How did your student loan run out? On a purchase of a new laptop or phone? Amidst a shopping spree, of the clothes, not the book kind? Or were you one of the wilder ones, maxing it out before you’d caught the Freshers Week-induced cough? Frank van den Broek trumps all, at least from a cycling standpoint. “The maximum loan I could get each month was €800, and if you hadn’t loaned anything for four months, you could go back and get it in one go,” the Dutchman says, his smile getting ever bigger as his anecdote reaches its climax. “At one point, I thought: fuck, I really need a TT bike! So I took out the maximum loan I could, and it paid for my time trial bike.” Given that he’s now finished second in a stage of the Tour de France, it’s safe to assume he’s paid his student loan back, right? “Oh no, the interest is low!” Recent British university alumni can only dream of such a reality.
Van den Broek – yes, a very cycling name, but zero connection to the late Belgian star – has been on quite a journey in the past few years. A student of software engineering in his native Holland, he competed in the amateur circles alongside his studies and only started riding for a third-tier Continental team in 2023, aged 22. Immediately, he caught the attention of others, and DSM-Firmenich picked him up in mid-summer for their development team, forcing him to pause the last part of his studies. “I was still interested in school but I wasn’t going to class much,” he says. Things not just accelerated but turbocharged even more, and within a year, he had won a stage and the GC at the Tour of Turkey, and crossed the line of the opening stage of the Tour de France along with teammate Romain Bardet. A dizzying, whirlwind rise from a broke student to the biggest stage of all.
“It’s crazy how far I’ve come,” the recently-turned 24-year-old tells Rouleur on the eve of the 2025 season, only his second pro campaign. “I took some time recently to clean up my room at my parents’ house – it was a big mess. There were leaders jerseys from the Tour [he led the points classification for a day], jerseys from Turkey, medals, and other stuff for finishing races. A lot of stuff. A lot’s happened.”
In an era where 18-year-olds are a pro in all but name, Van den Broek’s experience is a throwback to yesteryear. “After high school, I had a job at a flower auction,” he says. He was raised in Voorhout, renowned for its tulip fields. “I’d work there in the early morning and then go out for training in the afternoon.” So he’s a dab hand at floristry? “Oh no, you don’t need to know much about flowers,” he laughs. “It’s based on numbers. You’re told by the computer where each crate is, and with the car, you have to move them.” Either way, not many other pros used to spend their mornings surrounded by petals.
“I think it was an advantage,” he says of his unconventional route to the pro ranks. “I was free to do whatever I wanted, figure myself out, and not be a machine like maybe some of the kids coming through the development teams. I coached myself and loved that – it gave me freedom and flexibility. And I think my training history, load and racing throughout the year is what helped me adapt to being a pro quickly.”
But no one predicted what would happen in Rimini in late June last year, on day one of the Tour. “That was the race I executed to almost perfection,” he says. “The feeling I had in my legs that day, how I conserved energy once I got in the break, and then being the only one still there afterwards when Romain joined. The stars aligned. Even seconds before, I wasn’t sure if Romain was able to come through, but he did. I was just so bombarded by the massiveness of the Tour that I didn’t have much time to think about what we did.”
Van den Broek is expected to return to the Tour this summer, and he’ll do so with more of an understanding of what type of rider he is. “I don’t see myself riding for GC – I see myself more as a domestique for Oscar [Onley] and Max [Poole]. A major ambition of mine is winning a race this year. You look at the stats, and not so many riders won a race last year. My ceiling is winning Grand Tour stages and in smaller WorldTour stage races. I won races last year like Turkey – OK, the start field was not the best, but races like Luxembourg, these types of stage races, that’s where I can do well.”
Whatever the future trajectory, the hobby DJ and former part-time florist who relied on student loans not for his living expenses but for his cycling equipment has another side hustle to focus on as he progresses through the sport. “I went from 5,000 to 75,000 followers on Instagram during the Tour,” he says. “But it has started declining a bit. I need to have a think about what I can do!”
