After a homemade lunch, there’s time for a quick game of darts before the afternoon training begins. Smiling teenagers face off against the staff in the team house at Watersley Sports and Talent Park. In a relaxed atmosphere during a beautiful autumn week in early November, the newest talents of Team Visma | Lease a Bike Development take their first steps toward the 2025 cycling season. “It’s such great weather; should we leave half an hour earlier?” suggests Robbert de Groot, head of development for Team Visma | Lease a Bike. His suggestion is met with enthusiasm, as the winning dart lands on the board.

For several years now, the talents of the Dutch WorldTeam have called Watersley, on the edge of Sittard in South Limburg, home. “We’re perfectly set up here,” says De Groot. “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.”

This week, the eight new riders of Team Visma | Lease a Bike Development are at Watersley. They’re getting to know each other, receiving their new bikes, learning the team’s way of working, trying on new gear, and doing some light training. De Groot explains, “It’s quite a step up from the juniors or another development team to our team. 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.”

Patryk Goszczurny, Cedric Keppens, Ian Kings, Tim Rex, Elliot Rowe, William Smith, Mikal Grimstad Uglehus, and Matisse Van Kerckhove are clearly enjoying their time in South Limburg. They’ll be returning here frequently throughout the season, possibly even soon, De Groot adds. “If, this winter, Patryk has a meter of snow at home in Poland or Mikal in Norway, we’ll have them come here. They can use our team house as a base to train in better conditions.”