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| Team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| UCI code | TVL | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Registered | Netherlands | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | 1984 (1984) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Road | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Status | UCI WorldTeam | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bicycles | Colnago (1984–2008) Giant (2009–2013) Bianchi (2014–2020) Cervélo (2021–) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Components | SRAM Corporation | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | Team home page | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Key personnel | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| General manager | Richard Plugge | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team name history | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Visma–Lease a Bike is a Dutch professionalbicycle racing team, successor of the formerRabobank. The team consists of four sections: ProTeam (theUCI WorldTeam team),Women's Team (theUCI Women's Team),Development Team (aUCI Continental team racing in theUCI Europe Tour), andcyclo-cross.
The cycling team was founded for the 1984 season under the nameKwantum–Decosol, anchored byJan Raas, with mostly cyclists coming from theTI–Raleigh cycling team.[1] With Raas as directeur sportif from 1985 onwards, the head sponsor was succeeded bySuperconfex,Buckler,WordPerfect andNovell, respectively, before Raas signed a contract withRabobank, a Dutch association of credit unions, in 1996. After Rabobank sponsorship ended in 2012, it was known asBlanco,Belkin, Lotto–Jumbo, Jumbo–Visma and now Visma–Lease a Bike.
Since 1984, the team has entered everyTour de France[2] and since the introduction of divisions in 1998, the team has always been in thefirst division.[3] A 2012 investigation by Dutch newspaperde Volkskrant concluded that doping was at least tolerated, from the team's 1996 beginnings as Rabobank until at least 2007.[4]
Team Jumbo–Visma cyclistJonas Vingegaard won the2022 Tour de France, delivering the team its firstTour de France victory in the General Classification, as well as theKing of the Mountains title[5] while his team-mateWout van Aert won thePoints Classification title.[6] In2023, Vingegaard repeated his feat and Jumbo–Visma won theteam classification for the first time. That year, fellow Jumbo–Visma ridersPrimož Roglič andSepp Kuss also won theGiro d'Italia and theVuelta a España respectively, making the team the first to win all threeGrand Tours in a single calendar year.[7]
Inroad bicycle racing, teams usually take their names from their main sponsors. The team has had the following sponsors, and thus names.
After the season of 1983, theTI–Raleigh team split up because of tension between former world championJan Raas and team leaderPeter Post,[8] with seven cyclists following Post to the newPanasonic-team and six cyclists joining Raas to the Kwantum team.[9] The team captains of the Kwantum team were Guillaume Driessens, Jan Gisbers andWalter Godefroot.[10] In their first year, the team managed to win theintermediate sprints classification and one stage in the1984 Tour de France, theAmstel Gold Race and the Dutch national road championship.[10]
After the 1984 season,Jan Raas stopped as an active cyclist and became team manager. In 1985 the Kwantum team had a successful year. Victories included twoTour de France stages, theTour of Luxembourg,Paris–Tours,Paris–Brussels, theTirreno–Adriatico, theTour of Belgium, again the Dutch national road championship, and theWorld cycling championship (Joop Zoetemelk).[11] 1986 was less successful; the most important victory wasTour of Belgium.[12]
For the 1987 season, the main sponsor became Superconfex. In that year, the team was officially known asSuperconfex – Kwantum – Yoko – Colnago. Jan Raas remained the team leader. After a victory inKuurne–Brussels–Kuurne forLudo Peeters, the new sprinterJean-Paul van Poppel, coming from the Skala cycling team, gave the team a great year, with five stage wins in theTour de France (of which two for van Poppel) and the victory in thepoints classification in the Tour de France for Jean-Paul van Poppel. Joop Zoetemelk ended his career with a victory in theAmstel Gold Race.[13]
From 1988 on, the team was known asSuperconfex – Yoko – Opel – Colnago. 1988 was also a successful season for the team, with victories inParis–Brussels, theTour of Ireland, theTour of Belgium, theAmstel Gold Race, and six stages in theTour de France.[14] In the 1989 season,Jean-Paul van Poppel changed to thePanasonic team. In 1989 his sprinting capacities were missed, and the number of victories was reduced. Still,Paris–Brussels, theTour of Flanders andParis–Tours were won, together with two stages in the1989 Tour de France.[15]
After the 1989 season, the main sponsoring was taken over byBuckler. TheTour of Belgium was won again, and theRonde van Nederland was won as well. That year, the team had the winner of the Dutch national road race championships again, asPeter Winnen won the race.[16] In 1991, the team won theAmstel Gold Race, theRonde van Nederland andTour of Flanders. The team had taken overSteven Rooks from the Panasonic team, who immediately became the Dutch national road race champion.[17]
The worst year in the team's history was 1992. Only 26 races were won in the season, compared to 64 victories in the successful 1988 season.[18] 1992 also saw a youngErik Dekker entering the team. After that season, Buckler decided to stop sponsoring.
A new sponsor was found inWordPerfect.Steven Rooks left the team, andRaúl Alcalá joined the team. Still, the 1993 season did not turn out well, with only 29 victories, the most important beingThree Days of De Panne and theTour DuPont.[19] In 1993 and 1994,Michael Boogerd andLéon van Bon started their professional career in the team, andViatcheslav Ekimov also came. The Tour DuPont was won again, together with theTour de Luxembourg. The year still was disappointing with only 25 victories.
In 1995, the team was joined byDjamolidine Abdoujaparov, the winner of thepoints classification in the1994 Tour de France. Abdoujaparov won one stage in theTour de France, but other than that, the year was still not what the sponsors had hoped, so a new sponsor had to be found. The title sponsor of the previous two years, WordPerfect, was a product of Novell Software, which carried the team's name this one season.
Raas became the team manager of the Rabobank team while Theo de Rooy, Adrie van Houwelingen and Zoetemelk weredirecteur sportifs.[20] As a Dutchcycling team, the team signed many of the prominent Dutch cyclists of the 1990s includingAdri van der Poel,Richard Groenendaal andErik Breukink as well as keeping the prominent Dutch cyclists from the Novell team that includedLéon van Bon,Erik Dekker andMichael Boogerd. In addition, the team had many successful cyclists of other nationalities such asEdwig van Hooydonck,Rolf Sørensen,Johan Bruyneel andRobbie McEwen.[20]
The Rabobank team dominated the Dutch national championships over several disciplines, and had world champions in both cyclo-cross (Adri van der Poel in 1996,Richard Groenendaal in 2000 andSven Nys in 2004) and road racing (Óscar Freire in 2004).
In the 2000 cyclo-cross world championships there was a conflict between the commercial team interests and the national team interests. Groenendaal attacked during the first lap and was chased by defending cyclo-cross world championMario De Clercq who was followed by Groenendaal's Rabobank teammateSven Nys. Team managerJan Raas allegedly told Nys not to cooperate in the chase and De Clercq was unable to catch Groenendaal. Nys received much criticism from the Belgian team managerErik De Vlaeminck as well as the Belgian public.[21]
Jan Raas was the team manager for the first eight years of the team's existence. In 2003 Raas was removed rather abruptly which surprised the other members of staff includingTheo De Rooy,Erik Dekker andMichael Boogerd.[22] De Rooy was promoted to team manager and a former Rabobank rider, who had been working as a PR man for Rabobank,Erik Breukink, was named as the newdirecteur sportif to replace De Rooy. In August 2007 in the aftermath of the affair in whichMichael Rasmussen was removed during the2007 Tour de France, De Rooy resigned from his position as team manager.[23]
Following theUnited States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) report on doping in professional cycling in October 2012, Rabobank announced it would end its sponsorship of professional cycling at the end of 2012. Rabobank said that doping was so rampant that it was "no longer convinced the international professional world of cycling can make this a clean and fair sport."[24]
The team was able to continue, as Rabobank agreed to fund the team during 2013 until a new sponsor could be found. The deadline for finding new sponsorship was the end of the2013 UCI World Tour.[25] Racing under the nameBlanco to refer to its formally unsponsored status,Tom-Jelte Slagter of the team won its first stage race, the2013 Tour Down Under.
Belkin was announced as the team's new sponsor in June 2013 with a2+1⁄2-year deal. In June 2014 they announced that they were exercising a clause in their contract to end their sponsorship of the team at the end of the 2014 season, forcing the team to find a new backer for the second time in 18 months.[26] Subsequently, in July 2014 it was announced that the team had signed a formal declaration of intent with the Dutch lottery Lotto and marketing agency BrandLoyalty which would ensure their backing for two years, with an option for an additional two years. As part of the deal the cycling team would join forces with theBrandLoyalty speed skating team managed byJac Orie and featuring Olympic and World ChampionsSven Kramer andStefan Groothuis.[27][28]
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In June 2014 it was announced that Belkin would stop sponsoring the cycling team. On 20 July 2014, the team announced they had an agreement in place with the Brand Loyalty skating team. A day later, the team also released the news that the Dutch Lotto will also sponsor the team. On 29 September 2014, the contracts were signed between the two teams, meaning that the new name would be TEAMLottoNL, with the renaming taking effect from 1 January 2015.[29]
On 23 October 2014, the team was unveiled inUtrecht as Team LottoNL–Jumbo showing their new black and yellow team kit. Lotto had previously been confirmed as the team's title sponsor, supermarket chain,Jumbo, was presented as the second sponsor of the WorldTour team.[30] In September the team confirmed they would continue to ride on Bianchi bikes for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.[31] On the first rest day of the2016 Tour de France, the team announced LottoNL had agreed to extend their sponsorship of the team through to the end of the 2018 season.[32]
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After signing a new sponsorship deal withVisma, aNorwegian software company, the team was renamed toTeam Jumbo–Visma on 1 January 2019.[33] From the start of 2021, the team has a new bicycle sponsor,Cervélo, and the team is equipped withdisc brakes instead of rim brakes.[34]
Jumbo, under new corporate leadership, planned to stop sponsoring professional sports by the end of 2024.[35] It ended its sponsorship of the team at the end of 2023, and the team was renamed Visma–Lease A Bike, with Lease A Bike becoming a main sponsor after being a minor one in 2023.[36]
The road racing team has won severalClassics such as theTour of Flanders in 1997, Championship of Hamburg in 1998, theAmstel Gold Race in 1999 and 2001,Paris–Tours in 1999, 2004 and 2010,Clásica de San Sebastián in 2000 andMilan–San Remo in 2004, 2007 and 2010.Erik Dekker won the UCI World Cup in 2001 due to his Classic win and high placings in many of the classics.
The team signed AmericanLevi Leipheimer in 2002 as a rider for theTour de France. Leipheimer finished eighth in his first Tour but crashed out of the race on the first stage of the2003 Tour de France. Leipheimer finished ninth overall the following year. The team became more of a Grand Tour team as could be seen byMichael Rasmussen's win in the Mountains Classification of the2005 Tour de France. WhenDenis Menchov took the lead in the2005 Vuelta a España, he was not expecting to be competing for the overall classification[37]
The Rabobank team at that year's Vuelta were not seen as particularly strong or able to assist Menchov in the mountain stages.[38] Menchov finished second toRoberto Heras which was the highest placing of a Rabobank team rider at a grand tour afterMichael Boogerd's fifth place in the1998 Tour de France. Heras was later disqualified for doping and Menchov was made the winner.[39] In 1999 Menchov focused on the Tour de France where the team rode strongly with Menchov, Boogerd, and Rasmussen.
During the2007 Tour de France, Rabobank firedMichael Rasmussen (2005 Tour de France,2006 Tour de FranceK.O.M.) for code-violations while he was in theyellow jersey.[40] The remaining riders of the Rabobank team were given the choice to start the 17th stage without Michael Rasmussen, or to withdraw. That evening they decided to withdraw, but the team changed its mind and announced the following morning that the riders would be starting the 17th stage.[41] Although he started with the rest of the team,Denis Menchov (team leader on the road, who deferred to Rasmussen when the latter seemed to have a better chance at winning) abandoned the race in the middle of the stage.[42]
The Rabobank team was invited for the2008 Tour de France.[43] Denis Menchov had decided to focus on the Tour de France. To do that, he did not defend hisVuelta a España-title, and rode the2008 Giro d'Italia as preparation for the Tour de France.[44] Menchov finished 4th place in the2008 Tour de France, andÓscar Freire won thepoints classification. The team had to wait until 2009 for the first successes in theGiro d'Italia, whenDenis Menchov won two stages; a mountain finish and a time trial. This second win earned him the pink leader jersey, which the team defended to the end of the race, earning Menchov, and Rabobank, their third Grand Tour GC win.
The Rabobankcyclo-cross team has dominated the sport in the past withSven Nys andRichard Groenendaal winning the General Classification competitions such as the Superprestige, the World Cup and the Gazet van Antwerpen trophy over the last eight years. Groenendaal dominated the Dutch cyclo-cross championships for many years. Groenendaal left the team after the 2006–2007 season. He was at that time one of the few remaining Rabobank riders from the 1996 team.Lars Boom joined the team in 2002 as a junior cyclo-cross rider and has already achieved success in the Elite cyclo-cross championships as well as showing promise riding in the UCI Europe Tour with the Rabobank Continental team.[citation needed]
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Rabobank announced in October 2012 that it would end its sponsorship of professional cycling at the end of the year, with the team announcing its intention to continue as a ‘white label’ under a new foundation yet to be established.[45] On 13 December 2012, the team announced it would participate in 2013 under theBlanco name and intended to either find a sponsor for 2014 or stop the team.[46]
During the2013 Giro d'Italia it emerged that the technology firmBelkin was a possible new sponsor.[47] The deal was confirmed towards the end of May 2013,[48] and the team's new identity was launched a week before the2013 Tour de France.
The team formerly rodeColnago frames, but as of 1 January 2009 began a two-year contract ridingGiant frames equipped withShimano components.[49] Starting in 2014,Bianchi supplies the team bicycles.[50] The team began a two-year contract (2014–2016) wearingSantini SMS clothing.[51]
The team struck a deal for consumer electronics companyBelkin to sponsor the team from the2013 Tour de France until the end of 2015.[52] In 2015, Lotto, a Dutch lottery, agreed to sponsor the Team for four years. Between 2015 and 2023, the team was sponsored by a Dutch supermarket chain,Jumbo. The "NL" was added to the team's name to differentiate it fromLotto–Soudal, a ProTeam that is sponsored by the national lottery of Belgium.[53]
In 2019, the team began a long-term contract with Norwegian business software providerVisma for at least five years, therefore becoming Team Jumbo–Visma.[54] From 2021 team have had a bicycle partnership withCervélo, ending their previous sponsorship with Bianchi, which lasted from 2014 to 2020.[55] In 2024, the team became Visma–Lease a Bike, following sponsorship by German company Lease a Bike.
In February 2025, the team announced the return of former title partner Rabobank as ‘jersey sponsor’ for a minimum term of 3.5 years, commencing on 1st July 2025.[56]
According to a 2012 investigation byde Volkskrant, doping was used by Rabobank riders since 1998 and condoned by the team, with team physicians actively monitoring the health of those riders. According to Stefan Matschiner, a key witness in theHumanplasma scandal, three (former) Rabobank riders were customers of the Swissblood doping expert. Matschiner mentionedMichael Boogerd, the most successful Dutch Rabobank rider, and said one other team member was a customer.Theo de Rooij, Rabobank's manager since 2003 and responsible for pullingMichael Rasmussen from the2007 Tour de France, did not deny doping was used by team riders but said that the use of doping was neither suggested nor paid for by the team.[4]
A 2015 USADA report against Dr. Geert Leinders found that he and other team doctors supported and organized a blood doping program within the team for much of the 2000s, which included EPO, blood transfusions,HGH, and cortisones. Riders included in the report that doped during their Rabobank tenure includeDenis Menchov,Michael Boogerd,Michael Rasmussen, andLevi Leipheimer.
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Netherlands Road Race, Jan Raas Netherlands Road Race, Jacques Hanegraaf
World Road Race, Joop Zoetemelk Netherlands Road Race, Frans Maassen Netherlands Road Race, Peter Winnen Netherlands Road Race, Steven Rooks World Cyclo-cross, Adri van der Poel Netherlands Time Trial, Erik Dekker Netherlands Road Race, Michael Boogerd Netherlands Time Trial, Erik Breukink U23 World Cyclo-cross, Sven Nys Netherlands Road Race, Michael Boogerd Netherlands Time Trial, Patrick Jonker
Switzerland Time Trial, Beat Zberg
Austria Time Trial, Peter Luttenberger Netherlands Road Race, Maarten den Bakker
Belgium Cyclo-cross, Sven Nys World Cyclo-cross, Richard Groenendaal Netherlands Road Race, Léon van Bon Switzerland Road Race, Markus Zberg Netherlands Time Trial, Erik Dekker U23 World Cyclo-cross, Thijs Verhagen Netherlands Time Trial, Erik Dekker Belgium Time Trial, Marc Wauters Belgium Cyclo-cross, Sven Nys Netherlands Time Trial, Maarten den Bakker Belgium Time Trial, Marc Wauters Netherlands Road Race, Erik Dekker Netherlands Time Trial, Thomas Dekker
Finland Time Trial, Jukka Vastaranta World Road Race, Óscar Freire Belgium Cyclo-cross, Sven Nys World Cyclo-cross, Sven Nys Netherlands Time Trial, Thomas Dekker Belgium Time Trial, Marc Wauters Belgium Cyclo-cross, Sven Nys U23 World Cyclo-cross, Lars Boom Netherlands Road Race, Michael Boogerd
U23 World Time Trial, Lars Boom Netherlands Road Race, Koos Moerenhout Belgium Cyclo-cross, Sven Nys World Cyclo-cross, Lars Boom Netherlands Road Race, Lars Boom Netherlands Cyclo-cross, Lars Boom Netherlands Road Race, Koos Moerenhout Netherlands Time Trial, Stef Clement Netherlands Cyclo-cross, Lars Boom Netherlands Time Trial, Jos van Emden Netherlands Cyclo-cross, Lars Boom Netherlands Time Trial, Stef Clement
Spain Time Trial, Luis León Sánchez Netherlands Cyclo-cross, Lars Boom Spain Time Trial, Luis León Sánchez
Norway Cyclo-cross, Lars Petter Nordhaug Netherlands Time Trial, Wilco Kelderman
Slovenia Time Trial, Primož Roglič Belgium Time Trial, Victor Campenaerts Netherlands Road Race, Dylan Groenewegen
European Time Trial, Victor Campenaerts Netherlands Time Trial, Jos van Emden Belgium Time Trial, Wout van Aert
Germany Time Trial, Tony Martin Norway Road Race, Amund Grøndahl Jansen Slovenia Road Race, Primož Roglič Belgium Time Trial, Wout van Aert Belgium Cyclo-cross, Wout van Aert
New Zealand Road Race, George Bennett Netherlands Time Trial, Tom Dumoulin Norway Time Trial, Tobias Foss Germany Time Trial, Tony Martin Netherlands Road Race, Timo Roosen Norway Road Race, Tobias Foss Belgium Road Race, Wout van Aert
Olympic Time Trial, Primož Roglič Belgium Cyclo-cross, Wout van Aert
Australia Time Trial, Rohan Dennis Norway Time Trial, Tobias Foss Netherlands Road Race, Pascal Eenkhoorn World Time Trial, Tobias Foss Netherlands Time Trial, Jos van Emden
Hungary Time Trial, Attila Valter Belgium Time Trial, Wout van Aert Netherlands Road Race, Dylan van Baarle Hungary Road Race, Attila Valter
European Road Race, Christophe Laporte
