‘Largest bag of money not always necessary’

“We don’t have a big bag of money. We don’t have Fabio Jakobsen. So we have to be resourceful,” says Aike Visbeek in the run-up to Saturday’s cycling classic Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. “And we have to keep improving ourselves.”

From his office on the Häggebyberg in the Swedish forests between Stockholm and Uppsala, Visbeek searched the cycling world for bargains and combinations. As performance manager of the Intermarché-Circus-Wanty team, he experienced an unprecedentedly good season last year with 24 victories in total.

But it could be even better. No, it had to be better.

Rui Costa was such a bargain. The Portuguese became world champion in 2013, but has not put a dent in a packet of butter for years. He was a servant to Tadej Pogacar, nothing more than that. But Visbeek knew that there was still a winner in Costa.

Then Kobe Goossens, who had never booked a professional victory, won two days in a row in Mallorca. And in the Tour of Valencia, the team won two stages and Costa took the overall victory. As a result, Intermarché even topped the UCI rankings for two weeks.

For years, the fluorescent team was the ugly duckling in the pro peloton. Nowadays it seems like carnival every day in Binche in Wallonia and in Roubaix, the old and new home of the sponsors. There is no longer any underestimation. This season, the victory counter is already at six before the Flemish Opening Weekend.

“I expected a good start, but this? The other day we looked at each other after a stage and we said jokingly: did we really finish eighteenth? That is the worst result this year.”

Visbeek left Göteborg on Thursday to explore the final of De Omloop with his riders in the afternoon.

Visbeek was once a cyclist himself at the Zaanse cycling club DTS (Door Training Sterk). Talents like Niki Terpstra looked up to him when they came to his father’s bicycle shop after school. In Krommenie he was a ‘local legend’ in the amateur circuit, but that was it.

A serious knee injury ended his aspirations to become a professional himself, but not his cycling dreams. Visbeek started guiding riders at DTS and, together with his childhood friend Merijn Zeeman (team leader at Jumbo-Visma), got a taste of the team leader’s profession.

As teenagers, Visbeek and Zeeman already warmed up by playing Championship Manager on the computer for hours. They scoured the depths of English football for great opportunities to strengthen their fictional football team and, through smart strategic choices, slowly but surely climbed further up the fictional rankings.

Actually, both still do that, but now with their cycling teams. An important difference: Zeeman works with one of the largest budgets in cycling, Visbeek has to turn every dime with his cuddly team leader Hilaire Van der Schueren.

“We have the smallest budget of the WorldTour and therefore have to scout smartly”, says Visbeek. “If you really want to play structurally, you have to make young riders better. And that includes nutritionists, coaches, good material. We are taking those steps and that costs money. So we had to recruit riders like Quentin Hermans, Alexander Kristoff, Jan Let Hirt and Domenico Pozzovivo go.”

Months before the start of the season, Visbeek spends hours puzzling over training schedules and competition calendars, with Golden Earring or Miley Cyrus in the background.

“I think about the strategy. And I make sure that I’m there as team leader when it has to be put into practice,” explains Visbeek. “I don’t make the schedules, we have good trainers for that. Our training camps are now really of a high level.”

Visbeek: “We have two full-time nutritionists. They look closely at the cyclists’ calendar. If a few kilos have to be lost, where should that be done? That is not possible during a heavy training camp.”

Sometimes it also works the other way around. Like with Louis Meintjes, the South African climber who joined the team last year. For years he has been one of the best accelerators in the world and has more than once reached the top ten of a Grand Tour. Very handsome, but he never drove in the picture. By eating more, Meintjes found just a little more energy to finish races.

On Alpe d’Huez in the Tour he just missed it, but in the Vuelta it was a hit.

With Biniam (‘Bini’) Girmay, Intermarché has a diamond that has not been so rough for a long time. A piece of jewelry, which was captured by Visbeek even before the World Championships in Leuven (second) from the bankrupt estate of the French Delko.

In addition to his historic victory in Gent-Wevelgem, Eritrean Mathieu van der Poel knocked in the Giro before knocking himself out on the podium with the cork of a bottle of spumante.

Even more than last year, Girlay is the spearhead of the team. For example, acquisition Mike Teunissen (yellow jersey wearer in the Tour of 2019) will often ride in his service, although the Dutchman will often be allowed to go for his own chance. To start with in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, because Bini is not at the start there.

Intermarché’s master plan is not that difficult, concludes Visbeek. “Trust and clarity are so important. If you add expertise to that, you don’t always need the biggest bag of money. It shows.”