"We might have expected a bit more" admits Team Visma | Lease a Bike after Tour de Romandie time-trial

In arguably the biggest test to the general classification of the 2024 Tour de Romandie so far, the best any of Team Visma | Lease a Bike's riders could manage was 28th, 59.86 seconds down through Koen Bouwman on the stage 3, individual time-trial.

"In terms of results, we might have expected a bit more, but the men did their best. Certainly Koen, Johannes Staune-Mittet and Jan Tratnik rode the time trial properly," explained team manager Grischa Niermann in conversation with Team Visma | Lease a Bike's official website post-stage. "A time trial is always fair and this is where we are at the moment. Yesterday we saw that we were not competing with the very best and today it was the same again. That is not a bad thing because we are here to prepare for the Giro."

With Brandon McNulty taking the stage and Juan Ayuso moving into the overall lead of the race, Team Visma | Lease a Bike's GC hopes seem slim now, with Bouwman again best placed, 1:11 down on Ayuso, something Niermann himself admits.

"We will see what is possible from the breakaway, although I don't expect the attackers to get much space," the sports director previews of the Queen Stage taking place later this Saturday afternoon. "Either way we are going to do our best to get a nice result."