Giro d'Italia 2023: Jumbo-Visma’s ‘disastrous’ build-up to Giro could ‘play into their hands’
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Updated 06/05/2023 at 16:17 GMT
The Team Jumbo-Visma camp have been hit with illness ahead of the Giro d’Italia and lost three riders due to Covid-19, while another two have already crashed out. Jos van Emden, Robert Gesink, Tobias Foss and Wilco Kelderman have been forced out with illness and injury and Jan Tratnik became the latest casualty when he suffered a knee injury in a crash on Friday.
Jumbo-Visma's ‘disastrous’ build-up to Giro could ‘play into their hands’
Team Jumbo-Visma have had a torrid build-up to the Giro d’Italia, losing five riders in the lead-up to the Grand Tour.
Jos van Emden, Robert Gesink and Tobias Foss were all ruled out due to Covid-19 and Wilco Kelderman and Jan Tratnik suffered injuries, the latter the day before racing began in Italy.
The unfortunate series of events have been labelled “disastrous” by Eurosport cycling presenter Orla Chennaoui, but expert Adam Blythe thinks the brutal Jumbo-Visma shake-up could have its positives in the long run.
“I think it’s going to play into Jumbo’s hands a little bit, not being as strong,” Blythe predicted.
“I think if they had the team they originally had, they’d be very dominant and they’d put the pressure on Primoz [Roglic] to deliver.
“I think now they can be like, ‘Right, Soudal [Quick‑Step]. You need to do this, you’ve got the better team here, you’ve got the stronger climbing team so we’re going to take the back step a little bit and let you dominate, do what you need to do and hopefully, we'll take advantage of that’.
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Jumbo-Visma's ‘disastrous’ build-up to Giro could ‘play into their hands’
“If it’s the other way, as I said, I think they go too much too soon almost to build up that pressure and could almost explode in the last week.”
Tom Gloag, 21, has replaced Jumbo-Visma’s latest casualty Tratnik, and fellow Eurosport expert Dan Lloyd is eager to see how the exciting prospect does at such short notice.
“Tratnik, that was a really, really big blow yesterday because as we know, that man can do everything on the bike,” Lloyd said. “He’s so strong on the flat and in the mountains.
“So, they’ve got Gloag coming in, a young Brit that wasn't expected to do a Grand Tour until about 18 hours ago. It’s his first Grand Tour, he’s an extremely strong rider and we’ve seen how well he’s been climbing already this year.
Lloyd also thinks the changes Jumbo-Visma have been forced into have made it a tighter race than before.
“I think it’s more of an even match-up now between those two teams [Jumbo-Visma and Soudal–Quick‑Step].
“When I looked at the original roster I thought, ‘Jumbo have the edge, especially with experience of defending Grand Tour leads’, but now it’s much more of an even match-up.”
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