"Data is a knife that can cut both ways": Serge Pauwels empathizes with Vervloesem's retirement announcement

Since Xandres Vervloesem announced his retirement aged just 22 due to falling out of love with the sport, he has been flooded with messages of support. One in particular who can empathize with him is Serge Pauwels who retired in 2020.

The experienced Belgian is now Development Coach at Belgian Cycling and believes the modern trend of cycling to focus on the marginal gains available through data is at fault for a lot of young riders and potential stars of the future opting against a career in the peloton. "It is a knife that can cut both ways," he says. "For example, if you do not achieve the desired wattage per kilogram, you will be confronted with this as a cyclist. A performance is always reduced to what power the riders have pushed and that is a trend that is frightening.”

In Pauwels opinion, much of the charm that cycling used to have is slowly being sucked out of the sport. “It also takes away the charm of cycling. Cycling is for winning and that will be lost”, Pauwels believes. “If you ask a rider how he feels, he will often look at his or her watch first. 'It's fine,' they reply. 'Because my watch said I slept well last night.' But in certain cases, riders would rather listen to their bodies than just rely on the data.”

"The fun started to ebb away when I joined the Team DSM training team as an 18-year-old . Suddenly I found out that being a cyclist is much more than just riding a bike fast," Vervloesem revealed in an interview with Sporza earlier this week. "Data suddenly determined my life and that was a bitter blow to me.”