"Top talents like Wout Van Aert, Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel only come once in a while" - Conti team manager not worried about alleged "downfall" of Dutch cycling

Mathieu van der Poel's overwhelming success somewhat hides the elephant in the room of Dutch cycling - that besides the 29-year-old, there is no other big leader. Manager of Dutch continental team Metec - SOLARWATT p/b Mantel Michel Megens (a team that grew up 16 professionals in the past) sees this but quickly points out that despite the limited talent pool, the situation of Dutch cycling is not as dire as it may appear.

Megens is questioned by RIDE magazine whether there is indeed decline in Dutch cycling to which he resolutely replies: "I actually don't agree with that at all. I say Olav Kooij, Marijn van den Berg, Tibor Del Grosso, Arvid de Kleijn and Sjoerd Bax: you shouldn't exaggerate. And no, they won't become world-class cyclists like Tom Dumoulin and Van der Poel or Monument winners like Wout Poels and Bauke Mollema. But in the period before Dumoulin we also had a long time in which the Netherlands didn't win any Monuments."

"Top talents like Wout van Aert, Tadej Pogacar and Van der Poel only come once in a while. If you immediately state that it is a downfall of Dutch cycling, then I think that is going too far. Moreover, I do not agree with the fact that training teams nowadays only judge talents on the values ​​they pedal. In my opinion, there are many more talents in a person than values. You also need those talents to grow into a world-class rider."

"I think it is a very bad thing that Dutch teams always give priority to foreign riders. All kinds of vague foreign riders get a chance, while they let the young dogs we have in the Netherlands suffocate. I think that is strange."

"Then you can say: 'Michel, then you should set up a ProTeam yourself'. Yes, maybe we should do that. Because our friends from Tour de Tietema also fail to give Dutch riders a chance. They are now going to ride on a French license, which is laughable. It makes no sense. But Team Picnic PostNL and Visma | Lease a Bike could also do a bit more with Dutch talent. The fact that there is only one Dutch rider in the training team of the latter team, that is really crazy."