A decade before SD Worx’s stranglehold, another team ruled women’s cycling. Tom Davidson uncovers the secrets of R abobank-Liv ’s success
There is one thing that staff and riders from the old Rabobank-Liv team like to brag about. It is not the team’s victories, of which there were over 150 spanning three seasons, including a hatful of World Championship titles. It is not the riders, the likes of Marianne Vos, Anna van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vleuten, who rode together in the Dutch squad’s colours. No, it has nothing to do with the racing at all.
“For a long time,” begins the team’s former sports director Eric van den Boom, “we were the only team with a bus.” The Dutchman smiles as he delivers the kicker. Look around a team paddock today, he explains, and every team has one, emblazoned with glossy sponsors, a row of turbo trainers lined in front. A decade ago, though, when Rabobank-Liv were in their heyday, their bus was unique.
The riders would blare music through its speakers on the drive to the start line. “In the first years, we were going to races with a camper and a car, and that was it,” says van den Boom. “Then we got a second sports director’s car, then came the team bus and more tools. It’s not the reason we were successful, but it made it more relaxed to work.”
Successful is an understatement for Rabobank-Liv’s reign of supremacy. If SD Worx’s dominance today seems unprecedented, a short flick back through the history books shows they are merely continuing whereRabobank-Liv left off. In 2014, the Netherlandsbased outfit took 41 victories (47 if you count National, Continental and World Championships). The line-up, spearheaded by Vos, was made up of stars and future stars. They were the original women’s superteam.
Dream team
Kasia Niewiadoma was just 19 years old when she signed her first professional contract with Rabobank-Liv in late 2013.
“Those years were some of the most beautiful in my career because I was completely new to it,” the nowCanyon-SR AM rider tells Cycling Weekly. “I didn’t know anything about cycling, and everything happened so fast. All of a sudden, I ended up being on the best team in the world, with big stars like Marianne, Annemiek, Anna and Pauline [Ferrand-Prévot].”
It was a dream team, a cherrypicked squad of the finest Dutch talents, together with some of the best international riders. “I remember having a lot of fun,” Niewiadoma continues. “We were all single, so we were all doing cool things together off the bike. It was just an amazing part of my life.”
