“My family keeps telling me to go back to mountain biking”: Milan Vader is looking for a team for 2027

Milan Vader is going through one of the most uncertain moments of his sports career. The Dutchman, who came to road cycling from the elite of XCO and whom Jumbo-Visma considered a potential Grand Tour rider, has been left without a contract for 2027. At 30 years old, and after overcoming an accident that nearly cost him his life, Vader claims he still has much to offer, although he is beginning to contemplate alternatives outside the professional peloton, including a possible return to mountain biking.

Milan Vader, from being one of the great promises of XCO to being without a team for 2027

At Brújula Bike, we have been following Milan Vader's trajectory for years. In 2020, when he had already established himself among the best XCO specialists, we had the opportunity to interview him to learn about his sporting ambitions. At that time, he was competing with KMC Orbea, accumulating podiums in the World Cup and holding the third position in the UCI ranking.

His talent caught the attention of Jumbo-Visma, which announced his signing in 2021 to combine mountain biking with road cycling. What seemed like the beginning of a promising career in both disciplines ended up becoming a journey marked by injuries, an extraordinary recovery, and now, an uncertain future.

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The Pinarello Q36.5 team has decided not to renew his contract after two seasons, and although he has attracted interest from EF Education-EasyPost, Lotto-Intermarché, and XEFI Group Pro Cycling, none of those options have materialized. According to the Dutch media WielerFlits, Lotto ended up opting for another rider and XEFI also ruled out his incorporation this week.

In a interview granted to WielerFlits, Vader acknowledges that he is unclear about what will happen with his career, although he maintains his intention to continue competing.

"I have the feeling that I can still give more. But what does the future hold for me? I really don't have an answer to that."

The uncertainty has reached the point of making him think about other professional exits. The cyclist explains that he recently considered updating his LinkedIn profile to explore possible jobs outside of cycling, although he is still unsure what he could dedicate himself to.

"In Jumbo-Visma, they saw me as a kind of Primož Roglič"

One of the most interesting revelations from the interview relates to the expectations that Jumbo-Visma had placed on him when he decided to make the leap to road cycling.

"At Jumbo-Visma, at first they wanted to turn me into a Grand Tour rider. They saw me as a kind of Primož Roglič."

The team aimed to develop his ability to tackle long climbs and maintain prolonged efforts, although Vader believes that over time he has better understood what his true qualities are.

The Dutchman acknowledges that his past in mountain biking still defines a large part of his competitive profile. His explosiveness allows him to perform particularly well in one-day races, classics like those in the Ardennes, and demanding finishes, an area where he believes he could still achieve significant results.

However, that sporting transformation was conditioned by the serious accident he suffered in the Itzulia of 2022.

The fall caused him, among other injuries, a rupture of the carotid artery, a collapsed lung, and 24 fractures. He spent two weeks in an induced coma and, as he himself explained during his recovery, had to learn to walk again.

"That accident cost me between a year and a half and two years."

Despite everything, he managed to return to the highest level and in October 2023, he starred in one of the most exciting moments of his career by winning the Tour of Guangxi, his first major victory on the road.

That victory seemed to definitively confirm his recovery and open a new sporting chapter. A year later, he announced his signing with Q36.5 for the 2025 and 2026 seasons, convinced that he would have greater opportunities to seek his own results.

The disappointment with Pinarello Q36.5 and the difficulties in finding a team

The departure from the Swiss team has not occurred as Vader expected. The cyclist claims that he asked for explanations about his non-renewal, but never received a sufficiently clear response.

"I had to ask three times, but I didn't get a clear answer."

His impression is that the team needed riders capable of accumulating more UCI points, a circumstance that leads him to question some of his sporting decisions over the last two seasons.

Vader admits that his individual results were not particularly outstanding, but he recalls that he often took on domestique roles and sacrificed his own options to help the team's leaders.

As an example, he mentions the Circuit of Getxo, where he arrived in excellent shape after a training camp at altitude, but worked for Marcel Camprubí instead of seeking his own result.

Now he considers that perhaps he should have taken more advantage of those opportunities, especially in a transfer market where individual rankings and UCI points have a decisive importance.

Will Milan Vader return to mountain biking?

Given the difficulties in finding a new road team, a return to XCO appears as a logical alternative. Vader was one of the best international specialists, several times Dutch champion and Olympic in Tokyo, so his return to the discipline would not seem far-fetched.

Moreover, he never completely detached himself from mountain biking during his early years at Jumbo-Visma. In 2023, he returned to compete in the World Cup and even starred in one of the technical curiosities of that season when he transformed his Cervélo from dual suspension to a rigid to compete in the Short Track of Nové Město.

However, the rider himself does not seem particularly convinced about returning to his former specialty. "At home, they keep telling me to go back to mountain biking."

Vader explains that, after so many years learning to compete on the road, he finds it difficult to think about starting over. He also acknowledges that XCO has changed considerably since he left the international circuit.

The current courses are more technical, the equipment has evolved, and regaining the necessary level to compete with the best would require significant specific preparation. Additionally, living in an area of the Netherlands with few opportunities to train technique would pose another added difficulty.

For all these reasons, mountain biking remains a possibility, but it is not his first option.

He also does not find it particularly appealing to take a step back to a continental team or spend an entire season training without a contract while waiting for an opportunity. If he finds a team that bets on him, his intention would be to continue competing at the highest level for at least another two years.

For now, Vader maintains hope of finding a spot in the professional peloton for 2027. At 30 years old, he believes he still has not been able to fully demonstrate his potential on the road and that the 2022 accident took away an important part of his best sporting seasons.