{"id":34420,"date":"2026-06-11T20:14:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/34420\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T20:14:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:14:29","slug":"i-cannot-shake-the-impression-winning-paris-roubaix-was-a-life-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/34420\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI cannot shake the impression winning Paris-Roubaix was a life goal\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nSpeaking on the In de Waaier podcast<\/a>, Elijzen suggested Paris-Roubaix<\/a> may have left Niermann with the feeling that one of Visma\u2019s final great targets had finally been completed.Van Aert\u2019s Roubaix win and Visma\u2019s completed mission<\/p>\n

Niermann\u2019s Visma years have coincided with a run of success few teams ever manage. The team have won the Tour de France, the Giro d\u2019Italia, the Vuelta a Espana and Paris-Roubaix, while also spending long periods as the strongest collective force in the peloton.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019ve won the Tour, Giro, Vuelta. Paris-Roubaix as well. And you\u2019ve at least been the best team in the world… You want to stand in front of that group of riders and say: we\u2019re going for it, I\u2019ll lead the way into battle,\u201d Elijzen said.<\/p>\n

Visma\u2019s rise was built around constant escalation: Grand Tour victories, yellow in Paris, the historic three-Grand-Tour sweep, and then Van Aert finally delivering on the cobbles of northern France. \u201cI think somewhere, when you\u2019ve won so much, it starts to creep in that you think: what now? They\u2019ve achieved everything,\u201d Elijzen added.<\/p>\n

Van Aert\u2019s Paris-Roubaix win carried a particular charge. It was not just another line on the team\u2019s palmares. For the rider, it was the Monument that had become tied to his identity on the road. For Visma, it filled one of the few remaining gaps in their modern story.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe feels that he can start again and wants to see whether he can make a success of that as well,\u201d Elijzen continued. \u201cI think after such a successful period, it is also somehow very logical to take that step.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Wout<\/p>\n

Van Aert took arguably the biggest win of his iconic career in Roubaix<\/p>\n

A new challenge after the biggest wins<\/p>\n

Elijzen compared Niermann\u2019s situation to Simon Yates, who announced a shock retirement from professional cycling ahead of the start of the 2026 season, after winning the 2025 Giro d\u2019Italia. \u201cSimon Yates also had one more goal, and after that it was simply over. He was at peace with it,\u201d said Elijzen.<\/p>\n

Niermann is not retiring, but the move to Lidl-Trek gives him something close to a fresh start. He will take responsibility for Racing, Performance, Operations and Technical\/Equipment in the new structure, with Dan Lorang joining as Head of Performance beneath him.<\/p>\n

That is a major sporting brief, and a very different challenge to continuing inside an already established Visma machine. Lidl-Trek are not merely adding a directeur sportif. They are handing Niermann influence over the sporting spine of the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrischa is of course emotionally involved with this team, and it must have been an incredibly difficult decision to say that he was going somewhere else,\u201d Elijzen said. \u201cBut I cannot shake the impression that winning Paris-Roubaix was just as much a life goal for Niermann as the Giro was for Simon Yates. That Grischa was sitting in the car on the way home thinking: what now? I\u2019m actually at peace with it and I think it\u2019s time for something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Aert\u2019s Roubaix win will remain one of Visma\u2019s great recent triumphs. For Niermann, Elijzen suspects it may also have been the moment the old challenge felt complete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Speaking on the In de Waaier podcast, Elijzen suggested Paris-Roubaix may have left Niermann with the feeling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1428,24490,30,2798,4167,3298],"class_list":["post-34420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-paris","tag-cycling","tag-grischa-niermann","tag-paris","tag-paris-roubaix","tag-team-visma-lease-a-bike","tag-wout-van-aert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}