“In the context of talent development, we believe it is important to provide riders with a broad training course, in which a variety of training stimuli is central”, Head of Development Robbert de Groot says. “On the bike, the riders already have enough variety. Think of cross training, mountain bike training, road training and time trial training. Just like cycling, cross-country skiing is a tough endurance sport. During cross-country skiing, the riders will find themselves on difficult terrain over a long distance. This involves more muscles than just the leg muscles. With this we hope to give an extra impulse to the shape of the riders. In addition to cross-country skiing, we also train in the gym almost every day.”