Yorick Bos: A Different Perspective

Revolution 14 saw the Junior Development squads from France, Germany and the Netherlands travel to the United Kingdom to take on the British youngsters. One of the riders from the Netherlands was a promising young sprinter called Yorick Bos, the younger brother of Patrick.

Yorick got into cycling at an early age, the same way most young riders develop a fascination with the sport, through watching the Tour de France. Witnessing the achievements of countryman Michael Boogerd in 1998 made him want to follow in his footsteps and ride the Tour de France. So when he reached the age of ten he joined WTC de Amstel (Amstel CTC) and set about making his dream come true.

Apart from his brother Patrick who is also on the Dutch team, Yorick’s family do not have a cycling background.

“Unfortunately I don’t have many ‘non-cycling’ friends who are interested in my cycling performances, so I never can talk with them about cycling.

“But happily I have two other cyclists in my school, and with one of them I compete in the National Madison Championships with.”

“And also my family like my grandparents aren’t the biggest cycling fans, and they never come to watch me cycling. I have just one uncle who is a cycling fan and he sometimes come to watch track cycling. But, of course, when Patrick and myself perform something good they are very proud, so that’s a nice thing.”

It goes without saying that the system that British Cycling have is world class, so having travelled to the UK, I was intrigued to find out what Yorick thought of our setup in comparison to the Dutch cycling system.

Britain's Steve Hill v Bos in the Junior Interland Competition

“I have to say, that I’m a bit jealous on the British setup. I know the reasons why the KNWU don’t want to do the same as the British, and I truly agree with that. It isn’t that we have less talent than the faster British sprinters, but I think the reason is because of the good British setup.”

“But the reason why I’m a bit jealous is because of the stories I heard, the things I saw in Manchester during Revolution 14 and because of the things I read on British Cycling. I think the British setup for juniors is much more professional than the Dutch way.”

“This is why the Netherlands never have Junior riders like Jason Kenny. And that’s also why Dutch sprinters need more time to improve. But is that a bad thing? I don’t think so! I’d rather be an average Junior Sprinter and in 10 years time a Champion, than a Champion and in 10 years stopped cycling! A ‘good’ example is Ahmed Lopez. A champion as a Junior, and stopped cycling some years later, although he had a comeback at the WC in LA.”


Yorick has to combine his training with his life as a student and finds it hard to manage his education and cycling commitments.

“Most of the days I found it hard to combine school and cycling. Last year I did my VMBO-T diploma, but I decided to go a level higher and do the HAVO. Some classes are tough, so it’s hard to choose between training or studying for a test.”

Training hard at the Gym

“Especially in the winter, when it’s dark early, so you can’t go for a ride in the evening. On a normal week I go to the gym on Monday. On that day I’m ready at 15.30, and hour later I’m in the gym, for about 2 hours.”

“Happily I have the same gym coach as Theo Bos, my brother Patrick and the other track sprinters, so I know I’m doing the right things for a 16-year old, and not too much weights.

“On Tuesday I have to ride on the road for about 1.5 hours, in the summer it can go up to almost 3 hours when I have road races. Mostly I’m doing the same course when training, with standing starts and sprints at a small gear.”

“Wednesday is my rest day. Thursday is the second day in the gym. On Friday is my weekly track cycling ride, on the Amsterdam’s Track Cycling School. This training is about 1 hour and is only during winter season”

“With about 25 riders we do standard training, like taking laps and stuff, and at the end a small race. In the weekends a second rest day or two 2 hours sessions on the road. I'm also doing 2 or 3 roller sessions a week, on different days”.

“It's good to see that with not much training effort because of school, I can perform well. So I know for the future when my training effort will be much bigger, I probably can make big steps forward”.

On target to reach the top

It is impossible not to notice that Yorick shares the same surname as the Netherlands’ World Champion Theo Bos, but they are in fact no relation. However Yorick has access to the same resources that allowed Theo to become so successful. If you add in the fact that Yorick’s older brother is also on the Dutch squad then the experience that surrounds him can only help his cycling improve.


“Patrick is one of the two track sprinters behind T3: Tim Veldt, Teun Mulder and Theo Bos. This is also the reason why he never went to World Cups. In 2005 he competed at the Junior World Championships, and the World Cup in Moscow.”

“Last summer he went to Athens for the European Championships. Because Patrick can train with the fastest track cyclist in the world Theo Bos, and other great riders like Mulder and Veldt, who is at the same club as Patrick and I, he can give that experience to me. In January 2006 my personal best was 12.34 on the 200. January 2006 was also the month when I first started to do sprint training on the track with help from Patrick. 2 months later in March, just before my sixteenth birthday, I suddenly did 11.86!”

Theo Bos is obviously somebody that Yorick admires in cycling, although his inspiration to become a tracksprinter has to be Maximillian Levy.

“It’s almost impossible not to admire Theo and it’s a fantastic honour to train with him, he’s a very nice guy and a true sprint fan.”

“He takes an interest in my training and always has time to sit and chat about his time as a Junior. It’s rare in Holland for a Junior rider to want to become a Sprinter and Theo thinks its fantastic that I have chosen to follow in his footsteps, and helps me out anyway he can”

Yorick in the Team Sprint with brother Patrick and Tim Veldt

“Iit’s also fun to see how hard he’s going. Not so long ago on a training he went into the track for a 200 metre, and I tried to follow him. When he was still making speed high in the track, I already lost his wheel. Patrick clocked me in a time low in the 11 seconds, and still I was metres behind Theo, unbelievable how fast he can go. But some day I hope I can go just as fast as he can!

“But there’s another person who I think is a great track cyclist. In 2005 I went to Vienna to watch Patrick ride on the Junior World Championship. There I saw a German track cyclist, who did 10.1 seconds! It was Maximilian Levy. The way he wins races is unbelievable and he is one of the main reasons why I decided to become a track sprinter.”

2007 is a big year for Yorick as he aims to become National Champion for the first time. In last year’s championships he came very close to doing this, with second place in the Sprint, third in the Keirin and sixth in the Kilo. However in 2007 he aims to get the gold medal.

Training with brother Patrick at Home

“Michael Vingerling and I are definitely the two best junior sprinters, although Jaime van der Lugt is coming closer and closer.”

“But on an international level I hope I can go to the World and European Championships. I think it’s almost certain that I will go to Cottbus for the European Championships, but I’m trying to go faster and faster so I can go to Mexico, for the World Championships. I hope I can do my first sub 11.

Not many people know that Yorick used to be a road rider and lists one of his proudest achievement as a victory in a hilly road race despite being a pure sprinter.



“I’m a terrible climber, but I can power up short climbs, and this one race it worked out fantastic and I powered up the climb to the victory”

“On the track I think it’s the victory of the 3 laps Scratch (600 Metre) on the Interland in Sloten (Amsterdam). In qualification I started in position 1, and when I started to sprint no one came even close. Steve Hill sat in my wheel, but he had no chance that race. In the finals I made an attack, and I won whit a big difference! That victory looked a lot like the way Theo won the Keirin last year at the World Championships. But the best thing what ever happened to me in cycling, was definitely Revolution 14! What a crowd! What a noise they made! I was used to have 50 quit people, not more then 3000 people yelling! I really hope I can return very soon for another great Revolution! I wish we had this here in the Netherlands…”

When Yorick was younger he always wanted to join the army, however unlike the British Cycling setup, the Dutch Juniors have to fund their cycling career through employment and are unable to dedicate their entire lives to cycling.

“I wish we had something like the Olympic Academy, so I don’t have to worry about education and employment. Then not only would I have support throughout my career I could retire and do something like Jan van Eijden is doing now in Britain with coaching”

At the Netherlands' National Championships

Even though the Dutch team don’t have an equivalent of the UKSI bikes, Yorick still has an excellent equipment setup.

“I really like my bike. It's a Fort. I saw the Fort bikes for the first time by the Junior World Championships 2005 in Vienna. I contacted the dealer in the Netherlands and they were interested in sponsoring me. It’s a good looking bike, and also very stiff. I had one of the first Fort bikes in the Netherlands, and now there are more and more bikes on the road.”

“Since last summer I also have a Fort road bike. Patrick and I also found an sponsor called Pointbike who is sponsoring us Casco Warp and Ares helmets, and also Tifosi sport glasses. The first race I did with the helmets were at the TRI Nations Cup in South-Africa. And with a Warp on your head you somehow feel much more confident

Yorick (right) and brother Patrick (left) inspect their new Casco Warp helmets

“I really like the old outfit from the Netherlands, where the Juniors still riding in. But it’s a shame we have to give the clothes back after every race. So I have no clothes of the Netherlands, but I hope I will get something soon with the new outfit. The new outfit, almost totally orange, I don’t like that so much, but it’s ok because no one else does either!.”


Pictures from: www.freewebs.com/yorickbos