Classics specialist, domestique, road captain? How Kim Heiduk wants to establish himself at Ineos

A contract year can be nerve-wracking. Especially if you are a young driver in this situation for the first time. The future is unclear, at some point your career may even be in doubt and the pressure mounts. However, Kim Heiduk only knows such phases from hearsay. "I was told relatively early on by the team that we would talk about a new contract after the classics. And then it was sealed early on," says Heiduk. Halfway through the year, it was clear that Heiduk would continue with Ineos Grenadiers. The 23-year-old has thus reached a new stage in his career: the two rookie years are over, now he has to continue to take shape as a rider.

The previous year gave encouraging signs of what can be achieved - both for Heiduk and for his team. On the one hand, there were the bare results: Heiduk came seventh in the smaller Italian one-day race Sampre Alfredo at the start of the season, he finished tenth in the Arrow of Brabant - and in the summer he sprinted to third place at the start of the Tour of Austria. On the other hand, his standing in the team has risen visibly: From Milan-San Remo to the Amstel Gold Race, Heiduk was part of the Ineos line-up at every major classic and impressed in the helper role. Later in the year, the team also nominated him for his first Grand Tour at the Vuelta a Espana.

Via Lotto Kern-Haus to the professionals at Ineos Grenadiers

"As we are a Grand Tour team and always have ambitions, it's difficult to get a place at all. Just getting onto the Vuelta team is a victory in itself," says Christian Knees, sporting director at Ineos, who himself rode for the team for ten years until 2020. Although the Vuelta as a whole was sobering from a team perspective due to a lack of results, Heiduk pulled through the three weeks as a helper, finishing his first Grand Tour in 139th place - a milestone for any young rider. "That takes a rider's basic substance to another level," says Knees and adds: "Kim is hungry and wants to win races, but he puts his ambitions on the back burner when it's better for the team. He has accepted this role. That puts you in a good position in terms of character in such a big team."

Knees is Heiduk's personal point of contact in the team and was instrumental in signing him two years ago. Florian Monreal, team boss of the Continental team Lotto Kern-Haus, for whom Heiduk was riding, was the man who tipped him off. He advertised for his protégé, whom Knees had only known in passing up to that point. He was impressed, sent all the relevant data to the decision-makers at Ineos - and there was indeed interest.

Heiduk then visited Knees in Rheinbach, the two of them went for a drive, drank coffee and chatted. Shortly afterwards, Heiduk signed a professional contract. What Knees liked about the native of Herrenberg was that Heiduk was not yet a finished rider, was not a high-flyer in the juniors and had also completed a vocational training programme. "Nowadays, there is an extreme level of professionalism in the juniors. They already train like the pros, with altitude training camps. However, this also has the disadvantage that some juniors are already pretty exhausted," says Knees. In Heiduk's case, however, Knees still recognised some "headroom", as he calls it, in other words room for development in order to encourage and challenge a rider.

New world for Kim Heiduk in the Ineos starting line-up

Nevertheless, the leap from a Continental team to one of the most successful and financially strongest teams in cycling was huge. "You can't put that into perspective at all, it's a completely different house number," says Heiduk. This applied not only to the working methods and support, but also to the prominent names with whom he was now sitting in the same room - Geraint Thomas, Luke Rowe, Filippo Ganna and Thomas Pidcock. "It doesn't feel real at first," says Heiduk, "before you're super far away from them and only know them from TV, and then you're racing with them. I had a lot of respect at first. But now it's different, you've become team-mates."

Heiduk has now had two years to learn in the professional camp and has got a feel for which professional races he feels comfortable in, where he can develop his strengths, but also what doesn't suit him. In the junior ranks, he was particularly convincing as a sprinter, but in the professional ranks he rules out focussing on mass arrivals. "I don't fancy building up this mass and then trying to get into every sprint," he says. Too one-dimensional. Heiduk wants to be more versatile: Keep the sprint strength, but paired with a robustness for more selective terrain.

Good experiences at the Amstel Giold Race and in Flanders

Last year's Amstel Gold Race, for example, was "really fun" for him, and "I also really like cobblestones". So the Flemish classics, plus the Ardennes races with less elevation gain such as the Arrow of Brabant or the Amstel Gold Race, that could be his thing. But Heiduk still wants to keep his options open. "Being a leader in the classics and one-day races and a helper in the Grand Tours would be a good mix. But I'm not yet at the level where I'm specialising in this or that type of race," he says.

Knees, his sporting director, also believes he can take on the role of road captain in the future. "The way he moves around the field, he's already at the level of a 30-year-old. He is someone who can read the race and will eventually have the standing to announce tactics to the team," says Knees. When it comes to Heiduk's strengths, however, he agrees with his protégé. "Kim can definitely become a great domestique. But of course you also want to be successful yourself. He is fast and climbs well. He can be successful from smaller groups. I definitely believe he can win a classic and stages in a tour. He has a good package."

Knees closely followed Heiduk's development in the first two years. In the first season in particular, there were constant online meetings with him and the coaches, as well as almost daily dialogue. "As sporting director, we try to teach the young riders a lot. Debriefings after the races, for example, are very important to show them what went well and what didn't go so well. It's all these little things to get the development on track," says Knees. And performance targets were defined together. The target from the previous year: participation in a Grand Tour. "However, the place in the Vuelta was not clear from the start, he had to work for it," says Knees. The new goal for the 2024 season: the first professional victory.

Meanwhile, Heiduk quickly noticed his progress in performance from his first to second year as a professional in 2023, not only in terms of his general physical condition, but also in the way he recovered during and after races: he finished all of the Flemish classics despite the helper service, and he also coped much better with more demanding mountain stages in his first World Tour stage races such as the Tour de Suisse. "I'm getting stronger and stronger and I still don't feel like I've reached my limit," says Heiduk. "I knew that I was never one of the best in the juniors in my first year, not even in the U23. I always needed some time. So I knew that it would be the same with the pros."

Heiduk's goal for 2024: his first professional victory

However, the 2023 season ended with a broken hand, which he suffered at the European Championships in Assen. This subsequently turned out to be more complicated than initially assumed, but everything is now back to normal, Heiduk assures us. He made his season debut at the Tour of the Algarve, finishing eighth in the opening sprint finish.

His season highlight, however, is the Flemish classics. Heiduk has also marked his name for the German Championship. And another start in a Grand Tour is also on the cards. "The steps I took last year, but also this winter, give me a lot of confidence," says Heiduk. In addition to good development, something presentable should also emerge in 2024. "I want to win my first race. I don't care which one, the main thing is to win one. You have to start somewhere."