Harmeling is positive about TDT-Unibet, but also critical: "What happened at the national championships should never happen!"

Behind the scenes, Rob Harmeling is one of the important people at the TDT-Unibet Cycling Team. The team director is working on an open culture, where riders and staff are able to be vulnerable in both victory and defeat. He tells IDLProCycling.com why he is so insistent on this and looks back on his role in the recovery of Pim Ronhaar.

After the Tour of Britain, Harmeling was adamant with the boys from TDT-Unibet. Only Abram Stockman and Hartthijs de Vries managed to finish the multi-day race for the team. "If you want to be a professional cyclist, I think you should be able to complete a stage race like this," the team director said after that race.

Harmeling sees great strides from TDT-Unibet riders after Tour of Britain

Months later, Harmeling is observing noticeable improvement in several riders he had previously addressed with tough love at the end of the season. "The way some guys are going into the winter season, you really see progress. The foundation of the season is laid during this period, and the guys are aware of that. I have full confidence that these boys can make that step, but they have to work very hard for it. I am here to facilitate that," Harmeling tells IDLProCycling.com.

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For the team director, it's crucial that not only he, but also the riders in the team can be vulnerable. "I can be very much myself within the team. Part of that includes a mentor role, but I don’t do it alone. We do everything together as staff. In some way, Bas (Tietema, ed.) is very good at bringing in people who strengthen each other. This is also true for the cyclists themselves: we think it's important that everyone can be themselves and dare to be vulnerable."

The national championship was the low point: "Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong"

A clear example of this was the National Cycling Championships in June. Martijn Budding, one of the TDT-Unibet riders, was at the start, but he wouldn’t reach the finish in Sittard-Geleen due to mechanical problems. In the Tour de Tietema documentary, it’s shown how he expresses his dissatisfaction to Harmeling. "And he was right. First, his chain broke and then his spare bike nearly fell apart. That should never happen!"

Harmeling explains how this situation came about. "It had been looming for a while because we were understaffed, and the organization began to fall apart, but that's no excuse. I can't tell a rider that he hasn't trained for a week, so that national championship was a lesson for us. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, and it was a poor performance by us as staff. The good thing is that it was immediately discussed, and that the riders were not afraid to express their dissatisfaction. I grew up differently, and I'm glad we can break that cycle."

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Harmeling on Ronhaar's Recovery: "Cycling is a very tough and uncertain sport"

This isn't the first time Harmeling has had such an impact on a team or rider. Before Pim Ronhaar made his breakthrough with Baloise Trek Lions, he struggled with physical and mental issues. The young cyclo-cross rider even experienced an epileptic seizure on his bike as a junior, despite not having epilepsy. "I ended up with Rob Harmeling, and he soon had me in tears. That's when I knew: this man is going to help me a lot," Ronhaar said in 2019 on RTV Oost.

Harmeling enjoys talking about Ronhaar. "Cycling is just a very tough and uncertain sport. You almost always lose, and you have to be able to deal with that as a person, but it's difficult. Humans aren't very good at dealing with it because you have to keep making yourself vulnerable. I helped Pim by finding the right people to surround him. People who don't care whether he wins or loses but who always support him. But don't overestimate my role. I only played a very small part in his recovery."