'Eat, train, sleep and repeat.' Dewika Mulya Sova (22) needs only a handful of words to sum up her daily life. The cyclist leads a routine existence, almost 12,000 kilometres away from home and with no guarantee that all her sacrifices will ever pay off. But she is living her dream, she assures us with sparkling eyes.
Mulya Sova is part of the continental women's team of the UCI World Cycling Centre (WCC), the futuristic training and education centre in Aigle, Switzerland, which also houses the offices of the international cycling union UCI. She has a 62-kilometre training session under her belt when she settles into the TV corner of Le Vélodrome, the WCC restaurant where she has lunch and dinner every day.
"I grew up in Malang, on the Indonesian island of Java," she says. 'I arrived here on 1 March and am staying in a room at Mon séjour, the WCC hostel in the centre of Aigle. At the end of last year, I received an invitation from Jean-Jacques to join the team.'
We invite the best athletes identified at our satellite centres to Aigle.
Jean-Jacques is Jean-Jacques Henry (58). The Frenchman joined the WCC as a trainer in 2012 and has been coordinating talent detection and training for five years. His work focuses on the globalisation of cycling, the mission assigned to the WCC when it was founded in 2002 by then UCI president and initiator Hein Verbruggen.
‘We have tried to develop an ideal model for identifying as much talent as possible worldwide,’ explains Henry. ‘In the past, our talent detection was mainly based on the results achieved by riders in continental championships and regional Games. Today, thanks to new technologies, we detect talent more on the basis of data.’
The WCC has entered into partnerships with manufacturers of smart trainers and, through the UCI solidarity programme, has donated equipment to national federations in so-called developing countries in the field of cycling. ‘We train trainers from national federations and ask them to use these smart trainers to conduct a series of tests according to the protocol they have learned,’ explains Henry. ‘This allows us to receive data very quickly and then invite the most promising riders to one of our satellite centres. At these centres, the tests are validated by our trainers. We invite the best athletes identified at our satellite centres to Aigle.’
In addition, the WCC continues to send trainers and experts to attend continental championships or regional games across all continents and cycling disciplines. ‘If we discover talents there who slipped through the net during the federations' detection stages, we invite them directly to a neighbouring satellite centre or, if they already show a very high level, even directly to Aigle,’ explains Henry. ‘We also keep a close eye on the results of e-cycling. Riders who have difficulty accessing regular competitions can appear on our radar via e-cycling from their homes.’
Dewika Mulya Sova passed through the Yeongju satellite centre in South Korea, one of eleven WCC branches worldwide. ‘I started cycling when I was about nine years old,’ she says. 'In Malang, where I grew up, there was a BMX academy. I did BMX for five years, got injured and then switched to road cycling. When I was sixteen, the Indonesian federation sent me to the satellite centre in South Korea for a month-long training camp. Then, in 2021, Jean-Jacques invited me here for a talent identification camp. Nothing came of that until the end of last year, when, after winning medals in the road race and time trial at the Asian Championships, I was allowed to join the WCC team.'
The World Cycling Centre's continental women's team is a colourful group of ten, with riders from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Eritrea and Ethiopia, among others. They have the opportunity to complete a European competition programme and find the ideal facilities in Aigle to learn the ropes under the guidance of French coach Pauline Allin.
The riders can train for speed on the shores of Lake Geneva and hone their climbing skills in the nearby Alpes vaudoises. In the WCC buildings, they have access to a 200-metre wooden cycling track, a fitness room and a staffed bicycle workshop. The surrounding grounds feature an Olympic BMX track, a BMX freestyle circuit and a cyclo-cross course.
‘The continental women's team is one of three permanent programmes currently running at the WCC,’ says director Jacques Landry (55), while behind him a rider is doing laps on the indoor cycling track in the slipstream of a derny. ‘In addition to the women on the road, we have a BMX team (seven women and three men, ed.) and a track team for the sprint events (four men and one woman, ed.). All athletes stay at Mon séjour for seven to eight months of the year.’
Landry, a former Canadian cyclist, hopes that the range of activities on offer can be expanded in the near future. ‘We are considering launching semi-permanent programmes next year for men's mountain bike cross-country and road cycling. This would also enable us to better meet the needs of endurance events in track cycling. We are just waiting for the go-ahead from our management committee.’
Such decisions are not taken lightly. They involve considerable investment. 'The stay at Mon séjour, the maintenance of the infrastructure, the clothing, the equipment, the trainers' wages... If you add up all the costs and divide them by the number of athletes, then, depending on the programme, an athlete costs the WCC between 6,000 and 11,000 Swiss francs (6,400 to 11,800 euros, ed.),' says Landry, who manages an annual budget of 9 to 11 million Swiss francs at the WCC and supervises forty staff members.
A programme for men's road cycling would not be a first. ‘We had that until five years ago,’ notes Jean-Jacques Henry. 'We usually received a dozen promising riders in the first half of the season. From July onwards, we kept eight of them and invited eight juniors to prepare for the world championships. The best juniors were usually invited back the following year for their first year with the promising riders.'
We now realise that it can still be useful to continue working with male road cyclists. There are still riders with potential who slip through the net.
The programme was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. And it has not been resumed since. ‘The reasoning was that there are already so many continental men's teams worldwide,’ explains Henry. 'They already pick up the best riders. But we now realise that it can still be useful to continue working with male road cyclists. There are still riders with potential who slip through the net.'
As a trainer at the time, Henry saw several riders progress to the WorldTour via the WCC. ‘The Ethiopian Tsgabu Grmay, the Eritrean Merhawi Kudus, the Algerian Youcef Reguigui, the Argentine Eduardo Sepulveda...’, he sums up. ‘The last batch, in 2019, included the Ethiopian Hagos Berhe, now with Jayco-Alula, and of course the Eritrean Biniam Girmay.’
The latter is – alongside Kenyan Brit Chris Froome, who passed through Aigle in 2007 – the best-known WCC training product among the general public. ‘A coach from our satellite centre in South Africa spotted him during the African Championships,’ says Henry. 'Biniam was still a junior. We invited him immediately. I remember him as a very warm boy, always smiling, very pleasant to be around, and eager to learn. He was completely stress-free and just happy. And that happiness also contributed to his performance. It gave his body the freedom to go very deep, as it were. Fatigue and exertion seemed to have no effect on him.'
In the women's current WorldTour peloton, there are five riders with a WCC background: Anastasiya Kolesava from Belarus at Canyon//SRAM-zondacrypto, Fariba Hashimi from Afghanistan at Ceratizit, Paula Patiño from Colombia and Marlen Reusser from Switzerland at Movistar, and Juliana Londoño from Colombia at Picnic-PostNL.
According to Henry, it is difficult to predict how far a rider will make it from the WCC. ‘We know the talent is there, but it takes a lot of work to bring it to fruition. We've had rough diamonds with as much talent as Biniam who ultimately didn't make it. Because they win easily in their own country or on their own continent, they don't realise they need to invest time in their development and often remain too passive. If those athletes don't change their mentality after a few weeks, they won't succeed.’
Lize-Ann Louw (23) is a rider who is well aware of the road she still has to travel. The South African is part of the continental road team for the second year and finished in the top five of the South African road and time trial championships at the start of this season. ‘I'm still finding my way and my rhythm,’ she says. 'I'm trying to discover what works for me and what doesn't, how I can achieve good results. It's all about improving yourself and being patient.'
Biniam's strength was that he was happy everywhere. To break through as a rider, you have to perform well in Europe. Riders who suffer from homesickness often don't make it.
In addition to mentality, adaptability also plays a decisive role. Riders need to familiarise themselves with European culture. Louw: ‘To get here, I had to take the train. I didn't understand the system – in South Africa, I never take the train because the trains don't work. Fortunately, there was a friendly Spanish lady. She didn't speak a word of English, but she was able to help me on my way.’
Riders in Europe are also confronted with a different way of racing. Louw: 'I started last year with two national competitions here in Switzerland. I noticed right away that it was pretty tough. Then I got my first real chance in the Bretagne Ladies Tour: really difficult. The level is just much higher. In South Africa, there might be one local race a month with twenty riders. Here in Europe, we race in large pelotons with strong women who all train hard and have a lot of experience. It's a race to catch up.'
And then there's adjusting to being away from home for long periods of time. ‘You can't be homesick,’ says Jean-Jacques Henry. ‘Biniam's strength was that he was happy everywhere. To break through as a rider, you have to perform well in Europe. Riders who suffer from homesickness often don't make it.’
The WCC tries to help the riders overcome their homesickness. First and foremost, by getting to know the athletes well through conversations. What motivates them to race? ‘We try to get them to be focused on a specific, lofty goal or dream,’ says Henry. 'Becoming world champion or winning a Tour stage, for example. Once they have that in mind, we know we can go far. All the sacrifices they have to make become easier to accept. They become part of a lifestyle that makes them happy.'
Vasilijus Lendel (30) is someone with a clear goal in mind. The muscular Lithuanian comes from Panevezys, known for the only indoor cycling track in his country, and is part of the WCC track team. When he parted ways with his coach – the only track coach in Lithuania – more than two years ago and competed in several Nations Cups without a trainer, he received an invitation to come and train in Aigle.
‘My dream was to qualify for the Olympic Games, and I succeeded,’ says Lendel, who finished fifteenth in the sprint and twenty-third in the keirin in Paris. 'If the WCC hadn't existed, I might have quit. Without a coach, it's impossible. If only because the speed on the track is so high: you need a derny rider to train behind.'
We try to get them to be focused on a specific, lofty goal or dream
Lendel stays in Aigle for periods of one and a half to two months to prepare for important competitions. Leaving his three-year-old son at home each time is what he finds most difficult. But training together with Nicholas Paul, the man who has already won medals for Trinidad and Tobago at world track cycling championships, is productive and inspiring. Lendel is completely focused on his next goal: ‘A medal at the Games in Los Angeles.’
Dewika Mulya Sova also knows what it's like to be far from home for a long time. When the subject is brought up, she wipes away a tear. ‘I only miss my mum,’ she says. Yet the Indonesian never doubts her life choice for a moment. ‘When it occurs to me that I might not make it, I just take a moment to realise that my dream is bigger than the obstacle I have to overcome. That any difficulties are part of the journey. That I have to persevere in order to achieve my dream.’
Even if our athletes don't make it big, they still take home a wealth of valuable knowledge.
Mulya Sova hopes to shine at the Southeast Asian Games in December and at the Asian Games next year. In her dreams, she will one day ride for Anna van der Breggen's SD Worx-Protime team – with Annemiek van Vleuten, one of the champions who inspired her: ‘The riders in that team, the bikes: really nice!’
‘Being away from home brings challenges,’ Lize-Ann Louw also experiences. "I miss birthdays and holidays with the family. But I have their full support and am only a phone call away from them. If I'm disappointed after a race, feel bad about a training session or miss them too much, I can call them and they comfort me. What also makes it more bearable is that the other girls in the team are going through the same thing. We all stay here together. We can celebrate each other's birthdays and spend rest days together. We're like a small family."
Over the years, a total of more than 1,500 athletes from 125 countries have passed through the WCC. ‘We are, as it were, the United Nations of cycling,’ says director Landry. ‘A melting pot of cultures and languages.’
Only a small minority reach the top. ‘But we don't necessarily measure success by a victory or a podium place,’ says Landry. 'If an athlete makes progress, we also consider that a success. When an athlete arrives here, we determine his or her starting level. If, after a year, he or she has made five to ten per cent progress in time or results compared to that baseline, we have all done a good job.'
At the same time, the riders are prepared for life after their career. They are expected to follow one of the training courses to become a trainer or mechanic at the WCC. An English course is provided and French lessons are offered through the municipality. They are also encouraged to take online courses, for example via the International Olympic Committee's Athlete365 platform.
Despite all efforts, almost a quarter of a century after the WCC was founded, cycling is still primarily a European sport. Landry is not blind to this fact. ‘We see this every day,’ he says. 'But for us, it's not necessarily about quick results. Sometimes an investment only pays off after ten or twenty years. Even if our athletes don't make it big, they still take home a wealth of valuable knowledge. They can then set up trials in their own country or continent and discover new talent. In this way, little by little, through trial and error, we continue to ensure that cycling becomes increasingly international.'
The UCI World Cycling Centre does not limit its “development aid” to its centre in Aigle, Switzerland. It has also built up a network of eleven...
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