"We had expected more from guys like Sepp Kuss and Wilco Kelderman" - Visma coach on mixed Algarve, injuries and classics

Mathieu Heijboer is the head of performance at Team Visma | Lease a Bike and over the past week, much of the team was out to race. The leader of the Dutch team has had positive signs in a winning Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert at the Volta ao Algarve, but little else as the team struggled through

Regarding the Portuguese race, the headliner of the week: "Yes, I had expected a little more. In the mountain stage in the Algarve where Jonas finished sixth, we had expected more from guys like Sepp Kuss and Wilco Kelderman. They didn't show what we saw in training at that time," Heijboer said in the WielerOrakel podcast. Vingegaard was almost isolated in the climb to the Alto da Fóia, a rare instance, and only a brilliant time-trial awarded him with the GC win. The team was not at the expected level as a whole, and the same happened at the UAE Tour  

Illness plowed through the team, leaving several riders out of the race, and with no riders finishing high on GC. "In the UAE Tour too, things didn't go the way we wanted. Our main goal was to win stages with Olav Kooij, but that didn't happen at all due to illness. We also expected more from Bart Lemmen and Thomas Gloag. Just like them."

Outside of the results sheet things have not been going perfectly either, with Christophe Laporte having his preparation for the classics delayed due to illness and missing the Opening Weekend, whilst Niklas Behrens has suffered a fractured collarbone. Dylan van Baarle, who has been swarmed by injuries ever since joining Visma, is also skipping Omloop het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne due to injury.

"He has so much class and it is not that he started without condition," he said of Wout van Aert who will lead the team at Omloop. "He is good enough to play a role in Omloop, but at the same time there are more important races, where he starts lighter and has completed an altitude training camp. There is still room for improvement in his condition."

The team's classics block is having some issues, but it will be hard to have more bad luck than the previous spring. "The original plan for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad has changed, because we had counted on Laporte. He had been the shadow leader. And Niklas broke his collarbone, but with Wout and Matteo the leaders are at the start."