Recently retired Tusveld spots gap in cycling market: "Only one WorldTour team has a full-time one on staff"

The ever-reliable Tusveld did not follow the usual path to becoming a professional. He rode for Rabobank's development team for five years, during which he also completed internships with the bankers' team and Giant-Alpecin. In 2017, he joined the pro-continental Roompot team.

One season later, he made the switch to WorldTour team Sunweb, where he was a reliable force for seven years. This made it all the more painful that at the end of 2024—despite another good season—there was still no place for him on Iwan Spekenbrink's team for 2025. Other professional teams also failed to recognize Tusveld's qualities immediately, and so in February, he eventually ended up at BEAT Cycling.

That team is running like clockwork this season. After just a few races, last year's UCI points total had already been exceeded. Was that partly due to the experience Tusveld brought with him from the WorldTour? “I think I did contribute something, even though I didn't score any points myself,” he says after a moment's thought.

“Of course, I wasn't there last year, but the team has remained almost completely the same, which I think is also a compliment to the support staff: trainers, nutritionists, a sports psychologist, and more. Almost everyone is performing better, which confirms that it makes sense to focus on development.”

“The difference between WorldTour and continental teams is that the smaller teams are often not used to riding as a team. Many riders ride more for themselves, while you can get further as a team. That approach is paying off for us,” says Tusveld, searching for a reason for the improved performance of the team where Thijs Zonneveld is sporting director.

Tusveld himself did not achieve any results this year. "I started the season late anyway. Things were going very well in March, but just before the Volta Limburg, I fell ill. Then I was out of action for a long time with physical complaints. In the end, I didn't come close to last year's level, which is a shame and also frustrating. ‘

“It's physical, but also mental,” he explains honestly. “There's also some frustration and disappointment from previous years. It's not obvious to anyone else, but it's become clear to me that physical and mental aspects are intertwined. If you're not at your best mentally, you're not at your best physically either. To be clear, I do feel good, but you're just missing those last few percent. Compared to the last few years at DSM.”

Whereas in recent years he rode alongside top riders such as Tom Dumoulin, Romain Bardet, and Thymen Arensman, at BEAT he suddenly found himself riding with up-and-coming riders such as Frits Biesterbos and Michiel Coppens. “I noticed in Slovenia that a few of those guys were really good. Frits has everything it takes physically to be a WorldTour rider, but he also learns very quickly. At the beginning of the year, I was able to do a good lead-out once, but then he said to me: I have no idea how you did that, but it worked well,” laughs Tusveld.

In addition to being a rider, the rider from Utrecht also had another role in the team as a psychology student. “I'm doing an internship with the team's sports psychologist, and we're working together to set up that mental coaching. I see a future in it, because I see that little attention is paid to it. There is a lot of attention for personal training and nutrition, but in terms of mental health and personal coaching, it's not that great.”

“In the WorldTour, there is only one team that employs a full-time sports psychologist,” explains Tusveld. “That is Lidl-Trek, and I know they want to do more with it. There is demand for that support, but much of it is still left outside the teams. But I do think it will eventually come from within.”

“Take fear of falling: that's something that still happens quite often, but it's not really possible to talk about that kind of vulnerability yet,” explains Tusveld. “At least then riders can talk about it. There is still a lot to be gained in those areas, but that also applies to the culture within a team, for example. Very little attention is paid to that at the moment. Cycling is still conservative in those respects, but I can see that developments are gradually being implemented.”