{"id":1779201,"date":"2026-02-18T01:14:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1779201"},"modified":"2026-02-18T01:14:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:14:48","slug":"not-even-visma-lease-a-bike-can-keep-up-with-uaes-massive-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1779201","title":{"rendered":"Not Even Visma-Lease a Bike Can Keep Up with UAE’s Massive Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/VLAB-3.jpeg”]<\/p>\n

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Jim Cotton<\/span><\/div>\n

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Updated February 18, 2026 02:00PM<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s a sure sign that cycling\u2019s super team era is rocketing to a new dimension when one of the peloton\u2019s most successful teams needs more cash to stay competitive.<\/p>\n

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Wielerflits<\/em> broke the news this week that Visma-Lease a Bike is hunting new sponsors to fund its chase for the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

Norwegian brand Visma has told \u201cThe Bees\u201d it won\u2019t open the financial faucet any further as the team looks to pull the reins on Tadej Poga\u010dar and UAE Emirates-XRG.<\/p>\n

And the team knows that without more finance, the Tour de France might ride out of its reach.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a telling sign that now more than ever, cash buys success in a sport governed by multi-million dollar contracts, scientific expertise, and an arms race of tech.<\/p>\n

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Visma-Lease a Bike losing ground in the super team arms race<\/h2>\n
\"Visma-Lease
Visma-Lease a Bike needs more cash to propel it into the new era of super teams.<\/span> (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The future is secure for the team that won all three men\u2019s grand tours in 2023 and is the reigning champion of the Giro, Vuelta, and Tour de France Femmes.<\/p>\n

Major sponsors, including Visma, Lease a Bike, PON, and Rabobank, are committed to the squad, at some level, for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

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But the squad\u2019s longer-term presence at the top of the hierarchy with riders like Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert is under threat.<\/p>\n

Visma is no longer willing to throw cash into a sport that requires incremental investment every year.<\/p>\n

Sources within Visma-Lease a Bike told Velo<\/em> that the world\u2019s No.2 team now needs a new revenue stream to stay relevant in an era of upstart new mega squads and their escalating budgets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need this to keep up \u2013 and to take the next step,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the peloton is moving faster than ever right now.<\/p>\n

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Lidl-Trek, Decathlon CMA-CGM, and Ineos Grenadiers all recently welcomed new backers to increase or maintain their stakes in the WorldTour arms race.<\/p>\n

It paid off.<\/p>\n

Remco Evenepoel has already delivered a seven-win dividend to his new Red Bull team. Rising U.S. sensation Matthew Riccitello just won his first stage race for team Decathlon.<\/p>\n

USA\u2019s EF Education EasyPost squad recently revealed it\u2019s putting its naming rights up for sale to whoever will support its quest to win the Tour de France, fast.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s Visma-Lease a Bike\u2019s turn to go to market.<\/p>\n

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The rich get richer in the Poga\u010dar era<\/h2>\n
\"UAE
UAE Emirates powered the post-pandemic boom in team budgets.<\/span> (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WorldTour budgets have climbed in the post-pandemic era as fast as Vingegaard and Poga\u010dar scale mountains in the 7w\/kg Tour de France.<\/p>\n

A report published last December by Gazzetta dello Sport<\/em> stated the total budgets of all men\u2019s WorldTour teams expanded from \u20ac379 in 2021 to \u20ac570 in 2025. That\u2019s 50 percent in just four years.<\/p>\n

UAE Emirates catalysed that explosion.<\/p>\n

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Poga\u010dar\u2019s super team picked up in the 2020s where Team Sky left off in the 2010s in driving a rapid spiral in what\u2019s needed win yellow jerseys and monument titles.<\/p>\n

And the white-clad armada is proving that money can<\/em> buy happiness.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Emirati super-team wielded the biggest budget in the WorldTour \u2013 somewhere in the region of \u20ac60m per year \u2013 to crush the single-season stage-win record.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s looking on track to repeat the feat in 2026.<\/p>\n

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\ud835\udff5\ud835\udff1 wins from \ud835\udfee\ud835\udfec riders (and a TTT) \ud83c\udfc6@TeamEmiratesUAE demolished the previous record for wins in one season by a team, with more than two-thirds of their roster claiming victories. pic.twitter.com\/9VLnE5HKQk<\/p>\n

\u2014 Velon CC (@VelonCC) October 20, 2025<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

After a blockbuster contract extension in 2024, the Pogi-GOAT is understood to earn at least \u20ac8 million before bonuses per season. Even his bottle boys like Adam Yates and Jo\u00e3o Almeida earn far north of \u20ac1m.<\/p>\n

Evenepoel is thought to be the next highest earner at around \u20ac7-8m per year.<\/p>\n

Counting salary and a payout to Quick-Step, the Belgian\u2019s transformational three-year deal with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe is thought to have swallowed around \u20ac25-28m of energy drink-backed budget.<\/p>\n

Oscar Onley and Juan Ayuso\u2019s record-breaking contract terminations and whopper salaries put similarly sizeable dents in their new paymaster\u2019s coffers.<\/p>\n

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But at the other end of the spectrum, Ark\u00e9a B&B vanished this winter after it lost sponsors, and Intermarch\u00e9 and Lotto had to join forces to remain relevant.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Picnic-PostNL only narrowly escaped an existential crisis when Ineos Grenadiers went large to lure Onley. According to the Money in Sport<\/em> Substack, the Dutch squad lost \u20ac19.5m across the past three seasons, despite its notoriously low salary bill.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a brutal fact that in modern cycling, money buys success and success attracts sponsors.<\/p>\n

And just like everywhere else, the rich will get richer, and the poor will get poorer.<\/p>\n

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Visma-Lease a Bike acknowledges financial threat<\/h2>\n
Visma-Lease a Bike\u2019s model of youth development and rigorous science is no longer enough.<\/span> (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Visma-Lease a Bike\u2019s current budget is thought to hover in the top third of the WorldTour at ~\u20ac50m per season.<\/p>\n

Money in Sport<\/em>\u00a0indicated more than 70 percent of that comes from sponsors.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Het Laatste Nieuws<\/em> at the recent Visma-Lease a Bike media day, team CEO Richard Plugge already hinted that \u20ac50m is no longer enough.<\/p>\n

The squad\u2019s concise and considered transfer policy this winter was perhaps a further clue.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re currently fifth or sixth in the peloton,\u201d Plugge said of his team\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough challenge for us to maintain that position and stay within striking distance of the top four,\u201d he said. \u201cIf possible, we\u2019d like to climb to third or fourth place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visma-Lease a Bike famously rose to the top of pro cycling in 2022 and 2023 off the back of a strong budget and a stronger commitment to rider development and science-backed training, fueling, and racing.<\/p>\n

But what worked when Vingegaard went back-to-back at the Tour de France doesn\u2019t work anymore.<\/p>\n

Expertise costs money, and altitude camps, wind tunnel testing, and R&D costs even more.<\/p>\n

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We made a plane fly! \ud83e\udd2f\ud83d\udeeb<\/p>\n

Watch the full movie of our #TakeoffPeloton project here: https:\/\/t.co\/9e7Tc8hXqE pic.twitter.com\/DzKVlYax05<\/p>\n

\u2014 Red Bull \u2013 BORA \u2013 hansgrohe (@RBH_ProCycling) December 10, 2025<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWith the arrival of companies like Decathlon, Red Bull, and Lidl at other teams, there\u2019s a lot of competition at the top,\u201d Plugge told HLN<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe just dropped \u20ac20k a day for Evenepoel to ride up and down a laser-filled railway tunnel, and still had cash to throw at a crazy training camp PR stunt.<\/p>\n

Ineos Grenadiers is pumping funds into devo teams to ensure a pipeline of success, and Lidl-Trek is building its own Red Bull-inspired performance center.<\/p>\n

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Visma rose to the top with similar initiatives, but now it needs more to stay there.<\/p>\n

Sources told Velo<\/em> that Plugge is already in advanced talks with multiple global brands willing to back his cycling super team.<\/p>\n

Then, all Plugge has to do is use his new revenue to win the Tour de France. Easy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Jim Cotton<\/span><\/div>\n

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Updated February 18, 2026 02:00PM<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/VLAB-3.jpeg”] Jim Cotton Updated February 18, 2026 02:00PM It\u2019s a sure sign that cycling\u2019s super team era is rocketing to a new dimension when one of the peloton\u2019s most successful teams needs more cash to stay competitive. Wielerflits broke the news this week that Visma-Lease a Bike is hunting new sponsors to fund […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1779201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1779201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1779201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1779201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1779201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}