Joris Reinderink

Coming from an active family, Joris’ granddad competed locally and regionally in the amateur cycling scene; while his dad took up the sport later as a 32-year-old, which helped inspire Joris. Initially a footballer, Joris had the chance to sign with local Dutch first division side De Graafschap as a goalkeeper, but he wanted to stay at the cycling club alongside his friends. Well-humoured, Joris jokes that the switch was a good one.

“I wasn’t really tall so at the younger ages when the goal was small, I was good but then when the goal got bigger…it wasn’t for me anymore and I focused on cycling.”

By his own admission, 2022 was a tough opening year in the U23 category for Joris who suffered from injury and illness but despite that, he learned a lot from the season, and it helped to rekindle and spark his love for the sport once again, as he realised that he “just wanted to ride all the time.”

Taking that motivation into the 2023 season, Joris has matured as a rider and a person and says that he has learned to listen to his body more than before; something he hopes will see him take that next step with the team. He focuses on the hilly races where he feels that his speciality and abilities lie, as he is “curious to see how they will go, as with everything that happened, I wasn’t able to perform fully yet.”

Describing himself as “motivated, honest and inquisitive”, Joris thinks those traits apply well to his career as a cyclist; whether that be his will and determination to keep pushing to improve himself, or to ask those around him questions about things or reasons if he is unsure.

When he’s away from the bike, Joris is like most young adults and he enjoys spending time socialising with family or friends and watching any sport he can, but especially football and his favoured club of Borussia Dortmund – where he has been to see a few games in the past not far across the border in Germany.