DS Merijn Zeeman is fed up with the hitherto disappointing spring that he has experienced with his LottoNL-Jumbo team. "It is hugely frustrating, but we just have to make sure we have a good plan to get back to the top of the spiral," the team leader tells nu.nl. LottoNL-Jumbo is still waiting for its first win.

He says the whole team knows they have underperformed in comparison to expectations. But there is a reason for this: "We have recently created a document and it became clear that seventy percent of the riders had flu. We have also had to contend with extreme injuries of riders who crash."

Because LottoNL-Jumbo has fewer riders than the Belkin team had, they feel the effect of the injuries more. And at the highest level, the bar is simply higher, Zeeman says. "It's not just win here in World Tour. We are talking about the absolute world of a very globalized sport. You must be awfully good to be here.”