Dieter Stein knows what great talents in German cycling look like at a young age. Many of the best have passed through his hands or his junior team at the Berlin TSC. He has coached and moulded Erik Zabel, Jens Voigt, Andreas Klöden and Simon Geschke. Even at almost 70 years of age, the Berliner has not yet had enough of promoting talent - even if the job is getting harder or it is becoming more difficult to find great talent in the first place. The influx from the legacy of successful GDR cycling has dried up - the career path does not lead via early scouting and the children's and youth sports schools (KJS). Nowadays, talents have to discover themselves. Sponsors need patience. Recently, Dieter Stein's work has once again paid off, you could say - even if the really big talents will soon be moving on from his Stevens youth team. The apprenticeship period is getting shorter, the work with young talent more and more professional.
Niklas Behrens' last stopover with Dieter Stein was in 2023. "It's a little pearl," says the team boss, recalling his first impressions of the collaboration back then. The pearl now shimmers in the colours of the rainbow. Last autumn, 21-year-old Behrens from Bremen managed to win the World Championship title in the U23 class - only the second German to do so after Gerald Ciolek in 2006. And small - that's one thing: at 1.95 metres tall, Behrens is unusually large for a road cyclist. Not a handful of professionals in the World Tour are taller. But it wasn't just his height that made the young man stand out; insiders were aware of his talent - even before winning the title in Zurich, he had already received a contract offer from one of the biggest professional racing teams: Visma | Lease a Bike from the Netherlands.
Niklas Behrens: At the side of the Tour de France winner
In the new season, he is now riding as a real professional cyclist for the first time and in the same jersey as Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard or classics specialist Wout van Aert. "It's a different world to a devo team. It's a job now," reports Behrens about a stopover on the way to his first races as a professional in Oman. He previously raced for the Devo team, Lidl-Trek's junior racing team. Nowadays, almost all top teams have such a substructure in order to provide early and professional support for talented youngsters. He is "a little nervous", says the U23 world champion ahead of his first professional race and sets modest goals: "In the World Tour bunch ('Bunch' is another word for peloton) arrive, gain experience." The great freedom of the junior years could be over for now. "You have clear roles in the World Tour," he quickly learnt. In Oman, he will be an important part of the sprint train of his strong Dutch team-mate Olav Kooij. His personal goal is now 1500 to 1000 metres before the finish line - after that he is no longer needed, he can coast. Others are now responsible for the tangible success. For the time being at least.
"In the team, they want to make me better over the years, bring me up slowly," says the professional rookie. But the apprentice Behrens should not be underestimated - he learns quickly. He is a high-flyer in cycling, both in Germany and internationally. "He could become a great one day," says Stein, not referring to his height. "He's a diamond in the rough. He has heart and soul. He's passionate about road cycling," adds Stein - and it sounds like he's raving. "Nothing is too difficult for him," the long-time cycling sponsor has observed - not even the World Championship course in Zurich, which seemed more suitable for lightweight climbers than for Behrens, who weighs around 80 kilograms.
U23 World Champion in Zurich
If he sees a chance of success, then he will go for it - just like in Zurich, when nobody thought the German was one of the favourites. The competitors must have been sure that sooner or later they would leave the German behind on one of the long and often steep climbs. But Behrens held on. Right to the end. And then he outsprinted everyone, the Slovakian Martin Svrček in the sprint on the final straight. Unlike his rival from Team Soudal Quick-Step, the rider in the BDR jersey had no experience in the highest racing series, the World Tour, but still had fresh memories of how he had lost out to Dutchman Huub Artz in a similar situation at the European Road Championships shortly before.
Cycling is my job now. At Team Visma | Lease a Bike, they want to slowly introduce me to the World Tour and make me better over the years. - Niklas Behrens
"Everyone was grey - and I got stuck on the last climb. I was then only travelling with climbers," he later reported on the World Championship race. Deep in the lactate, the German had the best perspective in this race and probably the biggest bite after the disappointment of second place at the European Championships. Mum Yvonne Mielke-Behrens called her Niklas a "daredevil" in the "Weser Kurier" - her two-year-older offspring Timo is more reserved. The older brother is currently trying his hand at a professional career with the Alpecin - Deceuninck junior team - the younger brother has practically overtaken him on the right. Presumably also because of his boldness. But that's not all that characterises Behrens. Good riding technique, a fine tactical sense, great speed, a willingness to learn, fighting spirit and will - and also the necessary sprint power to not only keep up with the best, but also outpace them. It was indeed impressive how Behrens won the title - on a track that did not suit him, against strong competition, at a moment when most observers had written him off, he started and drove away. "I was dreaming of the rainbow jersey," he said later at the finish.
Niklas Behrens: Talent plus willpower
But he made the dream come true with a lot of willpower. That sets him apart from other talents who dream for too long. His physiognomy, his way of organising races, his bite - it all reminds some observers of Mathieu van der Poel. And the newcomer, who has made his way to the top of the world so unchecked, with very little run-up, will soon feel the burden of such comparisons. The next challenge in his career will be to live up to expectations. Visma's talent scouts had already seen enough before the World Championship race and made him a contract offer. The potential is huge, says Head of Sport Grischa Niermann: "He hasn't been racing for long, which means there is still plenty of room for development. We know that he is strong and very willing to learn. And we love his enthusiasm, he fits in very well with us." The plan at the start of the year was to send the new pro to high-calibre one-day races such as Gent-Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix in his first year.
Triumph and tragedy
The young man has also experienced how close triumph and tragedy can be. When he crossed the finish line as U23 world champion, he noticed the unusual silence at Sechseläutenplatz on Lake Zurich. There were no victory fanfares, no national anthem at the award ceremony. What he only learnt at the finish line was that the news had made the rounds shortly beforehand, that the 18-year-old Swiss racing driver Muriel Furrer had died as a result of injuries sustained in a fall the previous day - crashed on the same track where Behrens had just won. "It sucks when something like that happens - it still happens far too often. You can see from the photos that I wasn't really happy," he says looking back. We wish Niklas Behrens another big victory soon, which he can then celebrate happily and exuberantly.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
