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The internal kitchen of Team DSM, where everyone flees (part 1): "Treated like little children"
After each departure, the question marks grow. A haze of mystery hangs around Team DSM due to the many riders who flee from it and afterwards shroud themselves in silence. What is going wrong behind the scenes with the ambitious team? Sporza collected testimonials from some experts by experience. In part 1: the lack of flexibility. "The team's protocol is a strength that has become a weakness."
“Team DSM agrees to the termination of the contract with Tiesj Benoot.”
On Tuesday, the (German) Dutch WorldTour formation officially released the news about a split that had been in the air for some time.
The bad news: nobody is scared anymore. Tiesj Benoot is already the umpteenth early departure. Tom Dumoulin, Warren Barguil, Marc Hirschi, Marcel Kittel, Michael Matthews, Edward Theuns and Ilan Van Wilder have already preceded him.
A solid list. The cycling world is buzzing with stories. But where exactly does it go wrong?
Former riders De Backer, Vervaeke and Waeytens share their experiences
"First I want to emphasize that there is a lot of good in the team", opens Bert De Backer, rider at DSM from 2009 to 2017.
"Introduce 80 percent of what Team DSM does to other teams and those teams will all become top teams."
“DSM focuses on science and standardizes everything. Each rider's water bottle contains the same content, regardless of the staff member responsible for it. The chance that your first, second and third bike will be equal at DSM is much greater than with other teams and so on.”
Louis Vervaeke and Zico Waeytens also have positive memories of their DSM period. “I was overtrained at Lotto-Soudal and was looking for knowledge of scientific cycling. I found it at DSM," says Vervaeke.
“I especially learned a lot in the field of training and about my role as lead-out,” says Waeytens. “We always got our program very early. Everything was arranged down to the last detail.”
"We had to listen to Mr. and Mrs. the teacher"
DSM is known for its strict protocols, which entail a series of rules. “When I signed with the team, I chose to accept the rules,” says Vervaeke.
"But sometimes they went a bit too far with their rules," says a foreign rider who wishes to remain anonymous. “The rules were extreme, especially in the clothing area.”
“On certain occasions you had to wear a long coat. On the starting podium you sometimes had to wear gloves, other times nobody was allowed to keep their gloves on.”
Waeytens: “After the Clasica San Sebastian, the team called me once: “You've worked well. Tom Dumoulin was super happy with you," it sounded. “But we did see that you didn't have your podium cap on when you started signing the start sheet.”
“They were whining about all those little things. But as a rider you don't want to be involved in that. You mainly want to train and compete.”
Riders are also not allowed to deviate a millimeter from their training schedule. “Woe to you if you had trained a little bit differently for a day”, says an anonymous rider. “You immediately got on the phone with an angry staff member and you had to justify yourself.”
“They had a protocol for everything. It was really extreme. And every year new rules were added. Rules that get on riders' nerves.”
“We felt that we had to listen to Mr. and Mrs. the teacher all the time. We were treated like little children,” say 2 riders. “If you didn't do something right, you had to stand in the corner, as it were.”
“Some riders may need that approach. But especially the older riders do not need many superfluous rules that were then unnecessarily complex.”
16 phonecalls for a saddle adjustment
All the riders we speak to share the same opinion. “They don't know flexibility at Team DSM.”
“When I wanted to raise my saddle by 3 millimeters, the mechanic had to make 16 phone calls, so to speak,” says Waeytens.
“First, the person responsible for the equipment had to be contacted and convinced why you wanted to raise your saddle. In the end, it took a long time before that adjustment actually came about.”
De Backer: “If you thought you needed more powder in your water bottle, that had to be investigated first. You then had to undergo all kinds of tests that had to show that you effectively burn more energy during an effort."
"But that could take a long time. By the time it was finally allowed to get more powder, the season was almost over."
There are also frequent clashes between the team and the riders on a medical level. “They solve everything in-house with experts. That's good," says De Backer.
“But when I had a medical problem, I could have come up with a better solution with better contacts. But no: their experts have to solve everything. As a rider you are obliged to only call on the experts of the team.”
Waeytens also blames the team for a lack of good medical supervision. "During a winter internship I constantly indicated that I was not feeling well. In the classics it didn't go well after that, but the team did not want to help me. I then had a stomach examination done myself."
"As it turned out? I had a stomach bacteria and an ulcer. I had to take 120 antibiotic pills. But the team said: wait with antibiotics and drive Eschborn-Frankfurt first. I killed my whole year with that. Mentally i was completely drained."
De Backer: “The team's protocol is a strength that has become a weakness. If you use the right thing wrong, you have a problem.”
***
The internal kitchen of Team DSM, where everyone flees (part 2): "There is a Soviet regime"
Tiesj Benoot became the umpteenth early departure in the long list at Team DSM on Tuesday. Sporza went looking for an explanation for the pattern in the WorldTour squad. This morning you could read how (former) cyclists denounce the many rules, in this article the sporting effect is criticized.
In the first part you could already read how a lack of flexibility sows a lot of dissatisfaction within Team DSM.
Another tricky point, according to our witnesses, is the atmosphere and relationship with the sporting leadership. It sounds like a lack of family feeling.
"The staff, for example, is a dovecote. It's a coming and going. It even got to the point where sports directors couldn't name the riders they met before the race," said a rider who wished to remain anonymous.
“The team doesn't realize it's working with humans instead of robots. They want 33 riders who all 33 do the same and think the same. But actually you are dealing with 33 individuals."
"Each rider has a different character and a different position within the team. For some this works and for others that works. Riders should actually be treated differently within a team."
According to another rider, there is no room for personal ambitions at DSM. “Cycling is a team sport. But at DSM they focus on the whole in such a way that your personal ambitions are not fulfilled.”
“The team actually felt communist, there is a Soviet regime. The individual does not count, everything revolves around the big picture.”
Waeytens: "At DSM they have lost the essence of cycling. It no longer matters that a rider feels happy. Science is one thing, but humanity is also something."
The ex-rider illustrates with an extra anecdote: "Most teams look for team building, but at DSM they didn't organize anything to improve the group atmosphere."
"It was the riders themselves who then took the initiative to go karting during our rest day on stage in Spain. Leaders Dumoulin, Barguil and Matthews paid everything, the staff did not interfere."
"Sports leadership is often not fair, riders feel misunderstood"
A few riders who do not want to be named are also critical of team manager Iwan Spekenbrink and head coach Rudi Kemna.
“The better the team got, the more problems there were with the sporting leadership of the team. They were often not honest and consciously said things that were wrong in order to push through their vision.”
“Rudi Kemna in particular was not always correct. It often happens that riders started asking whether they could also stay on board at DSM the following season. Kemna then told certain riders that he couldn't say that for sure yet."
“Those riders were kept on a leash for months. The team then waited until September to offer those riders a cheaper contract. That was a recurring phenomenon."
According to several riders, the management was also not open to reason. "If you have a discussion with Spekenbrink and Kemna, you will not reach a compromise."
“With every counter-argument you make, they keep repeating their same point of view. After a while you think, "They don't get it.""
"As a rider you no longer feel understood and you lose the courage to talk to the sporting leadership. People leave the team because they no longer feel understood."
"They didn't want to see that Dumoulin's departure was their fault"
"The worst thing is that Kemna and Spekenbrink never question themselves. If 2 riders break their contract, you can still say that it may be due to their character. But if 10 riders cancel their contract displeased, then it is no longer a coincidence." says a foreign rider.
“When Tom Dumoulin broke his contract in 2019, we thought they would see their mistakes. But unfortunately. They responded that it "isn't always easy working with Tom."
Another rider confirms: “Tom left early because the team had made mistakes. But the team responded: “No, we didn't make any mistakes. We are right.” Then management's credibility quickly crumbles."
“The sporting leadership's motto is: 'If someone leaves, it's because he doesn't fit into our system.' For example, about Barguil they said it was “a special one.”"
"But Tiesj Benoot is one of the most honest riders in the peloton. He is the superpro par excellence. The fact that Benoot is leaving DSM says it all."
"Which rider or manager still dares to go to DSM to sign a contract there?"