Off-season? What off-season! – What we get up to at our HQ in winter

The last pedal revolutions, whirring of wheels and thrashing of bikes fell silent on the 9^th of October for the team after the last races of the season ended, with riders heading into their off-season and a much deserved few weeks off the bike. Yet, from the quiet doldrums of no bike racing; the sounds of keyboard tapping, mouse clicking, and meeting chatter have taken over at our HQ.

A hub of activity throughout the season, there is a certain special buzz about the place in the off-season as plans for next year come together from the various departments within the team. We thought you might find it interesting to peak behind the curtain so to speak, and see what we’re all up to in the “off-season” (term used very loosely!).

Performance Team

Combining the needs and interests from all the different departments, our Performance Team helps to bring everything together throughout the year in terms of planning and schedule. Ahead of the season and months in advance, each department gives their input for the new season to Performance Team. They then build a plan for the year which takes this input into account: so the plan is not only focused on race schedules, but also Activation Days, Team Camps and Commercial activities and so on.

Of course, they also set out the sportive goals for the new season and from that, make a clear plan to reach that goal, including everything it takes to get there; such as planned altitude camps, Team Camps and race schedules for riders (and staff!). Internally that means head coach Rudi Kemna works more with the coaches while head of science Narelle Neumann brings in the expert group; aligning everything with the other departments to execute the plans in the best possible way. In fact, the group has already been brainstorming and thinking about performance plans for 2023 since the middle of 2022.

Expert Group

With some incredibly smart and gifted people working within Team DSM, our experts take the plans from the Performance Team and what that means for the upcoming year; such as a rider’s training plan towards top shape, optimising their body composition through nutrition, looking at where we can improve aerodynamics and so on. That leads towards the early Team Camps where training is an obvious focus, but it also gives the experts and riders a chance to get together in person and have workshops, nutrition appointments, bike fittings, plus more. Some of this has been done already at our HQ such as bike and clothing fittings for some riders.

Alongside direct work with the riders and aiding their progress, our Expert Group are also continuously busy with plans for the development of innovations for 2023 and beyond. That happens in coordination with our partners, whether that’s DSM, Scott or Nalini for example, and how as a team we can make the next step in pushing the boundaries of technological innovations.

Warehouse

Packed with all varieties of goodies and a cycling fan’s heaven, our warehouse is the focal hub of all our comings and goings. It’s a busy time of year for our warehouse colleagues, mechanics and soigneurs, starting with “cleaning days” where they thoroughly clean all the team vehicles such as the buses, trucks, and our Volvo cars. Those vehicles are then taken to the garage and given a check-up and any necessary maintenance for the coming year. Once that is done, then the warehouse itself is cleared and cleaned so that it is ready for all the new deliveries – which there are plenty of during the winter period, with 15 pallets of our Craft casual clothing, 10 pallets of Shimano components and a few pallets of our Sanas nutrition products delivered on a possible “normal day”. With the continual influx of goods, it can often be hectic but with a good system then things flow well; especially with Warehouse now preparing for the first Team Camps in Calpe which is quickly followed up with preparations for the overseas races, which as you can imagine takes a lot of planning.

Commerce

As is the same with a lot of the other departments, our Commerce colleagues are busy preparing for next season. This involves aligning the whole design of the look and feel of the team and continuing the preparation together with partners. That also means discussing their marketing plans and thinking through how as a team we can best activate partnerships in a successful way throughout the season.

Alongside that, they are busy organising and preparing for events such as the Team Launch but also looking further ahead to during the 2023 season and the various hospitality events and activations that are planned to take place. Basically, the off-season is used to make the plans for marketing, activations, and content whereas during the season it is then about executing those plans and making it a success.

Communications

Now into breaking fourth wall territory, but here in the Communications department we’re also busy! Despite the obvious lack of race visits which takes up a lot of our press officer roles, our initial part of the “off-season” was spent reflecting on how our 2022 went. From that we take lessons learnt forward and go full gas on our planning towards 2023!

At the moment, we’re keeping several plates spinning, with plans for Team Launch, coming up with a variety of content ideas for the following season and how we’ll gather that at Team Camp and Activation Days, or planning for other places and locations we need to go film for our longer form videos once again. Other tasks include website bio writing (which for roughly 60 riders turns out to be a lot of words – and too many hours of listening back to yourself), plan media interviews, plus much more – it is quite an extensive list, but no two days are the same, which keeps everything exciting.

We hope you enjoyed the read and some of this extra insight into how our staff work during the off-season!