Inside the Beehive: the podcast

What a way to end this Tour de France. Wout van Aert wins on a heroic day in the streets of Paris. A day that will go down in history. Not only because we have won the final stage, it's party time. Demi Schreuder gives us an insight into what she has planned for our riders, staff and partners tonight.

Some crazy breakaway racing painted stage 20 of the Tour de France. We had Matteo Jorgenson up the road, but he blew his bullet too early and never recovered. We hear from Matteo and also Grischa Niermann later. And we also talk to Tijn Betten, one of our cameramen in the Tour. As you are used to from us, we will deliver a Tour de France documentary with all the behind the scenes access. But exactly how many hours of footage do we use to get to that one hour documentary?

No sick cows on the side of the road of the shortened stage 19 of the Tour de France, but also no real GC battle anymore. As we hear from Jonas Vingegaard himself, his focus was more on a stage win than on gaining time today. And we also speak to our fourth sports director Arthur van Dongen about his role in the Tour. But also: did he get a chance to even the score with Frans Maassen?

Stage 18 of the Tour de France was long and hard. Our team went in fully committed, had a plan, sent guys up the road, but in the end it all comes down to those two exceptional riders in this year's race. We hear from Jonas Vingegaard after the stage. As often, Jonas talks about his feeling immediately after the finish, still the most interesting factor during a bike race. But we try to capture and analyse more and more details about a bike race in data. During the race, we have our control room set up in our office in Den Bosch analysing what goes on and communicating with the team car in France. In this episode we speak with our performance analyst Vincent Laporte about his work for the team and specifically in that control room today.

We have a direct connection with the team bus again. Sports director Marc Reef talks us through today, tomorrow and all the rest while he makes the travel from the Rhône Valley to the Alps. And also: why do we actually need four sports directors in the Tour de France?

Still buzzing after stage 16 of the Tour de France, where we saw attack after attack, with Victor Campenaerts and Tiesj Benoot in a crucial role as satellite riders. We hear from Jonas Vingegaard after the stage and have a call with Tiesj Benoot from the team bus on his way to the next hotel. How do you prepare for that important push you need to do when Jonas approaches? How do you time that? And we hear how he experiences the Tour de France so far.

After 3 hard GC days, today the GC contenders could take things a bit easier. That meant also that riders like Victor Campenaerts or Wout Van Aert could take their chances and fight for a stage victory. We hear from Wout after the stage. And we talk to our CEO Richard Plugge about the comeback of Rababank and Skil as sponsors in cycling. But also: what does a CEO do during the Tour de France?

The parcours was brutal, the racing was brutal, the weather was brutal and our riders confirmed afterwards that stage 14 of the Tour de France was indeed brutal. Jonas was the first to attack, but in the end he and Pogacar proved the strongest of the GC contenders once again. And after all that racing some delicious food was waiting for our riders once again. Thanks to our performance chefs and their creative process. We spoke to Karin Lambrechtse, one of our two chefs in this Tour de France.

We saw a super hard stage again today, with big time differences. Jonas rode very impressively and even overtook Remco Evenepoel. He set the fastest time when he arrived, but after him Tadej Pogacar once again proved the strongest. We hear from Jonas after the finish and we talk to our European time trial champion Edoardo Affini. He explains why this was no TT for him, how he experiences his first Tour de France and why we should keep trying.

Today was a tough pill to swallow for us. The team did what they could, showed that fighting spirit that they have been showing the whole Tour de France so far. But in the end Pogacar proved to be stronger than Jonas today. We hear from Grischa Niermann and Sepp Kuss and we call with Per Strand Hagenes, because we also have 21 riders in our roster who are not in the Tour de France.

Inside the Beehive is back just as fresh as Jonas' haircut after the rest day. Today we hear from Wout after finishing fifth on stage eleven. And we talk to Grischa Niermann, our head of racing, about the rest day, the first part of the Tour de France and everything that is coming now. Is a new Tour de France starting from now on?

We have won! Simon Yates takes our first stage win of this Tour de France after an impressive day up front. We call in with him while he travels to the next hotel. And we hear from Nathan Van Hooydonck about his new job in the team, his work during this Tour de France and how he experienced today's win.

It was officially announced on X that Wout van Aert was going to sprint for the stage, but in the end he fooled everyone again. We hear from Grischa Niermann and Jonas Vingegaard after stage 9 of the Tour de France. And Chief Marketing Officer Jasper Saeijs tells us more about our new clothing partners Nike and Nimbl.

All Belgian media wanted to know how he felt after his second spot in stage 8 of the Tour de France. We translate it for you in this episode. Next to that we have a chat with our performance nutritionist Gabriel Martins about his work, our riders' preferences and the importance of not only healthy but also tasty food.

Another chaotic and spectacular finish on top of the Mur de Bretagne. Jonas came in second. In this episode we hear from our riders and we talk about our special Tour de France kit with Tom Houtgraaf. How do you design a new kit? And what things do you need to take into account?

Today's episode turns pink for a bit. We had a crazy day of racing in Normandy, with Giro-winner Simon Yates in the breakaway. Next to the Tour de France, the women are currently in their fight for pink in Italy. Marianne Vos took a second spot today in stage 5. We hear from both Simon as women's sports director Jan Boven.

Today we had a flat TT around the city of Caen in stage 5 of the Tour de France. Before the race we already spoke to Jamie Lowden, our aerodynamics specialist. He explained how much work went into today's stage. We also hear from Grischa Niermann and Jonas Vingegaard directly after the race.

We have video maker, beer brewer, dj, creator influencer and entrepreneur Rob Van Impe, better known Average Rob, with us today. Together with him and two of his friends, we spend an entire day in our hospitality program, with former rider Theo Eltink as our driver. We hear about his experiences, love for cycling and view on this year's Tour de France.

A very long wait followed by a very hectic finale. Luckily, all of our guys made it to the finish line safely. We checked in with our soigneur Martijn Snaet while he was preparing to hand over some musettes to our riders and he told us all about his job.

A third spot for Jonas in the second stage of the 2025 Tour de France, but did we also manage to capture the perfect shot of this performance? We talk about with team photographer Bram Berkien in today's episode.

Inside the Beehive is back with a daily podcast from the Tour de France '25. Today we talk about stage 1 with head of performance Mathieu Heijboer. We hear from Grischa Niermann, Matteo Jorgenson and Jonas Vingegaard about our plan and Mathieu Heijboer explains what a head of performance actually does.

Inside the Beehive is back with a daily podcast from the Tour de France '25. Today we talk about our prerace press conference with sports director Frans Maassen. Next to that, we discuss his role in the team and all the activities in the days leading up to the race.

In this edition of Inside the Beehive - Podcast, host Sander Kleikers speaks to sporting director Merijn Zeeman. After 12 years he will leave the team at the end of the season to become general manager at AZ Football Club. But first all eyes are on this Tour de France. With high hopes for Jonas Vingegaard and the team in this second part of Le Tour. “I am looking forward to hear on the race radio that Tadej Pogacar is ‘distancé'.”Discover our Tour de France collection: https://teamvismaleaseabike.com/l/tvl2024tdf/

Inside the Beehive: the podcast is the latest podcast from Team Visma | Lease a Bike. We take you behind the scenes, you'll hear background stories and news from our riders and staff members. In this episode, host Sander Kleikers speaks with DS Grischa Niermann. About the Tour de France and the run-up to it. About Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert and Matteo Jorgenson and his own love for the race. Discover our Tour de France collection: https://teamvismaleaseabike.com/l/tvl2024tdf/