"I am becoming more and more of a cyclist" - Team Visma | Lease a Bike's new world champion going from strength to strength
Cycling
Niklas Behrens has quickly established himself as one of cycling’s most promising young talents. The German rider claimed the Under-23 World Championship title in Zurich last year, and over the winter, he transitioned from Lidl-Trek’s development team to Team Visma | Lease a Bike. His rapid rise in the sport has been superb so far, considering he has only been racing for two years.
"He has only been racing for two years," team manager Maarten Wynants explained in an interview with Wielerflits. "But he has developed very quickly from nothing in that short time. Perhaps because he is so eager to learn. He absorbs everything very well. He always does something with all the feedback you give him. Those are good qualities."
Behrens' journey to professional cycling has been unconventional. "I started as a swimmer when I was eight, following in the footsteps of both my parents. Then I switched to triathlon and now I am here," Behrens explained. "I don’t really know why I took those steps, I just followed my talent for racing. In triathlons, I always struggled with running, and I had just been swimming for far too long. I was ready for something new."
His world title victory has significantly raised his profile. "It has been one big journey of discovery for Niklas. But that world title has put him on the map, which means that people are looking at him more," Wynants noted.
Behrens' physical transformation has been an ongoing process since his days as a swimmer. "My body is still changing, after I started as a swimmer," he said. "My upper body was a bit wider for a long time. That cost me extra watts for a long time, but now I am becoming more and more of a cyclist. Fortunately, the engine from my triathlon days is still the same."
While his stature provides certain advantages, it also presents some challenges, "In the lead-outs it is," Behrens pointed out. "I can see over the peloton well, and on the flat, that is my strength." His power on the flat has already been noticed, with Cian Uijtdebroeks mentioning how he liked riding behind Behrens in the Tour of Oman.
However, his size may work against him in tougher terrains. "But in the WorldTour races, it will be to his disadvantage if he has to lug 80 kilograms over the mountains," Wynants remarked. "He compensates for that with his power and can still climb quite well. It is not that he cannot survive anything. He is actually a modern cyclist."
Despite his impressive performances, Behrens' long-term trajectory remains uncertain. "It is difficult to say where he will end up," Wynants admitted. "He is a pure hard rider and classics rider. But he is very open to it and we will have to see how far his journey goes. We will certainly make adjustments where necessary, but for now, he is doing fantastic."
Behrens himself is embracing the transition to the professional ranks without hesitation. "It's not that I have to get used to it very hard. Just like in swimming, this world is also very professional," he said. "That really does not differ that much from sport to sport. But in any case, it is good that I ended up with this team.
"We have the White Jersey Group where everyone gets their chances. For example, I can already ride Paris-Roubaix as a helper and work in the lead-outs, but also sometimes go for my own chances. And all that in a family and pleasant environment. That is why I am certainly not going to face the future with stress, but with good courage."
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- Great commentCaralladas05-04-2025
- i’m such a sucker for those group-hug, happy ending moments between competitors, largely because it’s so WASN’T that way in my younger, stronger days. (on that note, i have this hope that somewhere down the road, maybe fifteen or twenty years, a middle aged wout and mathieu will go for a pleasure ride together in flanders, and reminisce about the days when they were the young, strong monsters that stalked the cobbles.)OCexile05-04-2025
- Just like Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Ronde van Vlaanderen was/is NOT on MAX. Get your facts straight.Ben04-04-2025
- You might bounce more for the same power, but not the same speed. Sending 20 kgs over a jump at 20 kph will fly just as far as 10 kgs at the same speed. Again, Galileo demonstrated this.acem8204-04-2025
- So, you're saying that doing a bunch of small hops on a bike is easier if you're heavier? Why do people buy lighter bikes, then? Why do they generally feel better and faster? An appeal to "rhythm" is not helpful either, as the right "rhythm" might be on the lighter or heavier side of things, and as it varies, it's likely a wash either way. Then we are left with the physics truth that it takes less power to lift lighter things than heavier things.acem8204-04-2025
- No, weight doesn't affect the ability to go into the wind at all. It's all CdA vs power at that point. For example, it's "obvious" that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter one. But, absent wind resistance, it's not true (Galileo demonstrated this). An appeal to "obviousness" doesn't matter when the physics is clear. And yes, you have to be able to hold everything else constant, or you can't determine anything! So, imagine a 300 watt rider at 80 kgs with a CdA of 2.0, then imagine that same rider at 70 kgs with a CdA of 2.0. (Assume ideal tire pressure for both, same bike.) Which one can ride over a bumpy road fastest? The lighter one, as he doesn't have to lift as much. That's also why when they test bikes on 5 star cobbled sectors, the MTB goes faster than even a cobble-build road bike. Even though rolling resistance is higher on a flat road, and the CdA is junk, it smooths out the cobbles, allowing the person to not lift as much as they otherwise would.acem8204-04-2025
- I disagree. If you have lower weight, you will bounce more at the same speed, meaning that you will spend more time in the air and shorter time on the ground, as a consequence, when you are on the ground you have to produce more force for the same speedvappaxbipmv04-04-2025
- That’s not quite true, even steep climbs and sudden gradient changes can be considered as remaining tangential to the wheel whereas the occasional dip between cobbles a wheel drops into cannot, as such riding over cobbles can become like a permanent surmounting of small obstacles that hit back into your wheel slowing you drastically if you don’t have the right rhythm to “fly” on the mounds, here again the greater the momentum the less these obstacles reduce your speed. But, it is but one factor, you cannot decide on this alone. Like with natural surface ripple formation on desert tracks used by vehicles, there is an optimal speed range to efficiently pass over such surfaces, too fast or slow and your car gets shaken to pieces from the “harmonics” in the vibrations caused. Pretty sure the same applies to riding on cobbles.Mistermaumau04-04-2025
- I am saying I have an open mind at the moment for your cobbles theory but cannot agree with your wind statement (and by extrapolation sprinting since that implies speeds where wind is by far the limiting factor). Had you argued all things not being equal I could have agreed with you but if we thus assume 2 objets of the same size and speed but with differing weights, it is completely obvious that the lighter one will suffer faster in the wind. Extrapolate to the extreme, drop stuff off cliffs or just remember your momentum equations to verify. Now, obviously in real life we have to assume riders of different weights won’t have the same wind hitting surface but you cannot generalise at all then as you can have very unaerodynamic light riders and very aerodynamic heavy ones because it isn’t weight that defines CdA, Teslas have an incredible CdA and are ridiculously heavy, and someone like Harry Levreyssen is a Tesla in cycling.Mistermaumau04-04-2025
- When Roglic beat Geraint Thomas on the last day's TT at the Giro, I remember just how unbelievably emotional his team was. One guy, I forget who, German rider I think, was interviewed and was nearly speechless with a really drawn out "fuuuuuuuuuck it's incredible" comment. And then something even more amazing happened. Geraint Thomas came through the ranks of the Jumbo Visma riders and congratulated them all. True, honest, sincere, sportsmanlike, and celebratory of what had been achieved. Here he was, getting second, and he meant it. And cycling these days is like that, as you say - the way Pogacar hugged Matthews in Quebec, the way Matthews congratulated Pogacar in Montreal, on and on they honor and respect each other. It's pretty great.RidesHills04-04-2025