Heading into 2022, Performance Manager Aike Visbeek unveiled the team strategy for the sprints, which was defined into three core groups around Alexander Kristoff, Biniam Girmay and Gerben Thijssen.
In January, Biniam Girmay won Trofeo Alcudia and grabbed the team’s first victory of the season. Two weeks later, Alexander Kristoff won the Clasica de Almeria, his first success ever on Spanish soil. And last week, Gerben Thijssen earned his first pro victory on the 4 Jours de Dunkerque, outsprinting the rest of the field on the last stage.
“We invested in three sprint trains this winter and with Gerben winning in Dunkerque, now all three have won at least once. With Pieter Vanspeybrouck, we spent quite some time analyzing & meeting in order to improve our sprint trains, and the fact we’ve been successful with all three of them is something to be proud of”.
“The level in sprinting is really high nowadays, the field is packed with competitive lead-out trains and very experienced sprinters. So managing to win with three different sprint trains is a big compliment and a massive reward for the hard work we put in this.”
“For us it does not stop here. Every sprints or lead-outs, good or bad, teach us new things so that we keep working and constantly improve. With many sprint opportunities on the coming races, we will use it to experiment the composition of our three groups .”
