Masters of Sport: Code pink-yellow-red

He directed the 2023 Sports Team of the Year. The first team in history to win both the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta. Sports Director Merijn Zeeman of Jumbo-Visma experienced up close how a tightly mapped out policy led to a historic achievement. Jaap de Groot talks extensively with Merijn Zeeman about this unique milestone and the new ambitions of the best cycling team in the world.

Text: Jaap de Groot

Image: John van Helvert 

This success is no accident. What policies led to this?

"Then we go back to the winter of 2016. Then we definitely drew a line through the past and took an essential step forward. Because it starts some 15 years ago with Rabobank, the predecessor of Jumbo-Visma. The only team in the world that was a one hundred percent subsidiary of its sponsor, a corporate organized bank. The people who worked at Rabobank actually always had the idea that they could stay there until retirement. Salaries were much higher than at other teams and there was little drive to improve or grow. When Rabobank quit in 2012 - after the Lance Armstrong doping case - our current general manager Richard Plugge took over the team. The beginning of an enormously difficult time. Because just go find a sponsor who will take over your team after a doping case. In 2016 we reached rock bottom. With the lowest budget, we finished last in the World Tour. That's when Ton van Veen and Robert van der Wallen, on behalf of our sponsors Jumbo and Visma, had conversations with Richard Plugge and me and indicated that although we had the trust, we absolutely had to do better. In the winter of 2016, we set to work. Starting by asking ourselves the question : 'Who are we really? What is our culture?' Because a lot was still rattling on internally from the Rabobank era, we talked intensively with everyone. Everyone was given the opportunity to indicate what needed to be changed and improved. During that winter, the foundation was laid for the culture that is still very strong today. The values we stand for, the behavior we call each other to account for and the attitude we expect. It was also pronounced then that as the worst team on the World Tour we were ever going to win the yellow jersey. We were going for a yellow jersey organization. Since then, that has been our sacred goal. It was from this rigorous cultural change that the current successes eventually emerged."

What is the division of roles?

"We employ over two hundred people. Richard Plugge is general manager and manages the entire company. I am responsible for the sporting part. That includes three teams: men's team, women's team and talent team. There are also departments of communication, marketing, commerce and an operational unit around the team. We recently moved into new premises, a high performance center along the A2 near Den Bosch. A beautiful and inspiring building, from which splashes who we are and what we do. It breathes top sport."

The challenge now is how to improve after a season of maximum performance.

"Absolutely! To be successful as a Dutch team, from a small country, still requires a different approach. So above all don't keep doing what you were already doing. Especially after this season, it is relevant to establish that although we were the best, what do the data show? We also consult people from outside, let them look in and give their opinion honestly. We are in that phase of the year now. We had intensive coaching days in September and October where our goals and strategy were reviewed. Our coaches are then encouraged to say everything they think and that always yields a lot of insights. We also talked intensively with the riders. We question them about what went well and what went badly and what they have seen in others. That internal process has just been completed. Those are beautiful but also tiring days, with sometimes tough discussions. Although we made history this year, we only talked about it briefly and mainly went into depth about what needs to be changed and improved. I have now taken all that with me and in the coming weeks I will start planning first with a small group and then with a larger group. We will brainstorm on the best strategy and much more, and step by step we will come up with an all-encompassing season plan. What are the strategies, what are the underpinnings, what are the opportunities, what are the threats? We're in that process now. So when we go to training camp for the first time in mid-December, we'll perform to the whole group the objectives. In the meantime, I also involve the leaders Wout van Aert, Jonas Vindegaard, Steven Kruijswijk, Christophe Laporte and Olav Kooij in this process. I want them to think along, to let the riders own the strategy as well. To get all of our two hundred people on board, I will present the entire plan to the entire team in January. From the medics to the people in the office. Everyone gets to hear what we are all going to work on together. Then the season can begin."

And begins anticipating current events, such as the situation of three potential winners at the Tour of Spain.

"That's exactly how it is. You start with the outline, then from race to round it becomes a matter of details. About clothing, nutrition, tactics. You start very big and broad and from there to small and detailed."

In Spain, what was it like to experience that both Roglic, Vindegaard and Sepp Kuss could win the Vuelta?

"With three leaders during the Vuelta, I couldn't be in a better place to develop my own leadership style and learn lessons. Because this was definitely very extreme. What I experienced most of all was the power of realizing what our culture is and what our values are. That turned out to be the handrail that I was able to hold onto. Starting with our strategy. We completely surprised our opponents with the way we drove. We continued to attack. Even when we were in the lead. The motto was always that we keep attacking so we never have to defend. Only there was no scenario for when we were one, two or three, the moment when there was no one left to attack. Suddenly there were three of us, but the option of attacking each other was always left unsaid. Feeling good, Roglic thought he could take the red jersey at Kuss' expense and launched the attack against his own teammate. At the risk of Kuss having to unload and someone else getting on the podium. So we were down on that as a whole. At that point I quickly started sparring with Richard Plugge. And we determined that after all those years we had become so close as a team that this was no longer possible. I later discussed this one-on-one with Primoz, and then also brought it up in the group. Then we had an intense but beautiful conversation together, where everyone agreed on one thing: we don't attack each other. We have to fight not against each other, but against our opponent who is in fourth place. We have to make sure we stay one, two and three and we are going to defend that. That was a very special moment for Richard and me. To experience in such an extreme situation how everyone was so aware of our culture and philosophy. During the conversations over the past weeks, I noticed how more than ever everyone understands that own ambitions are very important, super important even, but that there is a limit. The team interest always comes before your interest. With us, everyone gets lots of opportunities, no one is limited in their abilities, but that unconditional support for each other is above everything else. That's a wonderful lesson I learned in 2023."

You also studied at the Johan Cruyff University. To what extent have you been inspired by Cruijff as athletic director?

"Cruijff's vision is that people who understand top sports should run a top sports company. That is essentially what it is all about. Top sport is so specific and to be successful you need people who understand top sport. If you don't do that and you don't work with like-minded people, then you start believing more and more in your own rightness. You always have to avoid that. When I talk to Robert Eenhoorn and Max Huibers at AZ, I can enjoy how they are constantly questioning each other and how they are sparring with people from outside, who also let them watch. Just to test whether they are doing it all right. That is also what I am open to. Above all, don't start believing in your own rightness. That's the beginning of the end."

Does Jumbo-Visma have the highest budget in cycling?

"Not by a long shot. The average budget for a World Tour team is now 26 million euros. In terms of budget, UAE Team Emirates stands out with about 50 million. We don't come close to that. But that is not my concern. Budget only has a limiting factor if it is too low. The challenge of being better with a philosophy than competitors who have deeper pockets is something I find very motivating."

How important is it that Jumbo-Visma is a Dutch team?

"We call it roots to rise, which means we always realize that we are from the Netherlands. Just as it is for large international companies like ASML, Philips and Pon. We are proud of our roots, but have an open mind to the world."

MASTERS Magazine

Curious to hear the rest of the interview This edition of MASTERS wíll have you. A milestone in print, the frontier stretched. Innovative. Surprising. Stunning. Including a most extraordinary guest editor. An interview with the man who, back in 2015, pointed out to the Ajax Supervisory Board gaps within the organization that have now come to light. Merijn Zeeman reveals how Jumbo-Visma has developed into a top sports company. Quoteman Paul van Riessen calculates how much you need to stop working. Sabine Riezebos explains what sets Bernardus apart from other golf courses. A look at the yard of Stratos Yacht, where the ultimate boat for carefree boating pleasure is built. And also, among other things, the rise of robots (where is the sex robot?), Fake News and, exclusively in MASTERS: the 'new Doutzen Kroes'.

Order MASTERS Magazine #56 here