Hailing from Heukelum in the Dutch province of Gelderland, and at the still relatively tender age of 27, Fabio is one of the most successful sprinters in the current professional peloton with over 45 wins, and at the still relatively tender age of 27, was a fresh face to the team in 2024.
The first year with the team was about getting used to each other and working together with the new sprint group. The potential of the new relationship was already visible in races like the Tour of Türkiye, where Fabio could take his first win in the team’s colours, in what was an outstanding week for the team with five stage victories and the GC win.
In his first year settling into the team, Fabio also demonstrated his fast capabilities and value to our broader sprint group, sharing his experience with those around him and picking up solid results in races like Nokere Koerse, as he and the team look to build together for the coming years.
Not from a competitive cycling family as such, Fabio was always into sports when he was younger and tried his hand at football, skiing, karate and swimming to name a few but cycling was always a passion of his. Racing his bike up and down the street against his friends and neighbours, he started to take the sport more seriously and from around the age of 12 or 13 he only rode his bike.
“From when I could ride a bike I always wanted to go fast. I don’t have much fear on the bike.”
A fan of being outside and the speed of the sport in general, Fabio also enjoys how you can explore lots of different places and the freedom that cycling brings as “outside is free”. He jokes that as a youngster he did some speed skating and “got bored of going left”, so cyclocross, mountain bike and then road were his passions from therein.
Despite his talkative and relaxed manner, there a driven individual behind the friendly smile and that is evident when Fabio talks about his love for competition, because he “hates losing”. Although he does admit that he has learned how to be graceful in defeat, it is that passion and willingness for it not to happen again that drives him.
“If you really want to win then you put in a lot of work and that’s what I’ve done over the past decade. To be a sprinter as well, you must be willing to go all-in to be the first one at the line and finish it off for your teammates. I think you need to have a certain type of mindset.”