"You don't want only Pogacar to be at the start of the Amstel Gold Race, but Roglic, Van Aert and Van der Poel as well" - Richard Plugge wants a smaller cycling calendar

Richard Plugge, the boss of Jumbo-Visma has expressed his belief that the UCI World Tour should adopt a smaller cycling calendar in order to see the top riders compete against each other more often.

"You don't want only Tadej Pogacar to be at the start of the Amstel Gold Race, but Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel as well," he tells Eurosport. "I would like to go there, that you have a smaller calendar at the highest level, where you see the top riders more often see each other," he explains.

Plugge believes that with a smaller, higher-quality calendar, cycling could compete better with the other major sports of the world in terms of money and attention. "The Tour is our Super Bowl. Everyone in the world knows the Tour de France, so it will be interesting worldwide," he says, explaining his position. "As three-week rounds, the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana are of course something special in cycling, you shouldn't just say goodbye to them. You just have to see how you can divide that."

Clearly, such a revolutionary idea won't be easy to get changed. Although Plugge again expresses his belief that this would benefit the sport of cycling as a whole. The first of the aforementioned three-week stage races is fast approaching and Plugge's Jumbo-Visma will be there hoping Primoz Roglic can add the Maglia Rosa to his three previous Vuelta a Espana wins.