“He won’t defend the title unless he’s 100%” | Relief

He doesn’t spend much time with the media, much less outside his immediate circle, but Richard Plagg, Director of Visma-Lease a Bike since 2012, when the team still looked like an orange and wasted Team Rabobank, select Relay to evaluate evolution Jonas Vingegaard And Wout Van Aert, figures from Dutch painting that fell during the most eventful spring in my memory. At 54, Plugge, who before taking up cycling was a journalist, admits that he did not consider any other athletic director or president for his current role. With a serious and calculating character, the leader of the yellow structure appears on the other end of the phone. thorough diagnosis of current cyclinga sport for which he has real devotion and which has gone through a lot of turmoil in recent months.

Last year they won all three Grand Tours, something that had never been achieved before. Will we see something like this again?

I hope not (laughs). This is really something very complex. This was one of our main goals at the beginning of the season, and look, we had opportunities to achieve it, and it was not easy at all. Remember that there were other very powerful teams, for example, Team UAE Emirates. It was very challenging and we are very, very proud to be the first to do something like this in cycling. To be honest, I don’t know if there is any team that can repeat this in the future.

In recent months we have seen everything: contract signings, merger threats, rumors of the Super League, the purchase of the Red Bull team… What is happening?

We are in a moment of change and we must take the right steps because cycling is a challenge right now. And I explain. People don’t know how our sport works. I know this because I dedicate myself to it, you know this because you professionally follow everyday life, but my neighbor has no idea; He doesn’t know whether the Tour of the Basque Country is important or not, he doesn’t know how to fit it into his mental picture of the sport. But this cannot be. This doesn’t happen in other sports. In Formula 1, for example, people have a very clear understanding of what a Formula 1 Grand Prix is ​​and what GP2 is. We are 20 years behind in many ways. And one of them is as follows.

At the end of the year, Merein Zeeman will leave his post as sporting director and move to AZ Alkmaar. Is football a threat to cycling?

No, I don’t think we should be afraid of football. Cycling is one of the most important sports in the world, if not the most important. We see this especially in young people, and it’s happening all over the world. After all, Merein had a childhood dream and here it is, so we can’t do anything other than wish him luck and hope he makes that dream come true in the best possible way. I’m sorry, of course, because we’ve been working together and building this project for 12 years, but the time has come for him to step aside. Football theme? Look, we just added members to our staff that come from swimming. This flow of specialists between sports is quite common. This shouldn’t surprise us.

This spring they suffered very serious losses due to falls: first Van Aert, then Vingegaard. And in just a week. Does cycling have a safety issue?

One hundred per hundred! We have a security problem. And this is the sum of everything, mind you, the profile of the races, the poor condition of the roads and the speed at which the peloton competes. Falls like those of Jonas or any of the cyclists injured that day in the Basque Country have caused serious damage to the image of our sport. We must protect the health of our athletes and our businesses. And such situations, of course, do not help. If security improves, it will be good for everyone. This is undeniable. And we must take action as soon as possible.

Jonas has only just gotten back on the bike, but is still far from the level of training one would expect from a man like him before the Tour de France. What are their deadlines?

Let’s see, I’ll be honest with you. The first concern for me and us as a team was to assess whether Jonas could become a fully functional human again. It sounds harsh, but it is true. After a fall like the one he suffered, we must be careful and promote his recovery day by day. Right now, as you say, he just got on his bike. We’ll have to wait a couple of days to see where he actually is physically.

Would you do the Tour if you weren’t 100% ready, or do you have a “plan B” if that happens?

It is clear that we are considering two scenarios: one in which Jonas goes to the Tour, and one in which he does not come. It all depends on your recovery. At the end of the day, we can’t go to the Tour for Jonas to defend the title if he’s not 100%. This is something we are not going to go through.

And Van Aert?

Well, Vout has the advantage of being a bit ahead of the recovery (his fall was eight days earlier and less severe than Vingegaard’s), so physically we think he could be, but again, we’ll have to wait. We have not yet met with him to discuss his schedule after the fall. We have to see whether he sees himself in the Tour de France or not and analyze all possible scenarios to make a decision.

Just two months ago, he stepped down as president of the teams’ association (AICGP) after three years in that position. Because?

Well, to begin with, the chairmanship of the AICGP did not concern me at the time I took office. They asked me to do it and I agreed, and now it’s time to step aside. Look, it’s all business, but I’m not a politician, and teams and the decisions they make sometimes work purely on political lines. I would really like for us to open our minds a little from now on, to be clear about what we want from our sport, and for decisions to be more related to business than with politics. It would be a shame if cycling and its future depended solely and exclusively on this more political side.

In some races I had the feeling that your team has too much influence on the decisions of the organizers.

No, that’s not true. Or if. Let’s see, I always try to influence from the position we have, that is, the position of a professional team in the peloton. If this helps the organizers, then we did something right.

I’m talking, for example, about the inclusion of the controversial Paris-Roubaix chicane.

The incident with the chicane was not our idea, but the idea of ​​the organizers. This is another question for them. We always try to ensure safety in racing. This problem has already been solved in all speed sports. In skiing, in MotoGP, in Formula 1… After all, anything related to improving safety should be a cause for celebration for the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). All those who sit in front of the TV and never stop expressing their opinions on social networks should probably understand this. Cycling is a risky sport. And I insist that the UCI cannot give up something that is good for its sport. Or at least it shouldn’t.

I can’t finish without asking you about Michel Hessmann. How could it be that he took a diuretic in his team’s organizational structure?

This is a very good question, really. He claims it’s an infection. These are very, very small amounts, so it is possible, but I am not an expert on this matter. If this is true, then it is truly a shame. Right now we are waiting for the decision of the anti-doping agencies, both international and German, so that they can indicate what the solution is for him.

Last year, after completing his excellent work at the Vuelta, he assured (in El País) that he wanted to make his team a global brand, “like Barcelona or the Chicago Bulls.” Isn’t that impossible when changing the name every few years?

I’m a dreamer (laughs). Sometimes I say what I fantasize, and that may be true. No, let’s see, seriously, I would like people to remember us in a few years… (thinks for a few seconds) What do I know, like yellow bees (in Spanish, yellow bees) is a nickname that many people have been calling us by lately. I think it would be great.

Change the price, of course. How does it feel to still be called Jumbo or Jumbo-Visma?

In terms of sponsorship, I would like to see cycling freed from this burden and not rely on the sponsor changing their name. After all, as we mentioned earlier, Barcelona and the Chicago Bulls are role models. In cycling, almost all teams have a sponsor. Movistar, without going into too much detail, is Movistar and is known as such; This is not Abarka’s team. I don’t know, I dream about it and I think that, as with the issue of safety, there are factors in which we are clearly behind other sports.

What will be a good season for Visma-Lease a Bike in the future?

Good season? (Thinks for a few seconds, repeating the question in a quiet voice) Achieve the goals that we set within ourselves at the beginning of the season.

Are you going to share them?

No, not now (laughs).