Development Ready to race again: Lotto Soudal U23 riders in action at GP Vermarc

The time has finally come. Today, the Lotto Soudal Development Team will be able to race for the first time this season. A mix of four U23 riders and three WorldTeam riders will participate at the GP Vermarc in Rotselaar, Belgium. One of those U23 riders is Thibaut Ponsaerts from Kessel-Lo. For the 20-year-old, the return to racing will be even more special as he’s racing in his own region.

Thibaut Ponsaerts: “I can’t wait to get racing! And it’s even more special that it’s so close to my home. Normally, I should have been at the start of the Flèche Ardennaise last week. However, a few days before the race, we received news that the race had been cancelled. Luckily, I only had to wait one week to finally start racing.”

“Already at the beginning of the year, we soon realised that we wouldn’t be racing in the first part of the season. For a long time, we thought Liège-Bastogne-Liège on 17 April would be our first race. But then, it also got cancelled and so the start of the season always moved forward, until now. During that long period, it wasn’t a mental battle but it was a bigger challenge to stay fit, physically and not to be in shape too early. However, during that whole waiting period, I never wondered why I was training, because I knew that, sooner or later, we would be racing again. At a certain moment I did decide, together with my trainer, to take it a little easier for a few weeks and then build up again. I got through that period quite well, although the weather could have been a bit better. That was the only thing that made it a little harder at times.”

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“The GP Vermarc takes place on my training roads and it will be quite a selective course. At the beginning of the lap, there is a climb of about one kilometre, which is pretty steep. After that, you get into a residential area where the bunch will be strung out and where we could see some splits happening. In the middle of the local lap, there is another climb on rather wide roads and depending on the wind, the peloton may also split there. So the weather could really determine the race.”

“We are riding together with three pros. Gerben Thijssen was my roommate during training camp as a first-year U23 rider and I already know Tim Wellens and Steff Cras. It is nice to be riding alongside those pros and to get a taste of how they race and how they approach things, tactically. It’s a great learning opportunity.”

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Thibaut Ponsaerts: “On our three-day training camp in the Ardennes with the U23 team at the end of last month, I noticed that we are all ready to finally start the season. The atmosphere was really good, which will certainly help us in the races to come. We all get along really well and we form a close team. This is even more important in a season like this. In June, the U23 Giro d’Italia already looms. Foreign teams like Jumbo-Visma and Team DSM could already race. But I don’t think this will have a big impact, except maybe for the first few days. Afterwards, we will definitely be able to show ourselves. I will head to Tenerife next Wednesday for a training camp, together with teammates Aaron Van der Beken and Lennert Van Eetvelt. Also Henri Vandenabeele, who rode at our team last year, will come along.”

Line-up GP Vermarc: Steff Cras, Arnaud De Lie, Thibaut Ponsaerts, Gerben Thijssen, Jarne Van de Paar, Lennert Van Eetvelt and Tim Wellens. 

Images: Facepeeters.