Meet Darren van Bekkum, full of ambitions: "I still want to win the Tour"

Many people had probably never heard of Darren van Bekkum until his remarkable transfer to Astana Qazaqstan. The Dutch youngster, who was part of the Visma | Lease a Bike development team, has the potential to make it big in the coming years. People around him think so, and so does the 22-year-old climber himself.

On May 4 this year, Van Bekkum won a triumph on the Plateau de Beille, where two months later, Tadej Pogacar also won the Tour. During the Isard Tour, the other riders finish at an appropriate distance. He is an ultimate example of his climbing skills back in time. Van Bekkum has been cycling for a while. In 2019, he got a bike at the age of 17 and is so excited that he wants to race. That doesn't happen due to corona, so he doesn't really get noticed until later. His development moves fast then, even though at 22, he may be older than today's top talents. In conversation with Wiellerrevue, he discusses his extraordinary potential.

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Van Bekkum was selected despite having ridden almost no races yet

"I have always had the physiological talent for endurance racing, and as a second-year junior, it was, therefore, my goal to become one of the top riders in the Netherlands, but that year, almost all races were canceled due to corona," explains the man himself. Through a tip from Mischa Bredewold's father, he was still allowed to compete in a selection for the KNWU. "He had said I had not ridden any results but cycled very hard. In July, there was a selection camp for the European and World Championships, and they did tests on the Camerig there. I arrived as a rookie, no one who knew me. I just raced up three times as hard as I could."

Van Bekkum rides all junior records and power levels to pieces. He then rides at the small WV Eemland and gets a request from Metec. After all, he is faster than all riders from that team on the Camerig, where they also did a test. "Before Camerig, I still thought I would never be good enough for a team like Metec. Not much later, I was also called Jumbo-Visma."

"The team wanted to test me. I went to Amsterdam, and there, too, I got super high values. They had rarely seen that, even at Jumbo-Visma. I was brought in purely on my values there." Dreams are allowed, and the Dutchman from Amersfoort has no lack of confidence. His ultimate goal is, therefore, big. "Even when I wasn't cycling, I was already watching the Tour de France. My goal was to win the Tour de France one day, and it still is."