How a change of position put Cian Uijtdebroeks back on the road to the top
After a promising start to his fledgling career Cian Uijtdebroeks progression hit a brick wall, but now he is tentatively taking the first steps back to the top of the sport after consultations with specialists and a major change of his position on the bike.
In the long list of the next big things in recent years, Cian Uijtdebroeks stands high among those yet to live up to the hype. But his recent win at the Tour de l’Ain and near misses at the Czech Tour not only mark his first professional victories, they also signal a long-awaited change in fortune after a career stalled by injury and misfortune.
After a string of victories as a junior, the Belgian signed directly with the Bora-Hansgrohe WorldTeam in 2022, just before his 19th birthday. No one expected instant success, but his win at the Tour de l’Avenir confirmed his promise. The 2023 season brought a heavier workload, with WorldTour stage racing culminating in a brilliant eighth place at the Vuelta a España, his first Grand Tour.
Still, not all was rosy. The year ended in an unsightly transfer dispute, with Uijtdebroeks leaving the German team despite having a year left on his contract, eventually joining Visma | Lease a Bike. Yet until this month, the move to the Dutch squad had not yielded obvious progress. He failed to finish both the 2024 Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, abandoned several other stage races, and managed just one notable result: seventh at Tirreno-Adriatico.
This season began in much the same way: a respectable fifth place at the Tour of Oman was followed by another abandon, this time at Tirreno-Adriatico. After a string of mediocre results at lower-level one-day races, the team pulled him from competition.
“That hard reset was necessary to be able to start a rehabilitation programme, especially with a driven rider like Cian,” Visma | Lease a Bike’s head of performance, Mathieu Heijboer told Knack magazine. “Even if the recovery had gone faster than expected, we would not have let him race.
“During Tirreno-Adriatico in March Cian reported recurring complaints: a feeling of weakness and lactic acid build-up in the legs. He had already suffered from it during the 2024 Vuelta, when he had to abandon. The symptoms were too complex to identify one specific cause, so we first carried out a thorough analysis and re-examined everything, including with a neurologist. We wanted to be sure we weren’t overlooking anything.
“Then we asked movement analyst Stefan Deckx from the University of Antwerp to analyse and optimise Cian’s movements and bike position.”
The initial hypothesis was a trapped sciatic nerve. While scans did not confirm this, Uijtdebroeks worked with team physiotherapists and radically changed his position on the bike.
“He was riding with too rounded a back,” continued Heijboer. “That caused tension on the nerves in his glutes and lower back and limited his power transfer. Stefan Deckx pointed out that a rounded back also impedes the functioning of the diaphragm and lungs, which is crucial for breathing.
“We therefore had Cian sit slightly shorter and straighter, reducing pressure on the nerves while still allowing him to generate power. We also adjusted the pressure points on his saddle so that the natural curve of his back better matched an optimal position. Thanks to a different bike position, Cian can now sustain a high output longer.”
After missing May, June and July, Uijtdebroeks returned to competition at Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa, finishing ninth in the hilly Basque classic. He then headed to the Tour de l’Ain, where he finished second on stage two and won the third and final day, securing the GC — the first of his professional career.
While these results are welcome, the team will continue to monitor his progress at upcoming races such as the Bretagne Classic, the Tour of Slovakia and the early autumn Italian one-day races Giro dell’Emilia and Tre Valli Varesine.
“We see every race as a test case to build and monitor his load capacity, with a view to next season,” Heijboer said. “We see Cian as a rider who still has to discover and develop his qualities. He is certainly not yet a finished product. During those races he can learn in different roles, as a domestique for Simon Yates in Emilia, or as team leader in Slovakia.”
