“At 15 I had a VO2max of 75 ml/kg/min” - New Visma signing on triathlon background and being scouted by Patrick Broe

Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s winter recruitment may have lacked headline grabbing transfers, but one of their quieter additions is already offering a revealing insight into how the team continues to identify future WorldTour value.

Anton Schiffer, who joins the Dutch squad from continental team Bike Aid, has described how his endurance sport background and early physiological markers helped place him on Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s radar. Speaking to radsport-news.com, the German outlined a development path that began well before he ever committed fully to professional cycling.

“I didn’t start from zero,” Schiffer explained. “As a triathlete I was naturally able to build a high level of cardiovascular fitness. At the age of 15 I already had a fairly high VO2max of 75 ml/kg/min.”

Those numbers, rarely seen so early even among elite endurance athletes, formed the foundation of a rider who would later transition more seriously into road racing. Schiffer also pointed to sustained power as a key marker of his progression. “I also remember that in 2022 I rode 20 minutes at 6.8 watts per kilogram,” he said.

That physiological profile did not go unnoticed. Schiffer revealed that his move to Team Visma | Lease a Bike gathered pace following a standout result earlier this year, when internal performance data caught the attention of one of the most influential figures inside the organisation.

“After my good result in the Tour of Greece in the spring, Patrick Broe, Head of Strategy at Team Visma | Lease a Bike, contacted the team,” Schiffer said. “He knows every rider in the world and asked if he could look at my data on TrainingPeaks. After that, things moved quite quickly.”

Rather than a traditional transfer driven by results alone, Schiffer’s signing underlines Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s ongoing emphasis on data led scouting and long term development potential. For the rider himself, the appeal lay in the opportunity to evolve within a WorldTour structure known for refining climbers and endurance domestiques.

“I think they mainly signed me for support in the mountains,” he explained.

Schiffer also offered a clear assessment of the performance gap between WorldTour racing and the lower tiers he has come from. Rather than dramatic differences in peak numbers, he highlighted how compressed performance levels become at the very top.

“WorldTour races are considerably more homogeneous in terms of performance density,” he said, pointing to recent experience in high level stage racing. “You can already see that in races like the Deutschland Tour.”

Referencing a decisive climb, Schiffer added: “There, we climbed the Hermann Monument in just over five minutes at almost 7 watts per kilogram.”

That output, he noted, would normally be race shaping at lower levels. “With a performance like that, in a category 1.1 or 2.1 race you might reduce the peloton to just 15 to 20 riders.”

At WorldTour level, the reality is harsher. “In a WorldTour race, you will not drop anyone with that kind of watts per kilogram output,” Schiffer said. “Or if you do, it will only be very few.”

For Team Visma | Lease a Bike, Schiffer represents another calculated investment in raw endurance capacity and developmental upside. For the rider, the numbers that once defined his teenage years now form the basis of a WorldTour apprenticeship built on patience, data and climbing support.