“Activities must be organised online these days”, Head of Academy of Team Jumbo-Visma Jaap van Hulten said. “We notice from our intensive contact with a number of associations that they like to try out some forms of competition. The clubs are a bit limited in this. That is why we have reacted to this and organised this competition with Zwift. For our Academy, this race is a nice way to keep in touch with associations and to stimulate youth members. In addition to this online competition, we also do this in other ways. An example is the online gym class with Dylan Groenewegen, which is shared with both schools and associations. In this way we hope to keep the youth fit and this way we immediately stimulate cycling.”

Jaap van der Breggen, trainer at WV Eemland, indicates that his association also maintained contact with its members in the past period. “We had an online training via Skype twice a week. On Tuesday evening this was an interval training on the turbo trainer and on Friday evening a core stability session. In this way we tried to keep in touch with each other. We noticed that this was an incentive for the riders. Some of our members also participated in the Academy Zwift Race. They were really looking forward to this. It is currently the only form of competition they could participate in.”

The photo is from a school clinic in June 2019.