In the With Open Vizier podcast, Merijn Zeeman talked with football coach Alex Pastoor about the culture within Jumbo-Visma. He revealed that the team’s culture can often make it challenging for cyclists from other countries to adapt.
“People often ask me if I take into account the cultural differences between nationalities. Our core values state that we are direct but not rude.”
Zeeman himself starts by talking about Christophe Laporte, who was accustomed to the French culture at Cofidis. “I must say that Christophe Laporte has said a few times that we are very direct, but we really created him that way. If you find something or want something different, just say it. We gave that to him.”
Not everyone likes the direct culture, Zeeman says: “I’ve also worked with Chinese and Japanese, and I have to say I made mistakes with them.”
“I also remember a team meeting where things were very tough. A cyclist gave tough feedback to the Dutch cyclists.”
“Sepp Kuss, as an American cyclist, and the New Zealander George Bennett were really affected by this. That’s when I thought: you’re not used to this. I had to pay extra attention to it because they found it difficult. It was a matter of how the cyclist had behaved in the group, and they found the way this criticism was delivered very challenging,” Zeeman concluded.
