Survival Vuelta of the fittest 2024: "I think it was also so tough because of Decathlon AG2R's tactics"

Anyone looking for Dutch riders in the many mountain stages of this Vuelta a España usually had to rely on the early breakaway. If we had turned the general classification in Madrid upside down, it would have looked very different: five of the last seven places were occupied by compatriots. This leaves the question: was this Vuelta, designed by former rider Fernando Escartín, too tough, as we have heard here and there?

Anyway, anyone who wanted to speak to Dutch riders at the finish of the final time trial in Madrid had to be there early. Tim Naberman (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Ide Schelling (Astana Qazaqstan Team) were still ‘competing’ for the red lantern in this Vuelta, with Schelling ultimately holding his compatriot behind him thanks to his faster time trial.

"That wasn’t a big deal," laughs Naberman. "For me, it’s just a result of the work I had to do for the team. Once that work was done, it was simply a matter of getting to the finish as calmly as possible. Of course, you joke a bit about it towards the end in the gruppetto, but that’s all it is," says the valued member of the Dutch formation.

"It’s like this: there are just more dropouts than us," he jokes further. "We’re the strongest survivors," to which Schelling eagerly adds, "Survival of the fittest!"

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At the end of those three weeks of racing through the Spanish hills and mountains, the men born in the Low Countries are, of course, having a lot of fun, but how do they view the comments that this Vuelta was over the top in terms of elevation gain? "I don’t think so, but there are few riders like us. To put it that way. There are a lot of climbers participating, which makes the level on the climbs extremely high," says Naberman.

"Even on the easier days, there was full-on racing," he continues. "So yes, then we also have to give it our all," to which Schelling adds, "I also think it was so tough because of Decathlon AG2R. They let a breakaway go every day, so you know the first two hours are already flat-out racing. And then it’s already a really tough day." The Astana rider added that he completed 63,000 (!) meters of elevation in this race.

Van den Berg: "It was tough going"

After Schelling and Naberman, it doesn’t take long for the next Dutch riders to arrive, as Naberman's teammates Julius van den Berg and Enzo Leijnse also join the conversation between the two. Oscar Riesebeek (Alpecin-Deceuninck) also passes by after completing his time trial, meaning five of the ten Dutch riders have already finished within the first seven minutes.

For 27-year-old Van den Berg, this was already his seventh Grand Tour, but he also acknowledges that this one was incredibly tough. "Normally, I’m fairly comfortable in the gruppetto, but this time it was a struggle to go up with the last riders. The legs are completely drained, but we’ll take that with us," he concludes.

In addition to the mentioned riders, the attacking Gijs Leemreize (84th), the reliable Martijn Tusveld (63rd), the good old Robert Gesink (52nd), and climbers Sam Oomen (33rd) and Steven Kruijswijk (19th) also finished the race.