"I immediately noticed that it is a very family-like team" - Meet Team Visma | Lease a Bike's new coach who hopes to help Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert back to glory
Cycling
Robby Cobbaert, 34, is a surprising addition to Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s management staff for the 2025 season. Cobbaert, who previously worked for Jurgen Mettepenningen's Pauwels Sauzen - Bingoal cyclo-cross team, recently spoke with Wielerflits about his new role and the journey that led him to this point.
“This is a serious step. But also a compliment for my work with Jurgen's riders over the past few years. Otherwise they wouldn't come knocking on your door,” Cobbaert said.
Cobbaert’s background includes a stint as a part-time professional cyclist at the continental level with Cibel-Cebon, where he enjoyed some success. “I was a part-time pro at continental level for Cibel-Cebon for two years. During that period I won a 1.2 race which was the highlight of my career as a cyclist. The last two years that I cycled, I started to suffer from arterial narrowing. I only raced for fun then. But that was also more on one leg than on two, and moreover at Christmas racing level.”
In 2022, Cobbaert transitioned into coaching, taking charge of Jurgen’s youth team and later moving into a managerial role. “In 2022, I was allowed to start coaching Jurgen's youth team, and I also raced a few races myself. But when I got the chance to succeed Richard Groenendaal as team manager of the pros, I could easily put my own ambitions aside and stop my career. Then you have something where you can continue your passion. If you had told me then that I would be at Visma | Lease a Bike two years later, I wouldn't have believed it. It went much faster than expected.”
Cobbaert acknowledges the difference between cyclo-cross and road racing but feels his experience has prepared him for the challenges ahead. “You can’t really compare cyclo-cross and road racing. At Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal I did coach the road programme in races such as Dwars door het Hageland, the Tour de Wallonie and Baloise Belgium Tour, but that was about forty days of racing. Now it will be at least three times as many. I think it was a good step to start. You also saw that with Gianni Meersman, who has progressed to Alpecin-Deceuninck. I learned a lot about logistics. In a smaller team you are responsible for much more, and that way you learn all aspects of the job.”
On his coaching style, Cobbaert emphasises collaboration with the riders. “I try to be among the riders and come to something with a lot of consultation. I think that is very important. I am from the same generation as many of the current riders, and some are even older than me. In that case I don’t think you can or should be above them. Coming to a plan together with the rider, that has always worked for me in the past. I want to remain myself in that area.”
Looking ahead, Cobbaert will aim to help Jonas Vingegaard reclaim the Tour de France title from Tadej Pogacar and support Wout van Aert in securing his first monument victory since 2020. He described his early experiences with the team and how welcoming they have been. “I started with the team from the first meetings that started in early October. You then arrive at the service course, you consult with all the team leaders. That was all much larger-scale than I was used to, often it involved meetings with 20 to 25 people. I immediately noticed that it is a very family-like team. I met the riders for the first time at the December training camp. But you never feel new, everyone is just very sociable and friendly.”
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- He’s funny, Paris-Roubaix should be just his thing, just like the hurt and suffering of an hour record but longer ;-) Honestly, having achieved that I expected him to already have a few more prizes, maybe he’s not got that racing attitude, better at riding against himself?Mistermaumau13-01-2025
- That’s big news??Mistermaumau13-01-2025
- Limit speed in a race? Why even race then? The only solution I can imagine is a mandatory safety course starting at grass roots. Or, it has to come down to safety equipment. Will there ever be a safe equivalent for cycling like the exploding chaps for motorbikes?
TRjens13-01-2025 - It would be difficult for him to ride the Tour even if he wanted to, as his team didn't obtain a wildcard invitation.
santiagobenites13-01-2025 - love ganna, always has a big smile on his face. would love to see him notch some big wins. MSR and Roubaix really are both kinda freak shows, never really know who’s going to take them. the strongest rider basically always wins a race like Flanders, but MSR is often about timing and Roubaix can have a lot to do with just luck. i don’t think ganna would ever be the per se “strongest” at either, not with pog, mathieu, wout and maybe mads around, but things could break right for a big engine like him in either or both.OCexile13-01-2025
- He probably won't be able to fight for GC podium in a grand tour anyway. I haven't seen anything to suggest otherwise. His performance wasn't consistent enough for 3 weeks of race.
KerisVroom13-01-2025 - AmenMistermaumau13-01-2025
- Thank you Thijs for bringing some rationality back into this pointless rant. I know of no sport that doesn’t see continuous improvement, either steadily or in erratic steps, all I see is that the average amateur now beats champions of 2-3 generations ago, this says it ALL, humans progress, all the time when they apply the collected knowledge and methods. Coming from another sport I was always surprised at how backward cycling training was in comparison, all they’ve done is catch up. There have always been individuals who lead the way in progress whilst the lower levels take more time to catch up, but catch up they always do. The 4 minute mile or 10s sprint was once seen as unattainable, I’m pretty sure Van Gelder has never looked at a list of how many have now run faster. Next is the 2h marathon. Yes, there are dopers trying to skip the line but that doesn’t mean you can just blindly accused a winner or the best. Pog is no better than Vin in certain situations, no better than MVDP in others and isn’t unbeatable, are ALL of them doping then, with the same miracle product/technique? And why is it just them, you’d imagine if it was so effective and untraceable, they’d ALL be buyers.Mistermaumau13-01-2025
- There is for and against, the discussion is definitely worth having in order to find acceptable compromise. I don’t really know why numbers are important, you can also just play with balancing, 3 or 4 promoted / demoted instead of 2? Reducing teams to 7 to accommodate 23 or 24? Also, before jumping the gun, they need to look at (possible) consequences, all of them which are often overlooked. There are huge implications financially, we should think carefully to see how things can’t be exploited by “investors” buying their way into GTs too easily, especially now that things like contract breaking has become nothing more than a financial burden.Mistermaumau13-01-2025
- Exactly, most people who watch cycling have no idea or easily forget the skill and danger and mostly, the experience needed to ride safely in a peleton which is often akin to a flock of birds or school of fish with certain differences. Firstly, they still have individual goals, secondly they are far more limited in space by size and direction of their path, thirdly they have far more unforeseen obstacles, spectators, signs, road damage, holes, etc, fourthly, they have a machine attached which they have to control perfectly and also, speed and trajectory changes can be more sudden, especially during an incident/crash leading to a cascading of unpredictable events. Regarding the speeds at which the peleton advances (generally 35-70km/h), it is comparable to cars in traffic. Can you imagine cars moving in such unison with so little space between each other (my wife gets nervous if I’m 2 bike lengths behind a car and can’t fathom my explanation that from cycling I have an in-built reaction mechanism to be fully focused for all eventualities from the many hours spent at mere cm from the preceding rider who could brake hard at any moment for any reason I may not have noticed before him. Someone might now point out car racing takes place at far higher speeds, yes but there are huge differences, firstly, they usually only have one or two competitors at the time to focus on (and in rallye driving, none at all), secondly the roads are far wider, more perfect and without obstacles, thirdly, they are still very protected in a box and in case of an incident, trajectories and impacts are far easier and safer to predict due to momentum so all in all they can drive in a way that looks far riskier when it actually isn’t and they can focus far more on themselves than everyone else. As you’ve said, you are not going to change safety by any of the simplistic suggestions being thrown around, the reasons lie deep and are unlikely to disappear. It may be better to try to look at ways to promote less peleton. I have some interesting, nasty, revolutionary ideas, they could even make cycling a more enjoyable, exciting sport to watch, but it’s unlikely any will be acceptable, change is slow and incremental, even mobile phones took a generation to overcome resistance.Mistermaumau13-01-2025