Casper vanUden

After two and a half strong seasons with the Development program, Casper was promoted to the Men’s program midway through the 2022 campaign, one of the plethora of riders to make the step up with the team.

Coming from an active household, Casper is the first one in the family to race bikes with hockey and tennis the more popular past times; sports which Casper himself used to play too. Like many, he watched cycling on TV as a kid during the summer and for his seventh birthday he went to a local club and fell in love. Cycling more and more, he eventually stopped with tennis and hockey – the latter of which he didn’t enjoy “because we always lost, and I hate losing.”

A true fan of cycling, Casper enjoys the freedom aspect of the sport; being able to go out wherever you like on your bike and see a lot of different places, riding with friends and socialising so that the time flies by. He also however likes the competitive side of the sport and being able to test himself in races or training, and the adrenaline that comes from it.

Looking back on 2022, he thinks it was a good season where he made a lot of progress and “learned a lot of stuff”. That “good season” saw Casper take two stage wins at Tour de Normandie, a fighting fourth place at Scheldeprijs, a win at Tour de Bretagne plus victory at the Tour de l’Avenir.

Despite his young age Casper has a mature head on his shoulders and a resilient character where he doesn’t let bad luck, or anything deter him.

“Crashing, having mechanicals, and getting sick are all part of the game – you just have to hit the pause button on it, refocus and then go again. You can’t dwell on it too much.”

After making the step up to the Men’s program in the middle of the year, Casper got his chance as the team’s finisher at Münsterland Giro where he was guided by the experienced John [Degenkolb] as the road captain – something which Casper says was “pretty surreal” having watched John race when he was a kid.

“John was the captain that day, but then in the finish it was up to me to also help make the decisions and call the shots. It was really nice to get the trust from the team.”

Looking inwards, Casper characterises himself as “social”, “motivated” and “determined”. A friendly and talkative guy, he likes to hang out and have fun with the rest of the team around the races and in training. As for motivation, he then likes to “go for it, have a good time, try to cheer everyone on and keep spirits high”, while for determination he says that “if there is something I really want then I will give everything I can to go for it – there has to be a lot to stop me.”

When he’s not training or racing, Casper’s social nature comes through as he enjoys hanging around with his friends, family and girlfriend – just enjoying their company and doing something fun together; such as practicing his hidden talent of cooking.