Jumbo-Visma to jump up team rich list after budget increase for 2020 season

Despite taking on the 2019 season with the second lowest budget out of the 18 WorldTour teams, Jumbo-Visma won a number of big races, mostly thanks to star rider Primož Roglič.

The Slovenian took his first Grand Tour victory at the Vuelta a España, while the team can also count victories at Tirreno-Adriatico, the Tour de Suisse, Tour de Romandie, the BinckBank Tour and podium places at the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia.

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This success, which has been a long time coming for the Dutch squad, will result in increased funding for the 2020 season, where they target more Grand Tour victories.

Jumbo-Visma are expected to once again be one of the dominant teams in the peloton, possessing a strong set of climbing domestiques, alongside the likes of Ineos next year, but will still only be the eighth richest WorldTour team despite the increase in funds, according to Wielerflits.

A bigger budget has likely led to Jumbo-Visma's ability to capture the signing of Tom Dumoulin after he parted ways with Sunweb, but the team's sports director Merijn Zeeman explains their success has been down to persuading riders to believe in their project, rather than their chequebook.

"We have a leaner organisation and therefore lower costs. Our capital is on the bike," Zeeman said. "We are not large payers, but our riders have nice contracts. They earn less than they can with the richer teams."

As well as boasting Roglič and now Dumoulin to compete for Grand Tours, Jumbo-Visma also count Dylan Groenewegen and Wout van Aert amongst their roster, who are able to compete for sprint stages and Classics. Zeeman says these star riders forewent larger contracts at other teams in order to be part of the Jumbo-Visma set-up.

"Money is not everything in racing," Zeeman said. "It is also about where they can get better, for which they are willing to let money go.

"Wout van Aert chose us, even though we didn't offer the most money. Primoz Roglič has broken open his contract and that has improved considerably, but of course he is now the number one in the world. He could also earn more elsewhere, but he remained loyal to our project. The same applies to Dylan Groenewegen."

The squad's title sponsor Jumbo are responsible for the additional funds for 2020, but the team could see another cash injection if talks with department store chain HEMA.