What Is Going On at Visma-Lease a Bike? Another Top Manager Exits as Sponsor Hunt Heats Up

What’s going on at Visma-Lease a Bike?

Another high-profile backroom exit is raising questions about the direction of the team that once set the bar for the entire peloton.

Jacco Verhaeren, head of Visma’s sport management team, will leave when his contract expires December 31, the team confirmed Monday.

Officially, the split is mutual, but Dutch media reports point to differences over where the team goes next.

Verhaeren leaves following the departures of sporting manager Grischa Niermann, Jonas Vingegaard’s longtime coach Tim Heemskerk, and several other key figures who helped build Visma into a grand tour powerhouse.

“[Jacco] has made an important contribution to the transition towards and the development of our sport management,” Visma CEO Richard Plugge said Monday. “Sometimes, the next phase of an organization requires a different approach.”

Swimming in unfamiliar waters

Some of Visma’s other recent departures seemed to catch the team by surprise, with key staffers leaving for new opportunities or perhaps bigger paychecks elsewhere.

Verhaeren’s exit, however, appears to be a different story.

Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad reported that Verhaeren and Plugge didn’t see eye-to-eye over the team’s direction, with Verhaeren’s lack of a cycling background reportedly adding to the friction.

Verhaeren joined the team in 2024 after a wildly successful swimming career that included coaching Olympic champions Pieter van den Hoogenband, Inge de Bruijn, and Ranomi Kromowidjojo, followed by stints with the Australian and French national programs.

That outsider’s perspective appealed to Plugge, who has long looked beyond cycling for ideas and drawn inspiration from Dutch soccer’s “Total Football” philosophy.

“I have consciously taken the time in recent months to reflect on my role within the team and the direction in which the team is developing,” Verhaeren said Monday. “In doing so, I came to the conclusion that, for its next phase, this team needs someone else to take the next steps forward.”

Visma’s backroom exodus continues

The latest change continues a remarkable churn at the top since Visma reached its high-water mark in 2023.

That season, the Dutch “Killer Bees” became the first team in modern cycling to sweep all three grand tours with three different riders. Primož Roglič won the Giro d’Italia, Jonas Vingegaard defended his Tour de France title, and Sepp Kuss completed the clean sweep at the Vuelta a España.

Since then, several of the people who helped build that machine have left.

Former sporting boss Merijn Zeeman departed after 2024 to join a soccer team. Niermann, the mastermind of Visma’s grand tour operation, left for Lidl-Trek this summer in a shock move.

Heemskerk also walked away after years of coaching Vingegaard and joined Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, where he now works with rival Remco Evenepoel.

Marc Lamberts, the longtime coach of Roglič and Wout van Aert, had already followed Roglič to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.

Several key figures — including head of racing Marc Reef, head of performance Mathieu Heijboer, development boss Robbert de Groot, and strategy adviser Patrick Broe — remain onboard.

Hunting for a new title sponsor

The turnover also comes as Visma fights to defend its place near the top of the WorldTour.

Tadej Pogačar and UAE Emirates XRG have tightened their grip on men’s cycling since 2024. Despite the crash that ended Pogačar’s 2026 Vuelta, UAE underscored its long-term ambitions by extending his contract through 2032.

Some wonder if the exodus is linked to the team’s uncertain future.

Though several top riders are signed through the 2029 season, including rising star Matthew Brennan, the team’s main sponsor Visma confirmed it’s stepping back its financial commitment after this season.

Robert van der Wallen, a Dutch billionaire who is one of the team’s key investors, is seen as a backstop, but Plugge said the hunt for a new title sponsor continues.

“We at Visma-Lease a Bike represent the biggest investment opportunity in cycling right now,” Plugge told Feltet earlier this season. “Many brands and companies recognize this as well, which is positive for us. Together with our current partners, we have big plans for the coming years”

Lease a Bike and the team’s other backers offer mid-term stability, and there is no suggestion of an immediate financial crisis, Plugge said.

It will need one soon if the team wants to keep up with UAE, Red Bull, Lidl-Trek, and the rapidly escalating WorldTour arms race that now includes the newly ambitious Decathlon CMA-CGM and the rise of Paul Seixas.

The next Visma era

Despite the backroom turmoil, Visma continues to deliver on the road and remains ranked among the top-3 in the world.

Vingegaard won the Giro d’Italia in May, and though he turns 30 in December and crashed out of the Tour, he is under contract through 2028. So far, he remains the only rider who’s beaten Pogačar at the Tour de France.

Van Aert remains the team’s core with a “lifetime contract,” and beat Pogačar to win Paris-Roubaix in April and snatched the green jersey at the Vuelta a España.

Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson also delivered big results in 2026, with Kuss winning a Giro stage and finishing fifth at La Vuelta, and Jorgenson hitting second at Tirreno-Adriatico.

Young riders such as Brennan and Davide Piganzoli are already delivering for the future.

Whether the team can keep rolling into its next chapter remains to be seen. Red Bull recently slipped ahead into second on the latest UCI team rankings.

Visma must now face several challenges all at once: It needs to replace senior staff, land a new title sponsor, maximize Vingegaard’s remaining prime years against Pogačar, and sign or develop a new yellow jersey contender.

No one ever said staying at the top was easy.