Visma-Lease a Bike’s wild weekend – GCN Racing News Show

‘Visma Beast a Bike’ is the title for this week’s GCN Racing News Show on YouTube, and that’s because Visma-Lease a Bike enjoyed a wild weekend of success.

This time last week, the Dutch team were languishing near the bottom of the UCI's 2024 rankings, with a grand total of three victories between their men’s and women’s squads.

All of a sudden, however, that figure has leapt up to 11.

Six of those came within the space of barely 24 hours, as the team’s Classics riders dominated Opening Weekend and two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard blitzed O Gran Camiño.

In Belgium, the men’s team dictated both Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, with Jan Tratnik finishing off the former and Wout van Aert in total control at the latter.

Meanwhile, Marianne Vos made it a double Omloop success with her first ever appearance in the season-opener – a victory that upended the usual dominance from the leading women’s team, SD Worx.

As for Vingegaard, he won the final two stages of O Gran Camiño and added the overall title in the process. He also won the stage on Friday, the same day Olav Kooij notched a sprint victory at the UAE Tour.

That's eight wins in three days.

“Visma have simply dominated all the cobbled Classics outside the Monuments these past 12 months,” our presenter, Dan Lloyd, notes. “The good news, for neutrals at least, is that Mathieu van der Poel and Mads Pedersen, amongst others, will be back for the cobbled races in March and April, so things shouldn’t be quite so one-sided then.”

As for Vos, Dan says her victory - beating world champ Lotte Kopecky in the sprint - proves she is ‘back’ after her iliac artery surgery last year. “We all questioned whether she’d get back to her very best but now we have our answer. That ride was exemplary in every way.”

Elsewhere in the show, as well as diving into Vingegaard’s one-man show at O Gran Camiño, Dan recaps a furiously busy week of racing, rounding off the UAE Tour as well as a couple more one-dayers in Omloop van Het Hageland and the Faun Ardèche Classic.

By the way, if you like the look of the t-shirt Dan's wearing on this week's show, then the good news is it's available to buy from the GCN shop. It's part of our new Spring Race Collection to help get you in the mood for the upcoming season.

GCN Tuscan Race T-Shirt - Desert Dust

Celebrate the first of 2024's races with the Tuscan Race tee!  Product features: 100% organic cotton Unisex regular fit Printed on demand: no waste and less energy usage Want to know more about Print on Demand products? Check out our FAQs.