Jumbo: Daring To Dream

The multi-faceted Dutch squad are setting the Tour ablaze

- James Shrubsall

The yellow team became the team in yellow. When Mike Teunissen gurned and wrestled his way to the first victory of this year’s Tour de France, there can’t be many who failed to notice the happy synchronicity between Jumbo-Visma’s in-house colour scheme and the Tour’s maillot jaune. How fortuitous that everything from the riders’ helmets to the team bus matched the most sought-after garment in cycling.

Perhaps it was fate. More likely it was the result of a lot of hard work.

Or as the team’s cheerful Kiwi climber George Bennett put it: “It was only a matter of time really.”

Four and a half seasons ago, in 2014, when Dutch supermarket Jumbo — pronounced ‘Yoombo’ to the uninitiated — first dipped a toe into WorldTour cycling sponsorship, the team racked up the rather ignominious total of six wins. It was the smallest figure across all 17 WorldTour teams that year, by some way, nearly 50 per cent less than next-least-winningest Cannondale.

Jumbo was the team’s second sponsor, next to the Dutch national lottery, LottoNL, and it boasted a 90 per cent Dutch roster which featured talent and experience in equal measure. Riders like Robert Gesink, Steven Kruijswijk and Sep Vanmarcke all suggested a great deal of potential, but the Jumbo supermarket bacon simply wasn’t brought home.

Pertinently, the Dutch team’s 2014 iteration, Belkin, had enjoyed 23 victories: the new sponsors were witnessing a significant dip in numbers of riders crossing finishing lines pointing ecstatically to the branding on their jerseys.

However, in the four years since, the Jumbo team has increased its win tally year on year to the point where now, halfway through the season, it had already scored 37 wins. That’s already more than the record 33 the team amassed in the whole of last season.