2023 recap – Great season across all three programs

As we draw the curtain on a successful 2023 season for all three of our programs – Men, Women and Development – we take a look back and reflect on our journey through what’s been a great year for Team dsm-firmenich. It was a year that saw many victories, memories shared and experiences had, so we hope you enjoy our 2023 highlights article.

Development program

Since 2017, our Development program has brought a total of 21 riders to their Men’s program – fact that the whole team is proud of. This year once again sees three promotions to the WorldTour, as Enzo Leijnse, Frank van den Broek and Patrick Eddy make the step up. Results are never a focus but only a bonus in the Development program, with the team’s experts and coaches working with our group of young and up and coming talents to develop them in broader and all-round aspects, moulding them into riders that can take on a WorldTour level of racing.

That said, 2023 was once again a year full of learning for Development Team dsm-firmenich.

Along the way, while focusing on overall development and the fundamentals which are important to becoming a professional rider, the guys were able to get some reasonable results. Vlad van Mechelen showed himself in races like the Youngster Coast Challenge, the Olympias Tour or Tour de Bretagne, where he got his first top 10 results as an U23 rider. On the opening day of the Olympia’s Tour, he even came close to success, by finishing second in the nine-kilometre-long fight against the clock.

At the same race, it was Enzo Leijnse who celebrated the first victory for the Development program in 2023 and his first win in the team colours. He was part of the break, attacked in the final and stayed away until the finish line. In June he once again took to the top step of the podium as he won the U23 time trial championships of the Netherlands. Now finishing his fourth season with the Development program, Leijnse has improved year-on-year as he has progressed through the ranks. After getting more opportunities as a finisher for the Development program this year, he will make the step to the Men’s program this winter.

The Tour d’Alsace was another highlight for the team. While Vlad came close to success once again by finishing second on stage two, the latest addition to the roster – Frank van den Broek – crowned his debut by winning the final stage and finishing on the podium in the overall classification, rounding off a nice week for the team. After spending some valuable race days with the Men’s program in the following weeks, he earned himself a promotion to the Men’s program for the next year.

As part of that, the team participated in the U23 Road Series in cooperation with the Dutch Food Valley Cycling Team, to help the development of grassroots cycling in their local area and to create the opportunity for the Development program to take on some additional tough one-day racing. It was a valuable season for both sides and as a result, Johan Dorussen will make the step from them to the Development program in 2024.

Team dsm-firmenich head coach Rudi Kemna summarised: “Development and the Development program are significant to us, and we spend a lot of time on both aspects. The focus is always to work on the basics, rather than only looking at the results, but still, we want to become better again next year. It’s not been the biggest year for our Development program results-wise, and we want to look critically at what we’ve done this year and what we can do differently in the future. Towards the end of the season, we saw that the group is heading in a good direction, and we are proud to be able to promote three talented guys to the Men’s program for next year.”

Women’s program

The Women’s program’s year started in the best way possible. At their first race, the UAE Tour, the girls won two stages in the sprints with Charlotte Kool, while Esmée Peperkamp showed a brave ride on the queen stage. The Dutch climber finished fourth on the day and eighth overall, rounding off a nice opening to the year for the team.

Only shortly after, Elise Uijen celebrated her first win as a professional after a strong ride in the breakaway on stage four of the Vuelta Comunitat Valenciana. The team kept that early shape throughout the whole classics season, being present at the front of most of the races and creating their chances. Pfeiffer Georgi finished off great teamwork with the victory at the Classic Brugge-De Panne, and a fighting effort at Paris-Roubaix rewarded her with eighth place. Her teammates also showed themselves with Megan Jastrab finishing second at Gent-Wevelgem and Juliette Labous finishing sixth at the Ronde van Vlaanderen.

The whole team kept the ball rolling throughout the season, with the sprint group proving to be one of the best in the peloton, bringing home numerous great results. At Tour de Suisse it was our young French talent Eglantine Rayer who had an incredible first stage race at a professional level, finishing fifth on the final stage and tenth in the overall classification.

The GC group consistently showed good performances and helped Juliette finish all three big stage races among the best seven riders, including an amazing second place at the Giro Donne – the first-ever Grand Tour podium for the Women’s program.

Next to the classics, Pfeiffer Georgi added some nice results to her pocket throughout the summer, celebrating wins at Dwaars door de Westhoek and Binche-Chimay-Binche and crowning herself the British road race champion for the second time.

Looking back on the year, Team dsm-firmenich headcoach Rudi Kemna said: “When we look back on the season with the Women’s program, we are really proud of the teamwork we showed all year. Even though we have a very young group of riders, they already have quite some experiences and are working really well together as one team on the highest level. The atmosphere within the group was really good and this paid off with some nice results as well. The sprint group has proven to be one of the best in the peloton, we saw some great racing from the team in the classics and big stage races and the younger girls have settled into the group well, showing themselves occasionally with strong performances. Girls like Pfeiffer, Charlotte and Juliette were not only important as our finishers, but also to help the young riders grow into that team and that worked really well.”

Men’s program

The Men’s program’s season was off to a fantastic start and within 48 hours of its beginning, Sam Welsford had sprinted to two stage wins at the Vuelta a San Juan, while Marius Mayrhofer celebrated his first professional win on the other side of the world at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Australia.

In March the team were back in winning mode when Sam finished off the great work of his teammates and sprinted to glory at the Grand Prix Criquellion. Around that time, the team achieved more nice results such as seventh place in GC from Romain Bardet at Paris-Nice and the podiums of Tobias Lund Andresen and Casper van Uden at Ronde van Drenthe and Milan Torino. The big “what-could-have-been” of the classics season remains John Degenkolb’s seventh place at Paris-Roubaix. The German, winner of the race in 2015, had a great day on the bike but crashed deep in the final, which destroyed his hope to repeat his success.

After the Classics, Grand Tour season was up next and the Giro d’Italia got off to a very good start for the team. After a brave fight in the breakaway on stage four, Andreas Leknessund finished in second place. The team not only had his second place to celebrate that evening, but he was able to take the pink jersey, going to defend it for five days with the great support of the whole team until the time trial. Even though he lost the lead, he fought hard to stay in the GC and finished in a nice eighth position at the end of the three weeks. On stage 17, Alberto Dainese put in a fantastic performance with the team, as he sprinted to his second Giro d’Italia stage win. He went on to win another Grand Tour stage at the Vuelta a España later this year.

Shortly after the Giro, Nils Eekhoff celebrated his first win after his promotion from the Development to the Men’s program. At the ZLM Tour’s prologue, he complimented the hard work of the people behind the scenes to take home the stage win, with Alex Edmondson in second and Sam in fifth. The trio showed a good week of racing securing second, third and fourth place in GC and the prize as the best team of the race.

In the second half of the season, we saw a lot of promising performances from the team’s young core. Max Poole showed some great rides in the general classification of big races like the Criterium du Dauphiné and came close to a big win at the Vuelta a España. Oscar Onley finished tenth in the GC of the Tour de Pologne and Kevin Vermaerke and Matt Dinham had some great races for example at the World Championships in Glasgow. There, Lorenzo Milesi also had a great day in the U23 time trial. After working hard on his time trial with the experts in the team, he executed the planning perfectly and won the title – a great win for him and the whole team behind him.

Reflecting on the 2023 season overall, Team dsm-firmenich head coach Rudi Kemna said: “With our Men’s program, we made nice steps in the development of our young GC group. We could also see experienced riders like Romain Bardet playing a nice part in that, helping the young guys on a high level. It was not only the GC group who worked on their development, but the sprint group too. There, we worked very hard on the technical aspects of the lead-out throughout the year and we hope to make even bigger steps and take some nice results next year. Even though we saw some incredible performances from our opponents in the big races, and we couldn’t always compete with them, I think it was still a solid year for Team dsm-firmenich. Of course, we will continue looking at ourselves to get the best out of our way of working, to become better every day and take more great results as a team.”