Top cycling team Visma | Lease a Bike is looking for new talent. In the Belgian Ardennes they want to test young drivers who have what it takes to make it big.
Visma | Lease a Bike is calling on talented cyclists to take part in the “Future Bee Talent Days”. The focus is primarily on scouting new climbing specialists from Europe between the ages of 15 and 18, the team said.
The idea: The racing team is holding specially developed “climbing tests for young people” “to identify and promote young drivers with outstanding climbing potential,” says an advertisement from the team led by superstar Jonas Vingegaard. “This spring we will organize standardized uphill tests in the Belgian Ardennes to offer talented cyclists the opportunity to demonstrate their skills in an objective, performance-oriented environment,” says the plan.
The background: Young climbers from Northern and Western Europe have a harder time in youth cycling because the racing profiles “often limit the opportunities” to make a name for themselves. During the Visma | climbing tests Lease a Bike will now allow riders to “express their strengths regardless of the race dynamics.”
Vingegaard team has big goals
After the performance tests, the best male drivers have the chance to be “invited to further screenings and a U19 training camp.” Female drivers receive “individual feedback on development opportunities within the team’s talent development program,” it says. Although the racing team does not guarantee contracts, participation in the “Talent Days” could be “an important first step within the development structure” of the team.
One of the long-term goals of “identifying and promoting talent,” according to Visma | Lease a Bike, “to win major classics or the Tour de France with a rider who has emerged entirely from our own program”.
In the last six years, 24 riders have made the leap to professional cycling after joining the development team, the racing team highlighted. 14 of them were promoted to Visma’s WorldTeam.
