Meet our dynamic DS duo for 2022
WORDS: KIT NICHOLSON
IMAGES: CRAIG BRUCE
It’s almost time to race! Like you, we’re counting down the days until our riders kick off the 2022 racing season, but first, Le Col - Wahoo is heading to Denia for one last pre-season training camp.
While our thirteen riders get their bodies and minds ready to re-enter the bunch, the fourteenth and fifteenth members of the team are making their own preparations. They are Nicolas “Nico” Marche and Julia Soek, our dynamic duo of sports directors - or directeurs sportifs to use the language of cycling.
Nico has been a DS since 2016, earning his stripes with his native France’s top women’s team FDJ for two years. We first worked together in 2018, and he returned to Le Col - Wahoo last season after a couple of years with the high-flying Team Sunweb, which is where he met Julia.
Nico has been a DS since 2016, earning his stripes with his native France’s top women’s team FDJ for two years. We first worked together in 2018, and he returned to Le Col - Wahoo last season after a couple of years with the high-flying Team Sunweb, which is where he met Julia.
Julia Soek retired at the end of last year, the final of eight seasons with the various iterations of Team Sunweb, now known as Team DSM, where she spent most of her pro career. The Dutch former road captain is getting her life as a DS underway with us this season, and it’s been something of a whirlwind so far.
“It is of course a big change from rider to DS,” said Julia, “so for me personally, I hope to learn a lot – I’m already learning a lot from Nico and Tom [Varney] – and to gain experience throughout the season. Then I can lead and take initiative by myself. I’m still in a learning process now. But I’m really excited for the first races with the team.
Julia is excited to see what Le Col - Wahoo’s athletes can do, too.
“We have a super team with a lot of talented riders. I’m looking forward to the next step in development and seeing how they will perform. For now, we’re focussed on the process, and then we work for results.”
With a number of years of experience under his belt, Nico’s perspective is slightly different, but both he and Julia share the same goals for the team.
“It’s the second season I’m involved with the team, and we started to build something good last year,” Nico said. “So the first goal is to keep improving and developing the riders and staff. For performance goals, the Spring Classics is a big area where we want to perform, and I think we have a team with the talents for these types of races.”
Nico’s aims are clear.
“We want to be one of the best Continental teams in the world. Last year we were fourth, so this year hopefully we can finish in the top three. After the Spring Classics, RideLondon and the Women’s Tour are two important UK races for the team, and the cherry of the year would be the Tour de France Femmes. I think there are some stages that fit quite well with all the riders we have, so we’re optimistic about getting good results.”
The role of the DS is vital in races – tactics, fuelling, liaising with the organisers, even mechanical assistance – but there’s much more to it than race briefings, map-reading and extraordinary driving skills.
“The job of a good coach or DS is to try to support every rider and staff member in the team,” explained Nico. “To help everyone develop as much as they can, be happy in the group and get the best out of each other. That’s the definition of a good coach.”
Just a few months ago, Julia was a professional rider racing towards the end of a 12-year career. As a road captain for a WorldTour team, she worked more closely with the directors than some of her teammates, but she’d not thought so much about taking on the role herself. That is, until the opportunity was presented to her.
“For me, it’s all quite new,” Julia said. “I found that it’s a lot more work than I expected! And you need to be super flexible. From what I’ve seen already, it’s important that even when you’re super busy and stressed, and you’ve got lots on your mind with responsibility over everything, you have to stay calm. You can’t show any stress to the riders because you want to give them confidence, show them everything’s under control.”
This is something she remembers fondly from the days when she rode in races with Nico in the team car.
“He was always super relaxed, and I never noticed anything getting to him. It’s a really important quality, to show confidence and control so that everybody can perform at their best.”
TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK
Although our dynamic duo won’t always share races, it’s hugely important that they were able to work in tandem from day one. So the fact that they’ve got history and a good relationship is a big bonus.
“It says a lot that I’m working with Nico again!” Julia said with a laugh. “I really liked working with Nico as a DS because he was calm and confident, but also made it fun along the way, and the same goes for Tom [Varney]. For me, it’s really important to work with good people who have a lot of experience, but also easy to work with and who think the same way as you. I think Nico and Tom built a really good base of staff last year, I can really tell that they did a good job, so that’s a good foundation and it’s good to see.”
After two years in the driving seat of one of the biggest teams in the peloton, Nico’s first year back with Drops - Le Col in 2021 was spent mostly riding solo. Naturally, the Varneys were always on hand, but an additional DS - not to mention former pro - will allow the whole team to level up this season.
“With more of us we can make improvements and go into more detail,” Nico said. “Sharing tasks also means we can go really deep on some important things in the race. It’s good to have two heads at work. Sometimes when you’re by yourself, you just follow your own way and don’t ask yourself any questions. But when there are two of you - or three with Tom supporting us - involved with everything, that means we can also think differently, and get a bit more professional with the team.”
IN THE DRIVING SEAT
In preparation for her transition from peloton to the caravan, Julia attended the UCI’s infamous Sports Directors Course at the World Cycling Centre in Aigle, Switzerland, a gruelling five-day programme that ends with a written exam.
“It was a lot of information!” Julia said. “I’m really grateful that the team had me do the DS course because the knowledge I got from it was really useful, stuff I didn’t know as a rider. There was a lot about races from the organisers’ side, but also in the race caravan, driving and all the rules that come with it, but also the actual responsibilities of a DS. It was super useful to be there.”
But notably there weren’t any driving lessons, which came as a surprise to Julia.
“Actually, my first one was at team camp with Nico! And it’s something else entirely, let’s say I didn’t expect it to be so hard!”
Anyone who’s watched a pro bike race will have borne witness to the immense skills required of the directors, and none more so than the driver, required to balance their team responsibilities with road safety in a variety of conditions. It’s a high-stakes game.
“You have to think of so many things at the same time,” Julia added. “The first time was a bit overwhelming with so much to think about. Normally I talk a lot, but I didn’t say a word, I was concentrating so hard, and that wasn’t even a race. But you learn it quickly.”
“I don’t remember exactly when I passed the bunch for the first time but I remember my first race as a DS,” Nico added. “Like Julia, I was a rider, so at least I already knew what the convoy was like as a rider, but not driving a car. So like Julia says, it’s challenging, and you need to be super focussed all the time, which Julia found the first few times she drove at camp. After the first race experience, you’re completely exhausted, mentally and physically.”
As well as the occasional DS-specific driving lesson, Nico’s been able to share a wealth of experience with his new partner. Importantly, and reassuringly, he’s still learning his craft.
“I still make a lot of mistakes!” Nico joked. “But what’s important is what you learn from them. Like to be organised and keep control of everything you’re able to control. If you get to a race and you don’t have that, then everything gets more stressful.”
FAMILY CAMPING TRIP
Next week sees the team head back to Spain for one last, all-important camp before heading for our long-awaited 2022 debut. It’s a big moment not just for the riders, new and old alike, but also for Julia, Nico and the rest of the staff who are instrumental in keeping the team on the road.
“We’re coming closer to the first races, Valenciana and then Opening Weekend in Belgium,” Julia said. “So for this camp, the most important thing is to - like we say in the Netherlands - ‘dot the Is’. So that means that we don’t do any race-specific efforts necessarily, it’s really about getting the team feeling and working together. We’ll also get some speed in the legs, so after this camp we should be ready for the season.”
The first race for Le Col - Wahoo is the Volta Ciclista Valenciana, a four-day stage race where the team hopes to hit the ground running.
“Valenciana has really quite a hard course, it looks like a climber’s race,” Nico said. “And the level is going to be high with 13 WorldTeams present. For us, the main goal is to get dialled back into top-level racing, work on communication within the team, and support our leaders for the race. We’re taking quite a young team, so they’re going to experience a new synergy and instinct in the bunch. Hopefully we can also compete for good results on GC, and if not, we’ll take it stage-by-stage to find goals on the performance side. The main goal is to be comfortable and confident back in the bunch.”
It’s an incredibly exciting time, if a little nerve-wracking, especially if you have to get behind the wheel of a team car! But racing is what the team’s riders and staff live and work for. On the countdown to race day, it’s all about the finishing touches for Julia and Nico.
“I’m super excited,” said Nico. “At the moment we’re working closely on all the rider selections, but also working out the plan, tactics, performance. As we get closer and closer to racing, we're really excited to get started.”