Picture the scene: winter of ’22 at the Jumbo-Visma headquarters in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. The Team management are planning the goals for the following season.
They’ve done what they said they would at the Tour de France taking multiple stages, the Green and the Yellow Jersey. It was spectacular. In a lot of teams that would be enough, but not here – they want more even though they’ve eaten most of the TdF cake there’s still plenty to be had elsewhere. Like in the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España…
The latter has been good to them, too, Primož Roglič has won it three times already however Remco Evenepoel appeared in 2022 and stole their thunder. That hurt.
Back in 2017, in the Sunweb days, the team’s then-golden boy Tom Dumoulin triumphed but his recent comeback had failed and five years later their Giro was anonymous. Not good, not when you’re as ambitious as they are, so they needed a new plan. A big plan. A historic plan.
Someone says almost jokingly: ‘Let’s win all three Grand Tours’.
Silence. Thinking happens, but not for long. They ask Google. Never been done. And with that, the whole thing goes into motion. They have the troops to back up the leaders so it’s just a simple task of convincing them that it’s feasible. Primož at the Giro, Jonas at the Tour and both at the Vuelta because they might be a bit tired so they can back each other up. Lieutenants will have to be carefully managed but Sepp Kuss will probably be OK for all three because he’s that reliable.
The general discussions then develop into the politics of it all. Primož missing the Tour will grate but the Giro-Vuelta combo is pretty good and they can promise he can return to the Tour in ’24. When Jonas wins the Tour for a second time he’ll need a good rest afterwards but he can take it relatively easy at the Vuelta as he’s there to back up Primož. He won’t mind as he’s won the Tour.
Then comes the crucial realisation that it’s probably going to be a bit delicate between the two egos so probably best to mention it to them at a good time. What better opportunity than when Roglič has won the Giro and Vingegaard is en route to his second Tour victory? The essential thing to emphasise to Primož is he is meant to win, tell him whatever he needs to hear. Jonas won’t care that much.
Well, ‘we hope he won’t’ comes the small voice from the back of the room and they all laugh.
That’s the scenario I imagine happened in some form or other, but now the…
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