{"id":374810,"date":"2026-01-17T07:38:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T07:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/374810\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T07:38:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T07:38:19","slug":"visma-boss-plugge-defends-team-after-sudden-exit-of-third-big-name-rider-sticky-bottle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/374810\/","title":{"rendered":"Visma boss Plugge defends team after sudden exit of third big name rider \u2013 Sticky Bottle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Simon Yates broke his contract with Visma-Lease a Bike to abruptly exit the sport, and was the third star rider to leave the team suddenly mid-contract (Photo: Billy Ceusters)<\/p>\n

Richard Plugge, the team boss at World Tour squad Visma-Lease a Bike, said the team had no option but to accept the sudden retirement of Simon Yates, which came at a time of year when he is impossible to replace with someone else of the same calibre.<\/p>\n

Yates, who two weeks ago announced his decision to retire, breaking his contract a year early, is the third high profile rider with Visma Lease a Bike to bring their careers to an early and unexpected halt.<\/p>\n

The British rider issued a statement about leaving the sport but didn\u2019t really explain his reasons. His former Visma-Lease a Bike team mate, Paris Roubaix winner Dylan van Baarle, has since said both he and Yates had issues with the way the Dutch team expected them to train<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Van Baarle added those issues had resulted in his decision to leave the team, for Soudal QuickStep, and he also linked Yates\u2019s retirement, at least in part, to the dissatisfaction he had with the training regime.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fem van Empel has quit her cycling career, at least for now, after deciding she had had enough, even though she had two years to run on her contract (Photo: Alessandro Gandolfo)<\/p>\n

Aside from Giro d\u2019Italia champion Yates\u2019s departure, cyclocross world and European champion for the last three years, Fem van Empel, pulled the plug on her career, mid race, last month. She is aged 23 years and had two more seasons remaining on her Visma-Lease a Bike deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, both the motivation and the enjoyment I have had in cycling for years are missing,\u201d she said after abandoning Koppenbergcross and then confirming she was stepping away from the sport.<\/p>\n

Giro d\u2019Italia winner Tom Dumoulin had a stop-start time of it with Jumbo Visma, as it was then, before opting out in 2022. He had announced he would retire at the end of the season but barely raced after the spring of 2022 and stopped abruptly in mid August.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really, really awful. I hated cycling so much, and I hated being there so much,\u201d he later said of riding the Tour de France in 2020, finishing 7th overall.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tom Dumoulin had a tough time of it over the final years of his career before calling it quits early during the 2022 season (Photo: Pauline Ballet)<\/p>\n

Speaking about Yates at a pre-season team media outing in La Nucia, Plugge said: \u201cIt\u2019s his choice, it is what it is. It would have been better if he\u2019d told us\u2026 whenever, in September or something like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t dwell on that for a very long time, it is what it is. Over the Christmas. We had a discussion it was a good talk, and it was a clear message.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added he did not try and convince Yates to change his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf somebody told you they want to retire what are you going to say, \u2018don\u2019t do it\u2019? It doesn\u2019t work. He will have thought about it and he did, of course, and we know him also as somebody who thinks a lot about things and then comes with his own idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Richard Plugge said the exits of Yates, Van Empel and Dumoulin from his Visma-Lease a Bike team were all very different cases (Photo: Tim van Wichelen-Cor Vos)<\/p>\n

When asked about Yates suddenly stopping, Visma Lease a Bike team leader Jonas Vingegaard conceded the British rider would be a big loss, especially from the Tour de France team.<\/p>\n

However, he said he too had felt close to burn-out at times and if Yates wanted to stop, that was his decision. When asked about burnout, in the context of the star riders who have quit the team, Plugge was stoic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if that is something we have a lot of attention for,\u201d he said of any links between the cases of the three big name riders who have now stepped away from the team during their contracts.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, you mention Tom Dumoulin. We gave him the opportunity to go, one he really liked, to go to a high altitude camp in Colombia<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were, I think\u2026 we brought in the (riders\u2019) families to high altitude camps. They were away from home seven weeks or eight weeks, and we brought home to the high altitude camps.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we tried to have an eye for that, and I think it works out. But I think also the different names you mentioned are completely different cases. Simon Yates just wanted to retire, it has nothing to do with\u2026 whatever. And also Fem is a different case to what Tom Dumoulin was.\u201d<\/p>\n

And though the life of a pro cyclist was very intense, Plugge pointed out many people were under pressure in life. Furthermore, a lot of cyclists were able to cope with the demands of the sport and were continuing with their careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many riders who can do this and enjoy it. If you still enjoy it, why would you stop? Top sport is demanding if you\u2019re a cyclist a swimmer, we happen to have a coach from swimming and they also have a lot of pressure, football players\u2026.\u00a0 I recommend the documentary on Beckham, I just saw it. That\u2019s a lot of pressure\u2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think, yes, there\u2019s a lot of pressure but it\u2019s also the way you cope with it. In general, not only for cyclists, or football players or whatever\u2026 The pressure on people, with all the social media and everyone has an opinion about you, it\u2019s something in general which is more demanding for younger people. It\u2019s not particularly for cyclists but in general.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Simon Yates broke his contract with Visma-Lease a Bike to abruptly exit the sport, and was the third…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-374810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}