Pavel Bittner full of hope as Vuelta a España debut comes into view

Words by Daniel Benson

After picking up the first sprint wins of his pro career at the Vuelta a Burgos earlier this month, Pavel Bitter is ready to lead the sprint line for Team dsm-firmenich PostNL at the final Grand Tour of the season, the Vuelta a España.

Bittner is still just 21 but has come through the squad’s Development program ranks after signing with the team in 2018. Now a fully-fledged member of the Men’s WorldTour squad the Czech rider has hit the best form of his career and is excited by the idea of racing his first Grand Tour.On Wednesday Bittner finished putting the final touches to his training in Calpe, Spain before making the short journey to Lisbon for the Vuelta’s weekend start.

“It’s my first Grand Tour and it’s a bit of an unknown road ahead of me but I’m looking forward to it,” he told us before travelling alongside his teammates.

“I’ve already had conversations with the team about it and I know that I’m going to tap into places that I’ve not been to yet in terms of my limits but that’s getting me excited for the challenge.”

The Vuelta a España has been on Bittner’s race program since the winter training camps when he sat down with the squad’s performance team and discussed the 2023 campaign and plans for the future. Training camps are always a vital part of Team dsm-firmenich PostNL’s schedule because they allow athletes and staff to assess a full year of racing and go over the areas of success, and where improvements can be made. For a team with such a high volume of young and promising riders, training camps are vital in the development of riders.

This winter Bittner and the team pinpointed the Vuelta as the rider’s first Grand Tour appointment and even though the three-week race is littered with mountain stages, all parties believe that the time is right for the sprinter to step up to the next level and see where that takes him.

“Since the start of the year the Vuelta has been the plan,” Bittner said.

“We had a sit down in December about the plans and the race came up then. There were some doubts at one point, but we’ve stuck to Plan A. The only uncertainty came from the fact that this is going to be a really hilly Vuelta with lots of mountains. There was just a question over whether I was ready and if this was the right Grand Tour for me to start with but then we looked into it really closely and decided together as a team that it was the best next step in my career.”

Bittner’s progress as WorldTour rider has been steady and methodical. He admitted that going without a win in the first 18 months of his pro career was tough at times, especially given the fact he racked up several podium places, but his performances in Burgos, where he bookended the race with stage wins and took the points jersey, represented a major breakthrough in his career.

“That was something super special. I always used to win races when I was younger but then I came into the pro ranks and it was a bit of a change. This year I was close a few times, second a few times but everything happens for a reason and I was so happy to take those wins just before the Vuelta. It’s been great timing,” Bittner said.

The line-up for the Vuelta a España almost matches the team from Burgos, with just Gijs Leemreize coming into the squad to bring the numbers up to the required eight riders. Bittner will lead the team in the sprints, while the rest of the team focuses on stage wins, supporting their sprinter, while Max Poole concentrates on a possible GC bid.

“It worked pretty well in Burgos and I know that it will be different in a Grand Tour but I have that confidence. I think the shape could be even better at the Vuelta and that Burgos might have been a launching pad for me. We’re all really excited to see how it goes and if we can get the cherry on the top of the cake,” Bittner added.

The Vuelta a España starts with an individual test, unlike the TTT which the team won last year, but stage two provides an early opportunity for Bittner and his teammates to take on the challenge of going for victory. Bittner is more than delighted with the team support he will receive in Spain and stated that everyone on the squad is willing to support each other throughout the race.

“Everyone on the team has a really important role at the race but we have Tim Naberman who is the captain of the train. Then Martijn Tusveld is really good at positioning, so he’s one of the last guys. Then we have Max, who for a climber can do a really good lead-out and then we have Enzo Leijnse, Julius van den Berg, Chris Hamilton and Gijs Leemreize. These guys are the engine of the team who will help us in the wind before we set up the lead-out. We can go into the race aiming to do a lot of good things because we work well together,” he said.

“My opportunities come in the first part of the race with stage two and stage three likely to be sprints. Then we have another sprint on stage five. There are two more options later in the race but that depends on how I’ll be climbing.”

For Team dsm-firmenich PostNL, Bittner’s progress represents the rewards of their commitment to signing and developing up-and-coming riders. Patience was required ahead of the wins in Burgos but now Bittner and his team are ready to reap those rewards as the rider’s future unfolds. Bittner might be heading along an unknown road but it’s one that looks brighter than ever.

“I think if I had to thank everyone who has been part of my results and my progress I’d be talking for a long, long time but I have to thank the work that was done in the Development program. This has been a long time coming and there’s been a lot of trust in the process. Hopefully, this is just the beginning, and I want this to be the start of the next phase for me. I want to keep challenging myself, just like the team asked me and then get better and better.” he said.