A little over eleven years ago, in a half-empty ballroom of the Playitas hotel in Fuerteventura, Jumbo-Visma’s current era of plenty would have been hard to imagine. That evening, Steven Kruijswijk was among the riders introduced by newly installed manager Richard Plugge at a decidedly low-key team presentation. Then again, the muted atmosphere was understandable.
Following Rabobank’s withdrawal at the end of the 2012 season in response to years of doping transgressions, the team had rebranded as Blanco while they sought a replacement backer. Just as T-Mobile had done when they left the sport five years earlier, Rabobank provided parachute payments that would allow Blanco to compete in 2013, but in that gloomy winter, bookended by the USADA Reasoned Decision and Lance Armstrong’s belated doping confession, their long-term prospects looked bleak.
