Bjarne Riis doubts Visma’s financial strength amid rising competition
Once a dominant force in the peloton, Visma | Lease a Bike may no longer have the same financial power it once did. At least, that’s how former team boss Bjarne Riis sees it. From the outside, he observes a shift in cycling’s balance of power – one that leaves the Dutch squad struggling to keep up with the sport’s new superteams.
“One thing is that they have a lot of money, UAE. Another and more important thing is that they are good at their work,” Riis says in an interview with Feltet.
“Yes, they may have an unlimited budget, that’s just how the rules are. There is no salary cap. Big teams like UAE and Lidl-Trek follow the rules, and they have been good at hiring skilled people and finding young riders with great potential. It’s not because the others don’t have any money.”
“Many think it is so terrible that there are teams with much greater financial muscles than others,” he continues. “That is especially true among the French teams. They think it’s unfair. No, it’s not. The other teams just have to get better. There is no financial limitation right now. Deal with it instead of complaining.”
Riis believes Visma | Lease a Bike is no longer part of the sport’s financial elite. “I don’t think Visma is anywhere near being number two or three in the peloton measured by economy. They are far from the three biggest – UAE, Lidl-Trek and Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe, is my guess.”
In terms of results, Visma | Lease a Bike is still performing well, sitting second in this year’s UCI team ranking with 40 victories, including overall wins at the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España. But Riis believes the team is heading into more difficult times.
“To me, they look like a team that lacks money, because many of their strong riders are leaving. It’s not because they don’t want to keep them. They have chosen to bet heavily on Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard, and the riders just below them are leaving because the team simply can’t afford to keep them.”
This season, riders like Tiesj Benoot, Olav Kooij, Attila Valter, Dylan van Baarle and Cian Uijtdebroeks are among those moving on, while the new arrivals have been less prominent in stature and résumé. Riis thinks this underlines the team’s limitations. “The people behind the team have many of their own sponsors connected to the team: Lease a Bike, which is owned by the Pon.Bike group, and they ride bikes from one of their brands, Cervélo. To me, that suggests they are not as financially strong as they would like to be.”
Riis knows the business side of cycling well. From 2001 to 2013, he owned a WorldTour team under names like CSC, Saxo Bank and SunGard, before selling it to Oleg Tinkoff. “When we had the most employees on my team, there were 85. Now most of the big teams have up to 120 employees. It just takes more to run a team, so for many it would make sense to merge,” he says.
Recently, Lotto and Intermarché-Wanty initiated their merger out of a need to ensure their survival in the WorldTour, something Riis welcomes.
“I don’t understand why there are not even more teams that merge. It requires more and more to make it at the top of international cycling. But as a team owner you will go very far before you merge. It is difficult to let go of control, even though it makes sense for the organization. It’s about giving up power, just like in all big companies that need to be streamlined. Cycling teams often cling tightly to the idea that they can still compete at the top.”
When asked if smaller teams avoid merging out of pride rather than what’s best for them, Riis doesn’t hesitate: “Oh yes. All this is very much about pride.”
