It's an understatement to say that for his first season under the colors of the team Visma | Lease a Bike, Cian Uijtdebroeks had a complicated year in 2024, both in terms of results and health. Arrived in the spotlight following his eventful departure from the BORA-hansgrohe towards the Dutch team, the Belgian nugget did not really succeed in confirming the big expectations born from its 8th place on The Return 2023. Despite encouraging first races in support of Jonas Vingegaardthe 21-year-old climber then suffered bad luck on all his big objectives, with illnesses and withdrawals on the Giro Then The Return. During a press videoconference organized by the Visma this Thursday noon, Uijtdebroeks spoke for the first time in more than two months to give a complete update in French on the various health concerns that have handicapped him this year, and looked forward with optimism to the season to come.
Video – Cian Uijtdebroeks at a press conference… in French!
“Sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you're not lucky, and this year we were really unlucky…”
Cian Uijtdebroeks, you are coming off a complicated 2024 season, can you go over the different problems that impacted your year, particularly on the back?
There were a lot of them for sure! The Tour of Catalonia, the Tour of Switzerland, La Vuelta, and even in Burgos, it was always the same symptoms. This is very clear, it still came from the same problem on the back. It was already there at the start of the season, and it got worse and worse after that. And then there was my lung infection at the Giro. I remember being bedridden with a fever of 39° in the evening, it was very hard but you have to accept it. I felt the effects for a while, I had to take my time to recover from it. In La Vuelta, things were going well again, but my back problem was still there and we didn't know what it was. And on top of that I had Covid… Sometimes you are lucky, and sometimes not at all, and this year in that regard we were really unlucky. But we must still take away positive things from it.
And what has been done to resolve this back problem since your retirement from La Vuelta?
We did a lot of examinations after the season to identify the origin of the problem, and in the end we found it. Of the many nerves that run to my legs, some were trapped, and that was causing me to lose strength and feeling in my legs. Even though there was no need for a new operation, we had to treat it over the following weeks, do a lot of exercises and treatments with the physio to get back to my old level. This cannot be resolved in two weeks, but I will be ready for the first races of the season, even if my program will only be established in the coming weeks.
How do you get back up after hard hits like that? Do you work with a psychologist or do you have the resources to see things positively, as is somewhat in your nature?
Yes exactly. Naturally, this is not pleasant. At the Giro things were going great, and then there was this lung infection. Then you try to come back, but you run into the same problem every race, and you don't know what it is. Obviously, it's not easy. In these moments, the team and the family are the two most important things. The team always told me they believed in me and that they knew there was something. It's the same with my family, they are always there for me. In this kind of situation, you need people like that around you, who believe in you and who support you. And I really felt that this season, with Visma and my family of course.
“I have acquired a certain maturity. I have learned to remain calm in these situations, to accept them”
You have a farm near your house where you sometimes go, did that help you clear your head and think about other things after La Vuelta?
Yes, sometimes I do something completely different. Go to the farm, go see a rally, or even play the guitar… I often do that to think of something else. But on the other hand, Cycling is still the thing I love the most. When I'm sick, not feeling well or whatever, after a few days I already have my next goal in my head. And after that period, it remains exactly the same.
On what point do you think you have progressed the most in your first year at Visma?
I already think that it is very important for the next years and the rest of my career that we have found the origin of the problem. We know what we must do in the future to remove these symptoms. But otherwise, it taught me to stay calm in these situations, to accept them. On La Vuelta, we remained calm and positive, even if I then had to abandon because of Covid. I have acquired a certain maturity.
And in terms of time trials, do you consider that you have improved this year?
Yes, on that level for sure. This showed a bit in the results, I remember that at the Giro, I didn't have such a bad time given my abilities. It was in any case better than in the past. But we could also see it in training, my position has improved and become much faster, I can develop my power more and lose less strength. There is still a long way to go and progress to be made, but I feel much more comfortable and aerodynamic on the bike. We will continue to work on this in the coming weeks.
“We have a project with Visma… and I think we are moving forward as necessary to achieve it”
You have not won since your time among the professionals, your last victory dates back to the Tour de l'Avenir 2022 when you were used to winning a lot among young people, is that weighing on your morale or are you arriving to ignore it?
No, I don't think it affects me. The level among the pros is something else. The races I take part in, there are almost always the biggest ones. Naturally, it's not easy to win… And you also have to make choices. If you want to compete in the general classifications, it's great because you're fighting against the best riders in the world, but on the other hand it's also more complicated to aim for a victory. In any case, I remain calm about it, I don't put more pressure on myself than that, even if I of course hope to win. We have a project with the team, which is to become the best possible rider on the Grand Tours, and I think we are moving forward as necessary to achieve that.
No one-day races in 2024: have you really given up on the Classics?
No not at all. But it's always complicated to combine everything within a program. If I do the Giro, I will prefer to do a course at altitude than to go to La Flèche Wallonne or Liège-Bastogne-liège. But naturally, I sometimes have to think about doing other things too, to learn to ride in more nervous situations. So it remains a possibility to do one-day races next year.
“A lot of motivation for 2025”
You put yourself at the service of Jonas Vingegaard in 2024 within this very big team that is Visma. We know that you are a very nice runner, in the good sense of the word, but isn't that sometimes at the expense of your personal ambitions?
No, I don't think so. The team also wants to encourage my ambitions. This season, I was still one of the leaders overall in the Giro and La Vuelta. So I think that by having this chance at my age, the team believes in me and gives me the chances to achieve my ambitions.
Finally, how are you mentally approaching this 2025 season after such a complicated 2024?
Pretty motivated for next year! I don't want to dwell on the disappointment of this year, so I have a lot of motivation for 2025.
