As previously reported, the Jumbo supermarket chain was interested in withdrawing its sponsorship from the Dutch team. Richard Plugge and the rest of the Jumbo-Visma team management have been looking for a new main sponsor.
“We are here to stay. We have a plan until 2030,” Plugge recently told Velo magazine, unconcerned about the lack of concrete updates to report. However, Plugge admitted that companies in the American market were starting to show interest.
Meeting with Apple’s CEO
Rumors began to gain credibility when, in an update on his X (Twitter) account, Richard Plugge posted a photo of himself, Jumbo-Visma’s female cyclist Riejanne Markus, and the CEO of the tech giant Apple, Tim Cook.
“Today, Riejanne Markus and I met Apple CEO and cycling enthusiast, Tim Cook,” Plugge captioned the photo. “We talked about our season and how we use technology in cycling.”
With Cook reportedly having a net worth of 1.9 billion US dollars, money clearly wouldn’t be an issue if he got involved with Jumbo-Visma. Additionally, Sepp Kuss’s victory in the Vuelta a España could be the right moment for Apple to explore the potential cycling boom in the American market.