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October 28th, 2019 - Jan-Willem van Schip will join BEAT Cycling Club next season. The 25-year-old world champion, who is active on both the track and the road, will rely on the BEAT structure, with a UCI Continental road team and a UCI track team, to prepare to compete for an Olympic medal in Tokyo next summer. In 2019 van Schip won a stage in the Baloise Belgium Tour on the road and was crowned world champion in the points race on the track.

“Jan-Willem is one of the most talented riders in the Netherlands, both on the track and on the road. He deserves a good environment to demonstrate his value next year, and we are very happy to offer him that within BEAT,” said BEAT co-founder Geert Broekhuizen. “We have worked very hard over the past three years on the structure to support the elite-level athletes within our club. Our successes in recent years, such as the World Cup victories and European and world championship titles on the track, and the road team ending this year as the third-ranked cycling team in the Netherlands in the UCI World Ranking, are the result of these efforts.

“The recruitment of Jan-Willem is another bold step for us as a club, but one that we’re very much looking forward to. Next year we will build a specific program and a team around Jan-Willem on the road, and he can also draw on the knowledge that our track team has acquired in recent years. But it will be a two-way street: we can use Jan-Willem’s knowledge and experience to continue to grow as well.”

“I’ve seen that BEAT has taken enormous steps by thinking differently and acting differently. It’s an approach that suits me well, and that’s why I think it’s great to be part of this ambitious club,” said van Schip. “I’ve made the Olympics my main goal for 2020, and together we will follow a targeted process to make sure I’m optimally prepared. In the run-up to the Games, and afterward, I want to show that I can ride super hard and that we can see everyone off in the finale.”

Van Schip concluded with an appeal: “I want to demonstrate what I can do next year and show that the big teams have it wrong. But I can’t do it alone, so I invite everyone to be a part of this. We need cycling enthusiasts who stand firmly behind us, partners who support our process and race organizers who help create a good program. What I really like is that all this comes together at BEAT, a club with a community, ambitious partners and a road team that’s growing quickly. With this team we hope to grow into the UCI ProSeries and participate in the top-level competitions in 2021, where BEAT and I belong.”