Introducing: Axel van der Tuuk
Axel van der Tuuk became Dutch champion twice as a junior and was selected for the Junior World Championship in both 2018 and 2019. From 1 January 2020, the citizen of Assen, The Netherlands, will wear the Jumbo-Visma Development Team shirt.
What do you do next to cycling?
“In May I’ll take my secondary school exam. I’m pretty busy with that. I don’t know yet what I want to do after high school. In addition to school, I have my own clothing brand with my brother. That is very fun and educational. The brand is currently at a low ebb, but we would like to expand it.”
Next year you will meet your brother in the peloton...
“I think that is really nice and it is also special. Due to our age difference we have never raced together. If our training schedule permits, we will train together and hang out together a lot. He has been a U23 rider for a number of years. I hope to be able to use his course knowledge in certain races.”
How do you look back at your time as a junior?
“As a first-year junior, things went really well. That was a really great year. We had a super fun team and the results were good. I won the E3 Harelbeke for juniors and became Dutch time trial champion. A top season, really. In the following winter it all went well initially, until I got mononucleosis. That had a negative impact on my second year as a junior.”
"We have already become a close-knit group in a relatively short period of time"
“In retrospect, I started racing a little too early, which made me sick a lot during the season. It had an effect on my results. It went well one week and less the next. Still I became Dutch champion on the road. That was of course super nice, but otherwise it was a bad luck season. Because of that good first year I expected quite a lot from it. It is a pity that I could not live up to the expectation.”
A few years ago you were still skating competitions. Are you still doing that?
“At the moment I’m just training. I try to skate once a week. In previous years I skated competitions, also quite fanatically. I enjoyed doing that and I think it is a good training for cycling. That’s why I’m still on the ice every now and then.”
What do you expect from the upcoming season?
“There is a good atmosphere in the team. We have already become a close-knit group in a relatively short period of time. That is nice to see and it is also important. This season will be my first year as a U23 rider. It will be a really tough season and I am curious how things are going in this category.”
