Some time ago, during a press conference, Ralph Denk, owner of Red Bull-Bora, spoke about the transformation his team is undergoing. A record investment of €50 million, new hires, and an increasingly multidisciplinary structure. to file down the famous marginal gains and further raise the bar. Added to all this was the arrival of Remco Evenepoel, together with some people close to him, such as Matthew Cattaneo and sporting director Sven Vanthourenhout.
Leading figures such as Dan Bigham for aerodynamics, Asker Jeukendrup for nutrition, Peter Kloppel for mental coaching and Dan Lorang for performance, especially for endurance. All top-level names: Bigham contributed to the aerodynamic development of the Ineos Grenadiers and it was he himself who established the Hour record, later beaten by Filippo Ganna, who took advantage of those very studies. Klöppel worked with Max Verstappen in Formula 1.
To better understand how this perfect machine works, we talked with Matteo Sobrero, about to switch from the Red Bull Bora, precisely, to the Lidl Trek. He's the one to tell us about the Red Bull-Bora method and what Evenepoel might find in this new environment. After all, when the Belgian has been under the most pressure, he hasn't always shone. Now, everything about performance, in theory, should reassure him. In theory...
And so Matteo, is this quest for the extreme felt both internally and externally at Red Bull-Bora?
Yes, it's definitely noticeable. But honestly, and not that I'm criticizing it, it's nothing new: it's what happens in other top teams too. At least in the top ten teams in the world. I'd say it's more noticeable in cycling in general than just in Red Bull-Bora. Many people have similar figures these days. Ineos Grenadiers was the first to intervene massively on nutrition and then the Visma-Lease a Bike he took a further step, precisely with Jeukendrup, and the others gradually followed.
The famous marginal gains…
It's the philosophy of cycling today: keeping up with the times, and in some cases, like the best teams, trying to anticipate them. Red Bull has invested heavily in other sports and is now doing the same in cycling, focusing on those departments where he believes he can still improve.
They want to be number one…
Exactly, not among the best, but the best. The problem is that other teams want him too! It should be said that I turned pro in 2020 and have already changed teams several times: The big difference I've noticed is that compared to other teams, even international ones, here there's a more "corporate" atmosphere. There's no longer the familiarity of the past: this shift has been especially noticeable in the last year. Everyone has a core area of expertise and gives their all in their own field.
How did you find it?
Personally I've worked well with all of them, but that's how it is in top teams. The beauty of this cycling is that big investments push everything and everyone upwards, the bad thing is that the human aspect is lost a bit. The teams today number almost 200 people: there are people you see at the first training camp in October and then you don't see again for the rest of the year.
Let's talk about Lorang: what's his role? What does it mean that he handles the endurance part?
He comes from the triathlon world, where he was a true guru. Red Bull was already following that world, and when they took over cycling, they appointed him head of training. He's the one who organizes and supervises the other coaches. Then, to be honest, I don't know what he does in detail, but I know he's someone who does a lot of research, studies, and stays up-to-date on new working methods. He's a "researcher of research." In short, if Red Bull wasn't performing, as they say today, he intervened. to understand what wasn't working.
Let's move on to Jeukendrup, so about nutrition: how did you compare with him?
Let me start by saying that we Italians come from a food culture that naturally leads us to be balanced in our eating. We're balanced, as they also said at Red Bull. Only there, you're balanced down to the gram. Asker invented an app, "Food Coach," which connects you to your nutritionist, and lets you enter what and how much you've eaten for each meal. Jeukendrup had always been a researcher for Red Bull, then moved to Visma, but when Red Bull took over the team, they called him back. His research works, and in the Grand Tours his system makes the differenceBut now others are adopting certain methodologies too. I come back to my previous point: all of cycling has aligned itself towards the extreme.
Everything's on the limit, Matteo. But how much does all this weigh on the rider mentally? For an Evenepoel who arrives with a thousand pressures and expectations, will all this weigh on him?
Oh, it's a bit of a burden! There are riders who find it more difficult, and others who find it less difficult. Although in some ways it's easier, because you don't have to think about anything, there are athletes who have been professional for ten years, who've always done things one way and it worked out well for them: change isn't a given for them. In that case, you need the clarity to say: "I'm doing this because it's an investment in myself." There is a lot of attention and for this reason figures such as the mental coach are needed, that help maintain balance.
You're on edge…
The general picture is the one we have illustrated. Sacrifices are made to reach the limit, but the risk is that of ending up in burnout. And it's an increasingly common problem: many young people then quit almost suddenly. It's up to the psychologist to prevent them from crossing that fine line between perfection and wear and tear.
