Visma | Lease a Bike acquisition Schiffer: 'As a 15-year-old, I already had a pretty high VO2max of 75 ml/kg/min'

Visma | Lease a Bike was not so much looking for big names on the transfer market this winter, but rather for riders it can develop over the next few years. One of those men is German Anton Schiffer, who made the move to the Dutch team at the age of 26 from the continental Bike Aid.

At German radsport-news.com, Schiffer, who we spoke to himself earlier at the Tour of Germany, elaborated on his switch. 'After my good result in the Tour of Greece in the spring, Patrick Broe, head of strategy at Visma, contacted the team. He knows all the riders in the world and asked if he could look at my data on TrainingPeaks. After that it went pretty fast," the German remembers.

Schiffer has a background as a triathlete and may well be described as super talented in endurance sports. 'I didn't start from scratch; as a triathlete I could naturally build up a high level of cardiovascular fitness. ls 15-year-old I already had a fairly high VO2max of 75 ml/kg/min. And I remember that in 2022 I also cycled for 20 minutes at 6.8 watts per kilogram," he spooned in conversation with the German Cycling Medium.

The rider hopes to develop further at Visma | Lease a Bike in the WorldTour. 'I think they attracted me mainly for the support in climbing. The WorldTour races are considerably more homogeneous in terms of performance density, you can already see that in races like the Deutschland Tour. There we climbed the Hermann Monument (climb in the second stage, ed.) in just over 5 minutes with almost 7 watts/kg.'

'With such a performance, in a category 1.1 or 2.1 race you might only have 15-20 riders left in the peloton,' explains the clever German. 'In a WorldTour race, on the other hand, with such watt-per-kilogram power, you won't unload anyone; or if you do, it will be very few.'