The Rabobank Continental Team finished second in the team time trial, 19 seconds off the pace.
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Changes to management and training high on the agenda
The management of the Rabobank Cycling Team is undergoing the next stage in their quest to develop Dutch riders into the world’s best cyclists and it means making significant changes to the way the team is structured and run. An important part in this next stage will see sports directors working more closely alongside trainers and their riders, with a primary focus on the technical aspects of training.
Each of the team's running under the Rabobank name will experience modifications to the way their respective teams are run. Some of these structural changes have already been announced. Technical Directors Erik Breukink and Adri van Houwelingen will finish-up with the team at the end of the season while soon to be retired Grischa Niermann will join the management team in 2013.
“The limits of the current guidance model within our team have been reached. We are breaking up with the traditional working methods in cycling. Hence the restructuring towards the standards of the future,” says Rabosport’s
General Manager Harold Knebel.
“Primarily, we stopped focussing on foreign top riders [after 2008]. After that, the available Dutch talent had time to mature and grow under the motto Time for Talent. Now it’s time to push our ambition, which was the basis of this project, to the next phase: the Talent to the Top, the Team to the Top.”
Knebel is adamant that every aspect of each team needs to be innovated, if they are to continue to bring ‘home’ talent to the top of the cycling pyramid. The General Manager believes the focus must continue to be base around fostering Dutch riders, through a more scientific and measured approach.
“This will lead to a whole new and different way of thinking than which we are used to now. Every position within the team will be involved in this and it requires maximum dedication from all involved. This demands a lot from all the people in the team.”
We looked carefully at how we could make a step forward. How we can bring the cycling plan to a higher level. We are convinced that this will result in the full development of the talents we already have,” said Knebel.
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