With the opening races of the 2024 season just around the corner, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL gathered today in Calpe, Spain with all three of their programs – Women, Men and Development – as they lay the final preparations in their build up towards the new season. Looking ahead to the new year filled with ambition and motivation towards some their big goals, the team presented its new look and feel to the outside world, with their distinctive two Keep Challenging stripes taking on a striking orange colour for 2024 and beyond.
Going from strength to strength with two brilliant co-title partners
2023 marked the third year with dsm-firmenich – leading innovator in nutrition, health and beauty – as the team’s title partner, building on a long-established relationship that has continued to grow and develop since its beginning back in 2015.
In 2024, the team welcomes aboard PostNL – the leading parcel and postal company of the Netherlands – as a co-title partner, bringing together two large prestigious partners; with dsm-firmenich and PostNL committing to what is set to be an exciting future for the team.
Making the next step – Ambitions for 2024
2024 offers another opportunity for the team to take the next step-up; pushing each other to bigger and better things, creating some special moments along the way.
Talking about the three programs, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL head coach Rudi Kemna said: “Across the board we are in a nice place with our team for 2024 and we are all really motivated to get out there and show ourselves as a team. We’ve had some solid Team Camps over the last couple of months where we have come on a good line together as a team, showing good promise for what’s to come this year.”
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL head of science Narelle Neumann added: “We’re really happy with the progress we’ve made across all three of our programs this winter and we believe that we have got a great base to kick off the season. We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to implement better training models and nutritional plans even further, and we believe our equipment setup is now faster than ever. We can’t wait to get going with the new season and hopefully start to reap the rewards of the hard work we’ve put in over the winter as we start to see those plans in practice.”
The women set to continue their winning trajectory
Kemna spoke of the team’s Women’s programs goals for 2024: “Our Women’s program had a brilliant 2023 campaign, and we will look to build on that for the coming year, with our strong core and a focus across the board on the classics, sprints, and GC. Of course, a real highlight will be the Tour de France Femmes Grand Depart in the Netherlands, where we are based, where we will once again look to sprint success with Charlotte [Kool], next to our goals in the GC with Juliette [Labous].”
“In fact, we will once again target the GC in all three of the women’s Grand Tours, Kemna continued. “The Giro Donne, Vuelta a España and the Tour de France Femmes will all be big goals in the overall standings with Juliette who made a great step in 2023, podiuming the Giro Donne; the first for our Women’s program.”
“In the exciting Belgian cobbled classics, we’ll have the likes of Pfeiffer Georgi and Franziska Koch playing key roles in search of results for the team, and when we might expect a sprint Charlotte can also come into play too.”
GC, day result and developmental focuses for the Men’s program
About the Men’s program, Kemna continued: “Looking to our goals in the Grand Tours for our Men’s program, we really want to show ourselves at the Giro d’Italia and who we are as a team, animating the race each day. In the fight for the GC battle we will pick our battles wisely and ride smartly and tactically; seeing how the race unfolds and what position we can come to with this approach. For this we’ll have guys like Romain Bardet, Max Poole – who will really be able to learn a lot from Romain – Chris Hamilton and Matt Dinham. Next to this, we’ll also look for success in the sprints, something that is cemented in the team’s DNA from years gone by, where we’ll have Fabio Jakobsen complemented and supported by a good lead-out train, to search for day results.”
“Our approach for the Tour de France will be full focus on stage results, trying to come into a good situation on each day to win a stage. We’ll have multiple options here for success with Romain [Bardet], Warren [Barguil] and Fabio [Jakobsen] to hunt those stages, whether that be from the breakaways or through the sprints with our talented group.”
“The Vuelta will be focused on general development, and we believe that Max [Poole] will take a lot from the experienced gained at the Giro, to the Vuelta, and we’ll see where we can bring him in the overall standings at the end of the race. It will also be an opportunity for multiple of our other young talents to really come into the process of riding a Grand Tour and looking for opportunities each day to hunt for the best possible result.”
“With the group that we have this year we believe that we can really get the most out of ourselves during stage races looking for day results, but of course where we can take our chances during the classics and one day races we will do so.”
21 talents promoted from Development program to the WorldTour so far, 2024 hopes to see more
Kemna concluded: “As always, the general focus of our Development program will remain on the best development of our promising young athletes and continuing to bring the world’s best talents through to the WorldTour. We’ve taken on a few interesting new faces for 2024 and we’ll work to integrate them into the group, and really focus on our rider’s broader development – both on and off the bike. We’ve now delivered a total of 21 talents to our Men’s program, something we are proud of, and we’ll work to increase that number with more talents from this young and motivated group promoted after what we hope will be a successful season.”
Looking fresh in 2024
With the new name as Team dsm-firmenich PostNL, the team are excited to fully reveal their brand-new look and feel for the 2024 campaign.
The two distinctive Keep Challenging stripes, which symbolise the DNA of the team turn orange to celebrate the addition of PostNL. The left stripe represents the continuous development of each individual person, while the right stripe visualises their ever-improving innovative environment.
Set on a dazzling and predominantly white kit with various blue and light blue touches, the orange stripes will instantly see the Team dsm-firmenich PostNL squad stand out in the peloton, as they charge towards many special moments in the coming year. The expertly crafted, purpose-built race wear that has been developed by Nalini together with the team, combines that stand-out look with performance on the bike, while meeting the demands of the best riders.
The look and feel refresh doesn’t stop there with the team’s beautiful SCOTT bikes, equipped with the best Shimano components, getting a fresh lick of paint as a sleek new design with flashes of colour on a white base truly makes them a work of art. Some beautiful orange detailing makes the team’s premium DRIIVE race eyewear pop with its fresh white base design. You will also be able to spot the team in the convoy too, as their brilliant Volvo cars get the white, orange and blue makeover as well.
Health, sustainability and inclusivity – key themes we take into 2024 and beyond
The bike is naturally a symbol for a healthy lifestyle, for sustainability, and our Keep Challenging approach, performed by the collective of a team is a great symbol for inclusivity which underlines the strong team culture which we captivate by ‘truly together’; truly committing to and empowering each other.
Throughout the years the team has focused on a variety of initiatives to progress towards achieving its sustainability goals, such as its ambassadorship of Trees for All since 2010 to testing with electric Volvo cars. More is set to come on this topic in the next months with Team dsm-firmenich PostNL.
Ongoing additional independent anti-doping efforts
Ethics is one of the team’s key values. The team were one of the first members of the MPCC (Mouvement pour un Cyclisme Crédible) and are dedicated to being strictly compliant with the ethical code of the MPCC, whose rules are more rigorous than the UCI rules. In addition to their MPCC membership, they have conducted an additional independent anti-doping program since 2018. The program is conducted by the Dutch Dopingautoriteit and has been funded by dsm-firmenich.
The additional independent tests are based on out-of-competition blood and urine tests, on the basis of the “Whereabouts” of the riders, and the interpretation of the test results by Dopingautoriteit. The tests are shared with WADA and ITA, and the results are added to the athletes “biological passport”. Women, Men and Development programs are under the same strict anti-doping regime.
Read more about Anti-doping here.
A new look and feel online
With the updated look and feel of the team, also comes an updated website domain and social media handles too. You can find our new Dutch website here. Or across all social media platforms as @dsmfirmpostnl
Be sure to check out our updated Fan Zone for all of the latest news about the team. Road Code, Recipes, Tech articles and Team wallpapers are all updated for the new season.
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