After a period of absence, Lance Armstrong returned to his podcast, The Move, to analyze Sepp Kuss’s victory in the Vuelta a España with Johan Bruyneel. The cyclist highlighted the triumph of his compatriot and the success of Jumbo-Visma in 2023, a year not to be forgotten.
“It’s wonderful, it’s extraordinary for American cycling, it’s a guy we don’t know, but he looks very good, a great opportunity. Moreover, a team winning all three Grand Tours in the same year, that’s never happened before, and it’s amazing.”
Johan Bruyneel admits he was hasty in his assessment
Johan Bruyneel, who had strongly criticized Jumbo’s strategy during the Vuelta, eventually acknowledged that the media may have been too quick to speculate about the internal workings of the Dutch team:
“We speculated during the Vuelta about what was happening within the team, but in the end, I think we were speculating too much. They are the reference team, the best in the world, what Sky used to be. If you ask any young cyclist, the answer will always be Jumbo-Visma.”
Jumbo-Visma, UAE Team Emirates, and INEOS are far ahead of all the other teams
Armstrong stated, “UAE Team Emirates, INEOS, and Jumbo-Visma are way ahead of the rest of the teams, but yes, now one team, in particular, is in the stratosphere, so the other two super teams are probably asking each other what happened, because it seems to have happened fast, they must be scratching their heads.”
INEOS budget 10 million larger than Jumbo-Visma
Bruyneel emphasized that INEOS actually has much more money than the rest: “INEOS has by far the biggest budget, probably 10 million more than Jumbo-Visma.
They’ve had a lot of success for 7-8 years, and now during this Vuelta, they haven’t done anything, they weren’t close in the Tour either. Jumbo knows what they’re doing, they have everything down to the millimeter in Dutch style and try to hire the best in every little sector of the sport. Merijn Zeeman is the man who managed to create the team.”