four victories claimed, only Jonas Vingegaard and Olav Kooij have managed to celebrate in the opening few months of the campaign. According to the team's Head of Development Robbert de Groot though, there is no concern as of yet, with peaking for the Tour de France later this summer being a key target for many riders.

"It's just a small start. A large part of the team is still working, there are also those who have to start and are working at altitude for future commitments," the Dutchman explains to Bici.Pro. "We can say that the real season for us started with the Belgian classics of the last weekend where we actually expected more . But in general we can be satisfied with our performances in Oman. We also take into account the difficulties experienced by some, for example, Kooij who after the two victories in Oman got sick at the UAE Tour and was unable to perform as well as he is capable of. I think we are at a good level at the moment and we hope to be able to demonstrate this in the next races too."

One man who has started the year in typically winning form is the aforementioned Vingegaard, who took a stage and the general classification at the Volta ao Algarve. "I think we can be happy, very happy. Considering that in view of the Tour we haven't had any high altitude periods for him yet," De Groot says of the Dane. "So yes, we are very happy with his level, I think it's already a good sign also for how it arrived."

As mentioned, the main target for some of the biggest names in Team Visma | Lease a Bike, is peaking for the 2025 Tour de France, in order to best support Vingegaard in his fight to reclaim the Maillot Jaune from Tadej Pogacar. As such, De Groot is not concerned by some notable names not quite being at the level expected at this early point of the year.

"I think this is a very important factor," he concludes. "They are teams at an incredibly high level to support great champions and we have great confidence that our riders can compete with the world champion. So we will do everything we can to create a very, very strong team in these races, to support Jonas, to try to compete with the one who to date is the strongest of them all. But we will all have to be at our best, I think it's going to be a huge spectacle and we want it to be uncertain until the end."