“We were the hunters once, now we are the hunted” - Team Visma | Lease a Bike the team to beat in 2024

After an all-conquering year in 2023, taking victory at all three Grand Tours, Team Visma | Lease a Bike start this campaign as the team to beat, something they are well aware of.

“We were the hunters once, now we are the hunted,” Team Visma | Lease a Bike sports director, Addy Engels recently said in conversation with Velo. “The mentality is the same. Once we were the underdogs, and we wanted to improve and do things better. Every day we want to do things better, and that has not changed.”

Although Giro d'Italia winner Primoz Roglic may have departed, the team still boast the likes of Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard and the Vuelta a Espana victor, Sepp Kuss, plus the likes of Wout van Aert, Christophe Laporte and Olav Kooij among others.

“Now we are in that top position, but we know we have to do things better to try to stay up. It’s a new season and everyone starts from scratch again. We have to do things the right way," assesses Engels. “You look to things that you can do better. It is that mentality that is part of the DNA of this team. With the riders and also with the staff, whether it’s a mechanic, a swannie, a performance coach, it’s really a culture that exists inside the team.”

“The mentality doesn’t change. We have a lot of people that really have the mindset that we do not sit back and relax once we achieve a goal," Engels continues. “We always look forward. Of course, we celebrate the success, but you also move on again.”

So the question is, can Team Visma | Lease a Bike live up to the mighty expectations they've set for themselves? “For a team like us, every race we race to win. When we race, we race we want to make the best result possible,” Engels assures. “The moment you think you made it to one point and you can relax a bit, you fall back. There is such a high level these days, there is no space for relaxing.”