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Teams & Riders Cian Uijtdebroeks - From the wetlands to the top of cycling

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Altough more than average talented, he has not the qualities of a future GT-winner. Probably not even a potential podium-rider. Not explosive, and mediocre in TT. Bad for stagewins and bad for GT-ambitions. But he does have talent.

But what happened this season, and probably also during the winter ? It's clear he's having trouble digesting the food-app. After that, both Uijtdebroeks and the team made serious mistakes. The rider by concealing the fact that he already suffered from numb legs at the beginning of the season. The team by allowing him to stay in the Vuelta for two weeks despite his poor health condition. I suspect that, after the heavy criticism, the team is now using a Covid excuse to withdraw him from the Vuelta. But much too late. Hopefully his season ends now, and the necessary medical examinations are now finally being carried out. Then everything can still work out before the start of the next season. It is important that they do not put the rider in a straightjacket, but take his qualities, weaknesses and physical limitations into account. Otherwise he will be destroyed next season and it will be the end of his career.
People are obsessed with this food app, as if it limits riders in how much they eat, but actually for a lot of them it results in eating more than they did before. I reckon for someone like Uijtdebroeks, who did this all on his own on his previous team, this will have been no different.

The idea of a straitjacket is very prevalent in your Belgian media, mostly because they feel Van Aert is being held back by his team and doesn't get to be the leader in every single race he starts, but actually they're probably quite advanced in an individual approach for every rider. That doesn't mean they get the best out of every one of them though... clearly in the case of Uijtdebroeks they didn't.
 
This is more what I was expecting for Cian given the white jersey group thing. They have added the 2 Faun classics and Jura and Doubs to his calender as well as Coppi e Bartali and Slovenia.

Those are certainly races where he can challenge more for the win rather than merely top 10s.
 
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One of the issues that gave Uijtdebroeks problems in 2024 was a consistent feeling of dead legs. Thankfully, he has now fixed that issue. "That worked. At first I thought it was the femoral artery, but there was a pinched nerve in my lower back and that was causing the pain," he says. "The team's medical team did a great job to clear this up and start treatment. I did a lot of strength training to strengthen my back and now I feel good again. I have found a body again that is capable of going all out. The difference is huge. Last year I felt that my physical capacities were there, but that pain blocked everything. When I wanted to stand up on the pedals, my legs would collapse."


So the cause for issues in the previous season was diagnosed and treated, good to hear that.
 
Sep 2, 2024
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Wonder how much of role of him leaving his previous coach was a concern for him. It was talked of how well he managed him and they had great trust in the '23 season. It has or was talk he asked his coach to follow him to Visma and the coach decided to stay at Bora not move across.
 
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