Milan Vader signs with Q36.5 Pro Cycling

The Dutch cyclist Milan Vader and the Q36.5 Pro Cycling team have just announced his signing for the next 2 seasons. Vader is well known to all XCO fans, but his career shifted to the road 3 years ago and it seems like it will continue that way.

Milan Vader signs for 2 seasons with Q36.5 Pro Cycling

Multiple times Dutch XCO champion with a very remarkable career in mountain biking, Vader made the transition to the road in 2022 with Team Visma. In this new stage, his performance has been marked by the serious accident he suffered in April of that year during the Itzulia. But he has long proven that he is back at the level of the best, a good example of this was the victory in the Tour de Guangxi a year ago.

Now, after 3 seasons in a WorldTour team, Vader expressed his excitement to continue his journey with his new team:

"I am very motivated to join Q36.5 Pro Cycling. If you look, the team is doing great, it's awesome and seems very professional. I am looking forward to having more opportunities. I have a solid explosive sprint and I can perform very well in shorter races with uphill finishes. Those kinds of races suit me very well and I proved it last year in Guangxi. I think I will have more opportunities and more freedom to achieve what I really want: to win races!"

"I am very happy to continue riding with SRAM and, although I have never ridden a Scott bike, I know it is a great bike. I am also excited about the other partners, like Amacx. Nutritional strategy plays a crucial role in performance and I am very happy to continue trusting Amacx in this area", Vader concluded.

On the other hand, Doug Ryder, General Manager of Q36.5 Pro Cycling, said: "We are excited to welcome Milan Vader to Q36.5 Pro Cycling. With a solid foundation in XCO, Milan has made remarkable progress since transitioning to road cycling. His explosive climbing skills will be a key asset for our team. Milan's journey, especially his inspiring recovery from a serious accident two years ago, speaks of his resilience and determination. We believe he is just at the beginning of an extraordinary road cycling career and we look forward to achieving great things together in the coming years".

It is worth noting that the Swiss Filippo Colombo signed for this same team during his foray into the road and even managed to combine it with his position in SCOTT-SRAM, where he currently competes exclusively. But as for whether Vader could return to compete in mountain bike, it seems that for now that will not happen:

"I achieved great success in XCO and I always loved it, but I have come to enjoy road cycling a lot. I have found my place in this discipline and I am happy to do this for the rest of my career. I have taken important steps in road cycling in recent years, but I feel there are still many areas where I can improve, like tactics"."I could say I am a kind of uphill sprinter. I do very well in climbs of less than five minutes with an uphill finish. I think I could do very well in races like Flèche Wallone".