Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe backs cyclocross and opens the door to a multidisciplinary project – including MTB?

Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe has decided to expand its sports structure beyond the road with a new cyclocross project that is already underway. The initiative, led by former Belgian national coach Sven Vanthourenhout, starts with four young talents but is part of a more ambitious strategy to find and develop future references in professional cycling by leveraging the advantages of combining different disciplines.

Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe begins investing in cyclocross with its own structure

The German team thus joins the trend of other major road structures, such as Alpecin, which have found in cyclocross and MTB a way to discover riders with a different profile. However, instead of starting by signing established stars, Red Bull has preferred to build its project from the lower categories.

The first members are 17-year-old Delano Heeren, the junior world cyclocross champion, Lars Peers, Matteo Gualtieri, and Benjamin Huber, the latter three being 16 years old.

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At the helm of the program is Sven Vanthourenhout, former Belgian cyclocross coach, who explained to WielerFlits how this initiative was born.

"The first time I met Ralph, he asked me what my vision of cycling in general was. I made it clear from the beginning that I consider cyclocross a very important discipline for the development of young riders", explains Vanthourenhout.

The idea convinced Ralph Denk, the team's top manager, and also the sponsors. In fact, the project has been in the works for about a year and a half, although its operational development has accelerated in recent months.

And it is not just about allowing young riders to compete during the winter. Red Bull has allocated specific resources to provide them with a complete professional structure.

Each rider has between three and four bicycles and seven to eight sets of wheels. In races, they have a motorhome, a permanent mechanic, an assistant, and Vanthourenhout himself as the sports director. An unusual infrastructure for riders of this age.

During the Christmas period, professional Gianni Vermeersch and under-23 Michiel Mouris are also expected to join. Their arrival will involve expanding the logistical setup with another vehicle and the team's bus.

The priority is to train complete cyclists, not just cyclocross specialists

Red Bull's commitment has a goal that goes far beyond achieving victories during the winter. Vanthourenhout believes that riders who combine disciplines are better prepared for professionalism and that limiting their specialization too early can mean losing an important part of their development.

"It is no secret that I firmly believe in combining two disciplines. And not just cyclocross and road, but also mountain bike and road, or mountain bike and cyclocross. I don't care what sports a rider ends up choosing, but it adds enormous value to their overall development", he asserts.

The project leader cites examples like Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, and Tom Pidcock, but also mentions a more recent generation that includes Paul Seixas, Léo Bisiaux, Aubin Sparfel, and the Spaniard Benjamín Noval.

The goal is also to make the development structure of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe more attractive for those young riders who do not want to give up cyclocross or MTB when joining a road team. As Vanthourenhout explains, that freedom was precisely one of the arguments that convinced Lars Peers to join.

The initiative fits with the work that the German formation is already developing through its Grenke Auto Eder and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe Rookies teams, which serve as stepping stones to the WorldTour.

Although the comparison with the Alpecin-Premier Tech model is inevitable, Vanthourenhout rejects that they are trying to replicate the structure of the Roodhooft brothers.

"Perhaps we share a vision, but we cannot compare ourselves and we are certainly not trying to copy what they have built", he explains, recalling that the Belgian organization has been working in different modalities for over twenty years.

The new UCI regulations for 2027 add another incentive to bet on cyclocross and other disciplines

The movement by Red Bull also comes at a particularly interesting time for multidisciplinary structures.

As we explained when analyzing the new UCI regulations that will allow points from MTB, cyclocross, gravel, and track to be added to the road ranking starting in 2027, professional teams will be able to directly benefit from certain results that their riders achieve off the asphalt.

A world title in cyclocross or XCO will grant 300 points to the team's ranking, while winning the overall classification of a World Cup in these disciplines will contribute another 200.

However, for these points to count, the rider must be among the top 20 of their team in the road ranking. In women's teams, the limit will be eight riders.

There are no indications that this reform was the reason for Red Bull's new investment. In fact, Vanthourenhout places the origin of the project well before its launch and directly relates it to the training of young talents. Moreover, their current junior riders would not automatically generate those points for the WorldTour structure.