Has dsm-firmenich PostNL found post-Dumoulin success formula? "Most successful season since 2015"

We spoke to Kemna at the beginning of 2024 in Calpe, where he realistically looked ahead to the season. "For the development team, the main goal is to train the riders. That foundation is crucial. For both the men’s and women’s teams, we also want to show ourselves at the WorldTour level," he stated as the objective. "This has gone very well with the women’s team over the last few years, but we’re not always as satisfied with the men’s team."

"The level is incredibly high, so we have to carefully consider where we can showcase ourselves based on the qualities and possibilities we have. It’s not that we lack talent, but the competition is so fierce. We know how classics work, for example. If you have three hills in succession and they push hard on two of them, then we can’t keep up on the third. That’s the reality when the top riders turn up the pace. But the reality also means that there are opportunities for us in other ways."

The fact that the team was able to end the year with 22 victories is thanks to that approach. In a team blog, Kemna reflects on the year. "The final weeks of the season were a testament to the hard work we’ve put in all year. We’ve demonstrated strong teamwork once again, and we’ve seen some of our young riders from the development program make great strides." In total, 18 of the 22 wins were achieved by riders making their WorldTour debut with dsm-firmenich PostNL.

"This year has been a huge success, with victories in the opening stages of both the men’s and women’s Tour de France, and plenty of strong results throughout the season," he concludes, following the yellow jerseys won by Romain Bardet and Charlotte Kool. "Our men’s program had their most successful season since 2015, with many wins coming from riders who’ve come up through our development program." This doesn’t mean that Kemna forgets Tom Dumoulin’s most successful years, but he’s looking solely at the number of wins. The last time the count exceeded twenty was in 2014, with 41 wins.

"Across all three programs, we’ve made significant progress both on and off the bike, and we look forward to building on this and continuing to make strides in 2025," Kemna concludes.