On the podium in Nyborg, on the Great Belt strait in Denmark, the star of the team Wout van Aert dons the yellow jersey. A little further on, Plugge is outwardly unfazed with a cardboard coffee cup in hand at the team bus. Fine of course, he says, that he has it, but he would also have liked the stage win; Fabio Jakobsen just passed Van Aert. It is a scene from the Tour de France that typifies the drive of Plugge and his cycling team.
Sporting director Merijn Zeeman calls him a ‘calm, cool frog.’ If Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, now two-time Tour winner, plunges the team into deep mourning by driving his compatriot and Jumbo leader Primoz Roglic out of yellow in the final time trial, the emotions for the outside world remain limited. A camera catches Plugge as he dejectedly throws a soft drink bottle into a waste bin before the end of the ride at the team bus. He knows this isn’t going to get any better.
The vagaries of the sport are well known to him. Earlier that year, Plugge celebrated Van Aert’s win in the Italian classic Strade Bianche at home on the couch. Four days later, his top sprinter Dylan Groenewegen Jakobsen drives into the gates in Poland. And in this edition of the Tour it is hit again: just like last year, Roglic crashes, he tumbles over a straw bale and falls minutes behind. On Wednesday, the Dane Jonas Vingegaard, second in the hierarchy, will be in yellow on the Col du Granon. On the same day, Plugge partly drove the Alpine stage himself.
‘More balls’
The life of the born Zoetermeerder is intertwined with the bicycle. He races at an amateur level in the 1990s, but soon finds out that he falls short for a professional career. Riders from his class, including Michael Boogerd, Maarten den Bakker and John den Braber, ride faster. Guidance is an alternative. He coaches riders of the Leiden Swabo Cycling Team. During endurance training, he regularly encourages them to ‘play around a bit more’. Use the shoulder once, don’t give the other room any space. That’s how it is with the pros.
For a living he chooses the path of journalism. At the end of the eighties he became a sports employee at the Zoetermeer edition of the Haagsche Courant† At the same time, after a prematurely interrupted HTS education, he started studying Dutch; he does not complete it either. An own-initiative analysis of the magazine Bicycle after a career as a freelancer, he became editor-in-chief.
After a few years, publisher Sanoma commissions him to publish the magazine Sports weekwhich is struggling with a declining circulation, to be converted into NUsport, which should mainly manifest itself online. This is where his orientation to cycling takes revenge. Reporters grumble that he knows too little about football, by far the most important topic of the magazine.
More resentment arouses the message to place news quickly and concisely on the site. Working on bulky pieces that require more breath gets in the way. Many are leaving. will be published in 2010 NUSport as a continuation of Sports week and merges with the sports editors of NU.nl† Three years later, it’s over.
credits
Plugge has already made his entrance into the entourage of the professional peloton. He is first communications manager of the Rabobank team. If the main sponsor withdraws in 2012 due to the ongoing doping scandals, he will succeed the departed director Harold Knebel. It’s the start of that astonishing trajectory: from the silliest team to the most dominant team, even if there are competitors with bigger budgets.
Merijn Zeeman, together with Plugge the face of the organization: ‘Richard deserves credit for this.’ Together with the coaches, he thought he was the right person to continue the team at the time. ‘He already had experience with restructuring. Moreover, he is very good at building relationships, binding companies to him, and earning trust.’
Seducing sponsors succeeds. After a short interlude with the American telephone accessory company Belkin, LottoNL and Jumbo are sponsors for a longer period of time. Lotto drops out in 2018, Jumbo remains, even indefinitely. Norwegian software company Visma and Hema will come on board.
Evenness
In the first years Plugge is accused of leading a reign of terror. Old-timers in the guidance in particular have to leave or take the leave themselves. Zeeman: ‘The allegations were not justified. Richard has been very transparent with everyone involved. It has not happened to us that we have reached the current high level. It has been hard work. We demand 100 percent commitment and dedication from everyone. It was inevitable that you had to intervene here and there.’
What will Plugge do if Jumbo-Visma misses out on the Tour victory again this month? Zeeman: ‘Of course he will be ill for a while. But after that we will continue with the same pleasure. There is a team that competes for the win in the classics and the grand tours. Who could have thought? This wouldn’t have been possible without Richard.’ Plugge himself shows his evenness again after Vingegaard’s victory. He is already building reserves. “We still have a week and a half to go.”
Three times Plugge
A few weeks after the pandemic started in the Netherlands, Plugge got corona. He spent eight days at the Leiden University Medical Center. It took a year before he regained his desired level on his bike during training rides, an average of 30 kilometers per hour. Against de Volkskrant: ‘Suddenly there were stages where you couldn’t get ahead. But then really not moving forward.’
Cycling is not the only passion. Plugge loves music. He sings – for a while he was in class – and plays the guitar, both acoustically and electrically. His favorite bands include Pearl Jam and Metallica. When he turned 50, he played at his party We Are the Champions from Queen.
Son Tristan once reported on TV at home in Oegstgeest about the Tour for his father in France, his wife recently told the VARA guide† Plugge called home from the support car during a mountain stage to ask what the heck was happening in the race. The connection was down. Plugge passed on Tristan’s information to the other teams. Lysanne Plugge: ‘From Oegstgeest, the peloton was told what was happening with them at that moment. Pretty absurd.’