"We haven't done anything very different from other years, the rest should just be closer" - Danny Stam looks back at successful year of SD Worx

SD Worx won almost everything there was to win in 2023, so NOS visited team boss Danny Stam for a chat about all those successes. Naturally, the element of mutual rivalry was not left behind, best measured by the short exchange between Demi Vollering and Lotte Kopecky after Strade Bianche.

"Every top athlete wants to win Strade Bianche, so they grumble at each other for a while. But we have training camps in Spain where we are playing a game, and then I have also seen the checkers flying across the room. That happens in sports and with people who want to win."

In the end it all turned out well, with Vollering and Kopecky meeting each other very often and proving that they could work together very well. For example, Kopecky won the Tour of Flanders after Vollering stopped working and the roles were reversed in the Amstel Gold Race. In the Tour de France, Kopecky wore yellow for days, but she paved the way for Vollering, who eventually won the Tour. "We haven't done anything very different from other years, the rest should just be closer," says Stam about a dominant SD Worx.

"Once you have won your first races, you get into a flow. It's just not good and it's more fun when it's difficult," he says finally. "It could easily take a different direction next year, but we do have a team of top cyclists with whom we can set a race that suits us. And if you don't come across anything, then you will have a season like that."