Jumbo Visma officially unveil spate of new sponsors for 2023

Following its bumper 2022 season, Team Jumbo Visma has today publically announced a quartet of new sponsor agreements as it looks ahead to 2023. We've also spotted a fifth, which we'll get into shortly. 

The official announcement centres around the already-confirmed partnership with Sram, the American groupset manufacturer that is also the parent company of various household bike industry brand names such as Zipp, Hammerhead, Time and more. However, as we've come to learn, none of those sub-brands is being called upon. 

Images released alongside the announcement show their Cervelo bikes equipped with the new sponsors' equipment. Unsurprisingly, this includes the existing Sram Red eTap AXS groupset, even though sightings of a new Sram Red groupset have surfaced from the fellow Sram-sponsored Movistar team camp.

According to team management, Jumbo Visma has over 180 Cervelo bikes in its possession and with new groupsets required for every single one of them, the end-of-season overhaul has been a busy one for the mechanics. 

"Dismantling a bike is done in less than an hour," explained Head of Performance Equipment, Jenco Drost. "But building up takes much longer. We have been working non-stop on that since the end of October to ensure that every racer had access to at least one adapted bike during the training camps in December."

Injury-avoiding attention to detail

Jumbo Visma is a team that has gained a reputation for its close attention to detail. The team's Tour de France winner, Jonas Vingegaard, claimed as much after that very win: "I think why we are so good is the preparation we do," he protested, when asked why the collective public should believe in the legitimacy of his result. "We take altitude camps to the max step. We do everything with materials, with food, with training; the team is really the best within this."

Further evidence comes from Performance Manager, Mathieu Heijboer's detailed consideration of the touchpoint ergonomics following the swap to a different shaped shifter. 

"It's crucial that they ride the bike with as minimal alteration in posture as possible," he explained. "Since the brake levers are being changed, we are adding a new contact point to the handlebars. Additionally, the shifting will soon change. You could believe these are insignificant details, but the riders will notice them. We will provide them with appropriate guidance to avoid injuries." 

Reserve becomes first-choice

The switch to Sram means switching away from Shimano, and given the Japanese groupset brand was also the supplier of wheels, pedals, and even shoes to the team, the move left a number of open slots to be filled. 

The team has used Shimano wheels for a number of years now, to much success it must be said, even if accompanied by occasional sponsor-shunning and that pair of incidents at Paris-Roubaix. 

Oddly, the Shimano partnership never extended to Jumbo Visma's women, who since the team's inception have used Reserve wheels, the subsidiary brand of Pon Holdings which also owns Jumbo Visma's bike sponsor Cervelo. If it's good enough for Marianne Vos and co, then it's certainly good enough for any of the men, and in the absence left by Shimano's departure, the Reserve brand of wheels has now become the first choice for the men's team too. 

The brand makes seven road wheelsets, ranging from a lightweight 35mm pairing to a 77mm front paired with a disc rear for time trialling; the latter of which was actually used by many of the team during time trials in 2022. 

Are those new tyres?!

While poring over the images, we've spotted what looks like a set of new tyres from Vittoria, the team's longtime sponsor. They look to be cotton-cased, tubeless-ready, and from what we can make out, appear to be called 'Corsa Pro'. 

All the information we have is that which we can derive from the image, so not a lot, but it would make sense that they are the fruits of the collaborative labour between Vittoria and its 2021 acquisition, Dugast. 

Pedal peculiarity

Despite SRAM LLC owning sub-brand Time (longtime makers of pedals), the images shared show the bikes fitted with pedals from Wahoo's Speedplay range instead. The team's official release states "The switch to SRAM offers new options for pedals and shoes – previously also from Shimano – with which the riders of Team Jumbo-Visma will ride from January 1." 

The release fails to actually mention which pedals they're swapping to, but luckily, Speedplay pedals are pretty distinctive in their appearance, so it was an easy one to figure out. 

Assuming this isn't part of a much broader conspiracy in which Sram buys Speedplay from Wahoo – or Wahoo as a whole (could you imagine?!) – it's safe to assume that the team has decided to shun Time pedals in favour of the Wahoo Speedplay range. This in turn would suggest that the brand is also dropping Garmin computers and shunning Hammerhead – another SRAM-owned brand – in favour of Wahoo's Elemnt range. 

Given Sram also owns power meter maker, Quarq, and integrates that tech into the Red AXS eTap chainsets, there's no need to use the Wahoo Speedplay Powrlink power meters, so it's likely they'll just use the lightweight Speedplay Nano and low-profile Speedplay Aero. 

Nimbl replace Shimano shoes

The Jumbo Visma partnership with Shimano previously extended well beyond the groupset. As we've already touched upon, they used Shimano wheels, but also shoes. 

In another vacancy left from the Shimano exit, the team has turned to Italian brand Nimbl. It's rumoured that Wout Van Aert has used Nimbl custom-made shoes for his time trials for a number of seasons already, but since all time triallists wear overshoes these days, it's never been confirmed. 

Agu out, Oakley in

The final swap comes in the form of a change from Agu to Oakley, which will see the team given access to Oakley's enormous range of sunglasses. This will include the wild-looking Oakley Kato, the more subdued Oakley Sutro and more.