“We’re perfectly set up here. The training environment is fantastic" - Visma ready themselves for the future with team bonding camp in Limburg

In terms of preparing for the future in the peloton, Team Visma | Lease a Bike are one of the teams that seem to do so the best. Things have already started for next season too, with a team bonding and training camp for development riders in Visma's Limburg base. 

“We’re perfectly set up here,” says head of development for Team Visma | Lease a Bike, Robbert De Groot to the team's official website, alongside pictures of the potential stars of the future playing darts, and bonding over a meal. “The training environment is fantastic, with the Limburg hills nearby, and the facilities here in the park are excellent. In the team house, we can host our riders during training camps like this one. We also use it as a base during the season for races in the broader region: the Limburg hills, the Ardennes, or Germany.”

In total, eight riders have linked up at the camp, those being, Patryk Goszczurny, Cedric Keppens, Ian Kings, Tim Rex, Elliot Rowe, William Smith, Mikal Grimstad Uglehus, and Matisse Van Kerckhove. “It’s quite a step up from the juniors or another development team to our team," De Groot explains, with creating a team spirit as important as anything during the camp. "That’s why we bring all the riders together for the first time in early November. Later this month, we have a short training camp in Baarle-Nassau, and in December we traditionally head to Norway for ten days of cross-country skiing.”

The base will be a frequent home for the riders over the course of the year too. “If, this winter, Patryk has a meter of snow at home in Poland or Mikal in Norway, we’ll have them come here," adds De Groot in conclusion. "They can use our team house as a base to train in better conditions.”