Having spent five successful seasons with the team from 2012 to 2016, where he claimed two Monument wins at Milano-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix plus many, many more victories, John “returned home” to Team dsm-firmenich as of the 2022 season.
This season gone by, and he has put his wealth of experience to great use not only as a strong rider but as a valuable road captain too, setting a great example for the rest of the team.
“It starts with coming to breakfast with a smile and keeping the morale high. There are days of course where everyone is tired, fatigued and maybe things are not going the way we wanted or were aiming for, but every day starts new. To put everything openly out on the table is the most important thing.”
With an attitude and approach like that, then it’s no surprise John has the palmares that he does with almost 50 professional wins. Yet, as he approaches the latter stages of his career John is finely in tune with himself and is aware that the concept and idea of success changes as does time.
“My career is a very good example of the transition from being measured personally on individual goals. With the team, I was the person crossing that line first and going up to the podium, but now I’m in the position where I’m helping people to be successful. I try to make them better by teaching and coaching them, which also means success for me. If I have the feeling they can benefit from my experience and expertise, that also gives me great satisfaction and makes me personally successful, even though I’m not the one in the spotlight anymore.”
Assured and confident, John still walks around with one of the broadest smiles in the group and he can always be found laughing and joking, while he can then “the switch” to turn it on and be serious. He thinks finding that balance is the key to becoming successful in any sport; having fun, close camaraderie with teammates and knowing when to push.
“Luckily, I always had great people around me who took care of that, and my entire career has been in a great environment.”
That started from a young age where John was well supported by his family after he decided to stop playing football and follow in his father’s footsteps who was a local club rider. After being signed up for a race by his dad, John almost tasted immediate success and became fascinated by all things cycling. However, he hasn’t put all his eggs in the cycling basket, as before turning professional he trained to become a policeman, something that was very important for him and his parents who always made sure he could “stand on his own two feet without cycling”.
It’s that caring approach that John himself hopes to adopt for his own kids and family as they grow older, and during his time away from the bike he enjoys spending as much time as possible with them. Whether that be going away on holiday or having fun cooking and baking something in the kitchen, “family values” are very important to him and something he is “lucky to find with the guys in the team too.”
