"We are looking at why we were involved in so many crashes" - Visma investigating root cause of disaster year

After their record-breaking and all-conquering season in 2023, Team Visma | Lease a Bike were quite literally brought back down to earth with a bump in 2024 as numerous crashes continually interrupted the seasons of the team's star riders.

Wout van Aert's Spring was ended prematurely by a crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen, Jonas Vingegaard's preparation for the Tour de France took a blow in a particularly nasty crash at the Itzulia Basque Country, the likes of Dylan van Baarle, Christophe Laporte, and others all also got themselves caught up in incidents before Van Aert again was the victim of some bad luck, crashing out of the Vuelta a Espana in the third week.

Given the vast number of crashes, Visma are now searching for an answer to the problem. “We are looking at ourselves critically. We had the evaluation days in October. We are looking with a number of people at why we were involved in so many crashes last season,” Team Visma | Lease a Bike's sports director Arthur van Dongen says on the podcast De Cross. "That is being investigated. And then we will see what we can do about it. But it is also true: if you ride in the front line as a team, the risks are greater."

"If you see how Jonas Vingegaard maneuverered through the Tour de France, he encountered very little. That was also partly due to the stage schedule, which was very difficult at the beginning," Van Dongen continues. "Unfortunately, the first week of next year's Tour is... I am afraid that riders will be eliminated from the classification by crashes."

Van Aert's return from injury this cyclocross winter still isn't confirmed as of yet, but according to voices from within the Visma camp, the Belgian's recovery is going well and movement can be expected soon.