"You always start with bigger ambitions than this" - Visma admit serious difficulties in Tirreno-Adriatico
Cycling
Team Visma | Lease a Bike have won Paris-Nice, despite the crash and injury of Jonas Vingegaard, but at Tirreno-Adriatico things did not go so smoothly. Although Olav Kooij did win a stage, the team's leadout didn't work as expected and both GC riders showed their own difficulties throughout the week which raises concerns for their Giro d'Italia block.
“It took me a bit of time to settle in, but I felt like I was improving every day," Simon Yates said in a press release. "That’s a good sign for the upcoming period. In just over a week, the Volta a Catalunya is on the schedule. I hope to prove myself there and support the team”. The Briton lost time on the first hilly stage, and ultimately settled with a 14th spot in the overall classification.
On the other hand, Cian Uijtdebroeks abandoned in the final day after getting dropped. The Belgian began experiencing back pain once again, mentally derailing months of improvement. "He's having back problems again, but for the rest, it's hard to put your finger on the problem. First, we have to wash away this disappointment and then look further," Marteen Wynants told Sporza.
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“We can be proud of the stage win we achieved in this race. That was one of our goals beforehand, and we delivered. We came close in the other two sprint stages as well," DS Marc Reef assured to In de Leiderstrui, but he aknowledges the problems: "Unfortunately, the overall classification didn’t turn out as we had hoped. We have to be honest about that. Realistically, this was the best we could achieve at this moment.”
This trio will essentially be the leading group for the Giro d'Italia, and it didn't work out as hoped. Dan McLay was present as the leadout for Kooij but in the flat finishes it didn't look like a very effective partnership. "You always start with bigger ambitions than this and you may hope for more, but realistically this was what was possible at the moment".
"We have to be satisfied with that afterwards, but beforehand you hope for more, also because Simon hoped that there was more in it despite his illness towards the Tirreno. Nevertheless, we are going to Catalunya and the races that follow with more confidence".
Although Reef believes that Wout van Aert's presence at the Giro d'Italia will significantly improve Kooij's positioning into the sprints. "With Wout there, it will be a bit easier, he has already shown that in the past in Great Britain and Almeria. Last year that was also the intention in the Giro, but he did not start there in the end. Now Wout's presence will give the team a boost again".
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🇮🇹 #TirrenoAdriatico
— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) March 16, 2025
Podium for Olav! 👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/XT3PN9uL0i
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
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Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
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- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
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