Before the press was allowed to fire questions at the present riders of Intermarché-Circus-Wanty on Friday, performance manager Aike Visbeek explained the team's ambitions: a stage victory and a top ten in the general classification - that is what the team has traveled to Bilbao for. After the press briefing, IDLProCycling.com spoke with Visbeek extensively!
In particular, winning a stage in the Tour is something that CEO Jean-François Boulart and his team want to check off their list. "We want to achieve that now, and for that reason, we have selected a very strong team overall. We have come close many times before, but so far, it hasn't happened yet," Visbeek says, referring to Taco van der Hoorn and Louis Meintjes' second-place finishes last year. "But it shouldn't become an obsession either; the most important thing is that we compete for that victory. Because it will come at some point, whether it's this year or next year."
For the general classification, South African rider Meintjes, who finished seventh last year, will be the team's main contender. Intermarché-Circus-Wanty wants to approach that realistically. "We don't want Louis to be stressed. We managed that in 2021 by assembling a team around him," Visbeek says. "We have to trust that Louis can make up time in the mountain stages. We have our own tactics for that, which may not be the most beautiful tactics. When things get tougher, he naturally moves up. Those twenty or thirty seconds he may occasionally lose don't matter in the end."
This way, the Belgian team can also pursue its two main goals simultaneously, which nearly resulted in a stage victory last year on Alpe d'Huez. "You can combine the pursuit of a top ten with the pursuit of a stage win, and that's what we're doing. Last year, we constantly attacked in the final week, and that's how those two objectives converge."
In the flatter stages, Biniam Girmay is the team's core player, supported by experienced riders such as Mike Teunissen, Adrien Petit and Dion Smith. Through his stage victory in the Tour de Suisse, Girmay has already proven that he possesses the necessary speed. "We were pleasantly surprised by his current fitness level. Biniam is also still young, and at that age, you typically have that extra burst of speed. However, we are still not finished with this journey of discovery. If you look at his sprints in last year's Giro, you'll see that he consistently finished in the top five without a lead-out. This time around, he will have one," Visbeek assesses.
The Dutchman is referring, among others, to his compatriot Teunissen. "They have a lot of trust in each other. Mike is someone who communicates well, remains calm and has a good overview. That's what Bini needs, someone who stays calm and creates space. Both of them had some bad luck in the spring, but we have been working on it for a while. Ideally, we would have been able to practice more, but that wasn't meant to be."
"Biniam has a decent understanding of his speed, but we also don't want to make it into too big of a story yet. Overall, we know that he can handle a good sprint, but he still doesn't fully grasp his capabilities," Visbeek adds, keeping the pressure off his protégé. "We won't be surprised if he suddenly competes in front in a stage that hits the medium mountains. He wants to experience that, he wants to showcase himself."
"For me, it is mainly important that he finishes the Tour, which would be a crucial step in his development. We are not actively pursuing it, also because we don't want to burden the other guys too much in, for example, the transitional stages. It's a delicate balance," Visbeek says, clearly trying to take into account the freedom that riders such as Rui Costa, Lilian Calmejane and Georg Zimmermann deserve.
These are also the riders who could potentially surprise us all in stage one, for instance, by being part of an early breakaway. "We have had stages in the past where crashes occurred, and then the race was neutralized, allowing a breakaway to stay away." Visbeek is referring to hectic Tour starts like the ones we had in 2010 and 2020. "We also have to keep an eye on those kinds of scenarios, and we do."
"It also depends on what the big teams are going to do: do you invest now to win that stage or do you try to safely navigate through the weekend?" Visbeek wonders aloud before immediately providing an answer. "If I had a multimillion-dollar team, I would choose to arrive safely at the finish. But of course, you never know. There may be other interests at play."
Finally, there was some criticism from the Belgian side regarding the absence of Belgians in a Belgian team. "We would have liked to have Kobe Goossens and Rune Herregodts with us, but unfortunately, the two Belgians in our selection had to withdraw," explains Visbeek. "I understand the criticism, but does that then mean we should have thrown someone like Dries De Pooter to the lions? This time, we explained things nicely, so I don't know what more we could have done," he says, hinting at last year's saga surrounding Quinten Hermans. "As a team, we would have liked to have Belgians on board, but even now, we have eight guys who deserve it."