Giro d'Italia 2023: Jumbo-Visma’s ‘disastrous’ build-up to Giro could ‘play into their hands’

Team Jumbo-Visma have had a torrid build-up to the Giro d’Italia, losing five riders in the lead-up to the Grand Tour. Jos van Emden, Robert Gesink and Tobias Foss were all ruled out due to Covid-19 and Wilco Kelderman and Jan Tratnik suffered injuries, the latter the day before racing began in Italy. Ad The unfortunate series of events have been labelled “disastrous” by Eurosport cycling presenter Orla Chennaoui, but expert Adam Blythe thinks the brutal Jumbo-Visma shake-up could have its positives in the long run.

Giro d'Italia‘A demolition job’ — Evenepoel dominates the field to claim stunning time trial winAN HOUR AGO “I think it’s going to play into Jumbo’s hands a little bit, not being as strong,” Blythe predicted. “I think if they had the team they originally had, they’d be very dominant and they’d put the pressure on Primoz [Roglic] to deliver. “I think now they can be like, ‘Right, Soudal [Quick‑Step].

You need to do this, you’ve got the better team here, you’ve got the stronger climbing team so we’re going to take the back step a little bit and let you dominate, do what you need to do and hopefully, we'll take advantage of that’. “If it’s the other way, as I said, I think they go too much too soon almost to build up that pressure and could almost explode in the last week.” Tom Gloag, 21, has replaced Jumbo-Visma’s latest casualty Tratnik, and fellow Eurosport expert Dan Lloyd is eager to see how the exciting prospect does at such short notice. “Tratnik, that was a really, really big blow yesterday because as we know, that man can do everything on the bike,” Lloyd said.