Rider diary with… Frank van den Broek

Hey guys,

A few months ago I joined Team dsm-firmenich mid-season from ABLOC CT. Being a new face in the team, I want to tell you all a bit more about myself and reflect a bit on how my year has been.

Born near the city of Leiden in Warmond, the Netherlands, I grew up in a family where bikes – not really race bikes – were of importance. Illustrative of this is the fact my parents met each other for the first time during a cycling holiday in Portugal, so the bike was a big a theme in my childhood. When I was younger, I didn’t race myself, but I liked to follow it. Coincidentally, I recently came across an old photo from one of my birthday celebrations when I was younger; everyone there had been given a white shirt to make their own football jersey; most of them had Ajax, Feyenoord, or the Netherlands, but I had made a world champions jersey with the famous rainbow stripes. This shows that cycling was already an important part of my life back then.

I initially played korfball [dutch version of Basketball or Netball]  in elementary school but then tore my cruciate ligament back then, which prevented me from participating in most contact sports. Running was already challenging, so when I was twelve, I started cycling. However, I like pushing myself to go as fast as I could, and when cycling on my own got boring, I started racing against others and quite quickly got into it. I wasn’t an amazing rider, of course, but I was very good at pushing myself to get better every year – which I still do now!

Career breakthrough

This year, I joined ABLOC CT, even though I was still formally a student. My attention was on cycling, and I knew while I was studying that I wanted to turn it into a career. I’ve seen a lot of other people who put too much pressure on themselves to become professional cyclists, so I try to concentrate on my own performance, which is the only thing you can control.

I think the general public got to know me after July’s Dutch National Championship. I rode reasonably well there and my performance was a part of conversation on national Dutch TV. I received a lot of messages from people I had not spoken to for a long time; this made me notice that the larger audience – who does not follow cycling media every day – had become familiar with my name. This race was really a turning point for me in my career.

Normally, I have quite low expectations, but actually, I was quite ambitious because I was asked about my goals just before the race started and I joked to say, “We are going to compete for the win.” In the end, it was still unexpected for myself that I was able to go such deep into the finale. I knew it would be exceedingly challenging, but I still decided to attack, especially because I was the underdog in that leader group. After that, there was a lot of attention, which definitely took me a while to get used to, but I’m still pretty grounded about it.

Even though the wider public heard only of me for the first time this summer, I had already been in contact with Team dsm-firmenich since last year. They were curious about me, and I came by for some tests. I then stayed in contact and had another conversation with them at the beginning of 2023, and they indicated that they would like to have me on the Development program. They had a lot of confidence in me and wrote out a clear plan which really appealed to me, the team really is a well-oiled machine.

Joining Team dsm-firmenich

We have just entered the off season and I can look happily to my first months with the team. Of course, I had to get used to the new environment and the material in July, but it actually went quite smoothly. There are many young guys in the team who are just as eager to learn as I am, even at the end of the season everyone was still extremely driven to get the best result every time. I am also very happy with the experts who work at the team and help me in the race and with matters outside the race such as nutrition. For each part there is a person with specific expertise, which allows you to really go into the details.

Before this, I used to do all of the research myself and this setup gives me a lot of peace in my mind to fully focus on my performances. My nickname at ABLOC CT was ‘professor’ for a good reason, partly because I made my own gels. It really cost a fortune to buy them, and I had the salary of a continental cyclist! I saw it as an easy way to save some money. Fortunately, I no longer have to take my entire set-up with me to the races and the team take care of that for me.

First race in the two-striped jersey

My first race with the Development program – at Tour Alsace – was the most educational for me and I was able to learn a lot about how the team works. From an in-race perspective, I gained much experience from my time at the CRO Race, where we came very close to victory several times with Tobi. There I learned a lot more about the lead-out, for example. We had a very young team and I think for several riders it was a really good week.

Since joining the team, I think I am most proud of my performances in the Deutschland Tour or Tour Alsace. At the latter, I was happy that I managed to win my first stage for the team, but Germany was my first time riding with the Men’s program. The level was very high, but I kept up and supported Kevin well in the deep finals of the tough stages.

While writing I realise that I have completely forgotten about the Super 8 Classic! But looking back, it was actually quite an easy day for me compared to other riders in the break. I was in the early break, and we got to the difficult part with about a three-minute lead, so I spared myself quite a bit there and didn’t have to go too deep. This meant that when the other group joined us, I still had something left and could join Mathieu van der Poel in the attack. Unfortunately, I crashed in the final, otherwise there might have been a better result, but all in all, I’m proud of the way we rode.

Stepping up to pro level

Excitingly I will be part of the WorldTour program from next season. This is a dream come true for me! Cycling is really my passion, so I am very proud that I can earn a living from it and focus fully on my performance.

Of course, it is not granted to everyone, but I would like to say to the younger generation that you can still make progress later in life if you really want to live for it. I will be 23 in a few months and turned pro this year, while most people become pro at the age of 18 these days! Also: always try to set new goals and maintain a growth mindset.

For next year I want to focus on my training and recovery and gain as much experience as possible riding at a higher level. I don’t have many plans for the off season besides getting some things in order around the house that have piled up during the season. I’m planning to go to a few parties with my friends but I don’t really need to go abroad for holidays, I’ve been away from home enough this year! After some downtime I will start preparing for 2024 and then the plan is to go to the sun for a few weeks so that I can still train in a less rainy climate than the Dutch one haha!

Thanks for reading my diary and I hope to see you all at the races next season!

Frank