Parkhotel Valkenburg 2023

Nearly halfway into the racing season, and the young team of Parkhotel Valkenburg has been scoring a number of important places of honor in some of the toughest races on the calendar. This team has a deep history of nurturing top talents who then go on to dominate the sport. Just think of names like Demi Vollering, Lorena Wiebes, and Femke Markus.

Though the management at Parkhotel Valkenburg is proud of the role they have played in the development of riders, there is still a strong commitment to getting top results with their riders.

A squad full of promise

With a roster where only one rider is older than 24, nearly the entire team qualifies for the best young rider category in every race they enter. Nevertheless, many of their youngest riders have been a part of the team for several years already. For instance, this is the third year on the team for 21 year old Lieke Nooijen. She has been among their best scorers this season with a 5th place at the brutal one-day race Le Samyn des Dames at the end of February, and 3rd place in late April at Leiedal Koerse.

Femke Gerritse is another young rider who has had a string of strong performances over the past three years for the team, most recently at the Ceratizit Festival Elsy Jacobs stage race where she took 4th overall. In her second year with Parkhotel Valkenburg, Quinty Schoens is among the more senior members of the team, though still only 24 year old. She’s recently distinguished herself by taking 4th place overall at the hilly Trofeo Ponente in Rosa stage race on the Ligurian coast in Italy.

With such a young riders taking top results at these very difficult events proves the trainers and coaches at Parkhotel Valkenburg have not lost the formula for rider development.

More opportunities to shine

There are still plenty of opportunities to get even better results this season, with a packed schedule in May alone. The squad will be racing both one-day classics and multi-stage races across Europe in May. The Veenendaal – Veenendaal Classic, ZLM Omloop der Kempen Ladies, and Antwerp Port Epic Ladies races will give the team the chance to test their skills in hardcore northern classics stale racing.

Then the six stage Internationale LOTTO Thüringen Ladies Tour and three stage RideLondon Classique will give the riders the chance to hunt for stage wins and gain experience in multi-stage races on the highest level.

A custom OSTRO VAM

With the team facing such a stacked schedule, they will also have Factor OSTRO VAMs with a custom paint scheme to add to their motivation. The team changed jersey design for 2023, so the Factor design team took inspiration from the new jerseys to integrate the team’s identity into the frame and fork.

Team member, Kirstie v. Haaften, who took 6th at the Leiedal Koerse in April, says the riders couldn’t be happier with their new machines:

“We love the bike! We can’t wait to start racing on it and all the motivation it will give us to race even faster! We are all really happy with our new Factor OSTRO VAM bikes. We are excited to start racing on them against the best in the world in some of the world’s biggest events. To have such a fast machine to race on gives us a lot of confidence that we can take some really good results for the team during the next part of the season!”

We can’t wait to see the team continue earning excellent results while developing many of the top racers in the world.

Follow them to keep up to date with their season progress and race updates: