JUMBO-VISMA

The outfit sponsored by Rabobank for years and years, and more recently by the Dutch national lottery, LottoNL, was once seen as a Dutch national team of sorts and as the factory where the country's young talent was forged, but in its current incarnation as Jumbo–Visma it has morphed into a multinational superpower. In 1996, the bank clad in the orange national colours of the Netherlands took over from the previous sponsors of the teams formed by Jan Raas, including Kwantum-Hallen (starting in 1984, the five-time Amstel Gold Race winner's second-to-last season as a rider), Superconfex (from 1987), Buckler (1990), WordPerfect (1993) and Novell (1995), and threw in its lot with the Tour de France for a long time until it finally threw in the towel in late 2012. Belkin, an American firm specialising in Internet connection devices and networks, stepped in and gave the team a new lease on life in a country passionate about cycling and fiercely loyal to the Tour de France.   For a long time, the team focused on winning stages with classics specialists, mainly from the Netherlands. It started to pursue loftier goals with the signing of foreign sprinters, climbers and power riders such as Robbie McEwen, Óscar Freire, Michael Rasmussen, Denis Menchov, Juan Manuel Gárate and Luis León Sánchez, a strategy that yielded mixed results, before shifting its attention back to nurturing the rising stars of Dutch cycling. The team failed to tap the full potential of Bauke Mollema, Moreno Hofland and Wilco Kelderman, who left for new opportunities, as did Lars Boom, but not before tasting glory in the cobblestone stage to Arenberg in 2014. Robert Gesink never fully delivered on his promise in the Tour de France despite finishing in sixth place in 2015, right behind the "Big Four" (Froome, Quintana, Nibali and Contador) and Alejandro Valverde.   Meanwhile, Steven Kruijswijk, who came within touching distance of victory in the 2016 Giro, and Primož Roglič have developed into serious contenders and finished fifth and fourth in 2018, one year before Kruijswijk finally took the bottom step of the podium. Five years ago, the Dutchman piled the pressure on Team Sky on the road to the Alpe d'Huez with a daring move on the Col de la Croix de Fer, while Roglič became the first ever Slovenian rider to win a stage in 2017, after crowning the Galibier in first place, and claimed another one in 2018 with an attack on the Aubisque. He then went on to prove in the 2019 Giro (third) and Vuelta (first) that he had what it takes to conquer the yellow jersey, which his teammate Mike Teunissen held for two days in 2019. Although star signing Tom Dumoulin, the runner-up of the 2018 Tour, has failed to make a real impact, Jumbo–Visma is now putting all its chips on the general classification, leaving Dylan Groenewegen, one of the fastest sprinters on the planet, who took the Champs-Élysées stage in 2017, tasted victory in the cathedral cities of Chartres and Amiens in 2018 and raised his arms in Chalon-sur-Saône in 2019, on the sidelines. Backed by Wout van Aert's immense firepower, the team came tantalisingly close to fulfilling its dream of winning the Tour de France in 2020, when Primož Roglič dominated the race for almost three weeks, only to be undone by young countryman Tadej Pogačar in the time trial on the eve of the finish. Despite this crushing blow, the Slovenian soon got back up on his feet to claim his second Vuelta in a row and, following another cruel disappointment in the 2021 Tour, where he got caught in a mass crash in Pontivy, the third. Despite not even getting a whiff of the yellow jersey, which Tadej Pogačar locked up almost from the start, Jumbo–Visma put in a solid performance in the 2021 Tour: second overall with the Dane Jonas Vingegaard, who had been called in as a replacement for Tom Dumoulin when the Dutchman had put his career on ice for the first time, and four stage wins with Wout van Aert, who excelled on every terrain (in the mountains on the double ascent to the Mont Ventoux, in the time trial to Libourne and in the bunch sprint on the Champs-Élysées). In 2022, even the loss of Roglič to a crash failed to prevent a clean sweep by Jumbo–Visma, with Jonas Vingegaard taking the top step of the podium after the whole team worked to isolate Tadej Pogačar on the Galibier and the Dane delivered the coup de grâce on the Col du Granon, Wout van Aert claiming the green jersey and three stage wins, and the sole French stage win in this edition, courtesy of Christophe Laporte in Cahors, near the end of the Tour. Vingegaard's recital in the mountains and Laporte's dominance in the plains in the Critérium du Dauphiné are a shot across the bows of any would-be challengers to Jumbo–Visma in the 2023 Tour de France.