BEAT Cycling Club, one of the leading teams in the UCI Continental circuit have been extremely proactive in these unprecedented circumstances. As the UCI has outlined a new race program for the end of season, we caught up with Luuc Bugter, one of the eleven riders making up the BEAT road team, about how he is coping and training in preparation for races resuming.

After a strong debut season for BEAT in 2019, which included a GC win in Tour d’Eure et Loir (UCI2.2) and a solo victory in the PWZ Zuidenveld Tour (UCI1.2), team road captain Luuc was looking to a strong 2020 before COVID-19 hit.

AL: Where are you based during this lock down? What affect has this outbreak had on your daily life?

LB: I have been based at my home in Arnhem, Netherlands. My life has actually been simplified quite a lot due to this situation. Normally I am hardly ever at home due to a busy race schedule, where we go from hotel to hotel, away from home working or spending time with the family. This has been the longest time I’ve not had to pack my suitcase for a while!

AL: What does a typical training week look like now and how do you stay motivated?

LB: I find the same training laps and environment get boring pretty quickly. Therefore, I decided to mix my road training with some gravel riding to explore new areas and trails I cannot ride down on my road bike. With this in mind, I set myself some new goals on the gravel to motivate myself. On Saturday, May 30th, I will be participating in the ‘Dirty Kanzelled’ ride via Strava. It is going to be a ride of around 200 miles (320km) with the majority of the route on gravel trails, I am curious to see how well I will complete it as I have never ridden so long before! It will certainly be a challenge!
I have used this time to work hard off the bike too with the focus a lot on strength training. As we cannot go to a gym, I have got creative and built my own home gym in my garden!

AL: What is the hardest part about lockdown?

LB: For me the hardest part about this situation is the unknown and uncertainty of everything. When are we going to race again? When will life start back up normally? Nobody knows a definitive answer yet so those thoughts I keep asking myself inside my head. It’s a very hard situation mentally, not only for me but for everyone! For us as a team it is very important that we can start back racing as soon as it’s possible to show off our partners. I am keeping myself in good condition so that as soon as racing restarts, I’ll be ready!

AL: How does being in a team like BEAT help in this sort of situation?

LB: BEAT have been great throughout this whole situation. The team is coming up with new ways to expand and engage with our community members, this has been through some new platforms to me such as Zwift and eRacing. On here we can ride and compete against our club members from the safety of our own homes. On top of this I’ve been helping BEAT spread cycling as a lifestyle choice more on the various social media platforms. It’s great that we have some top partners on board with the team to help us through these times. For example on my ‘Dirty Kanzelled’ ride this weekend I am able to test the Koga gravel bike, this sort of help really keeps morale high.

Thanks to Luuc for his time, if you would like to follow his ‘Dirty Kanzelled’ ride, tune into the BEAT Cycling Club’s Instagram!