Master servant Esmée Peperkamp released from painful injury: “Opportunities in smaller stage races”

It really bothered Esmée Peperkamp: a persistent buttock injury prevented her from getting the most out of her possibilities. However, after a surgical procedure, 26-year-old Didamse was freed from this, she said CyclingFlits. And so Peperkamp can become of great value to the women’s branch of DSM-firmenich PostNL: “During the most important stage races I ride for Juliette Labous, but I get opportunities to ride for myself in smaller stage races.”

It’s still okay during one-day races, but the longer the multi-day races become, the more it hurts. “At the beginning of last season I finished fourth in the queen stage of the UAE Tour. That was a day where it didn’t bother me. Great to be able to stay there for so long with Gaia Realini and Elisa Longo Borghini. But during the Tour, for example, it really bothered me.”

In the queen stage of the Tour de France Femmes, a stage with the Col d’Aspin and the Col du Tourmalet, she is ridden within ten minutes by winner Demi Vollering. Despite the pain, Peperkamp supports Juliette Labous as best she can, as she had already done in the Giro and the Vuelta. In the Giro, this even resulted in second place for the French classification leader in the final classification. In that stage race, Peperkamp herself finished a creditable fifteenth, while in the Vuelta, her first ‘grand tour’, she was classified sixteenth overall.

Even though she can serve the team well – Peperkamp has also played her part in several of Charlotte Kool’s successes – it is clear that something has to be done. She already had a good saddle, as well as an improved position in which she could complete most training sessions, but that did not solve the problem. So under the knife. Through the team she ends up in Brussels, where several drivers have already been helped with this problem.

After the successful operation in November, Peperkamp can quickly complete some training again, but cycling is not an option for some time. “I’ve been back on my bike for about two weeks now. I was able to do strength training for that, as well as riding the Elliptigo (a kind of cross between a bicycle and a cross trainer on which you don’t have to sit on a saddle, ed.). But I notice that I am a lot less advanced compared to last year. That means I will be really good a little later in the year.”

Higher level
Pain-free cycling is a utopia in cycling, but constantly riding around with saddle pain is not necessarily something that makes you happier. For that reason alone, the intervention was desperately needed for Peperkamp. “Also to ultimately be able to grow to a higher level, and that is the plan. I hope that I can cycle at the top of my abilities many more times this year. During the most important stage races — Tour, Giro and Vuelta — I ride for Juliette Labous, but I get opportunities to ride for myself in smaller stage races.”

“That is one of the reasons why I want to work more on time trialling again. That hasn’t really happened in recent years, but I always find it very nice. Top 5 at the National Time Trial Championships? That could be a good goal. And if I might want to ride a good classification in the Tour in the future, it would of course also be useful to be able to ride a time trial…”

A classification in the Tour is still in the future for the time being. First let’s race with a lot less pain. “It remains to be seen what my program will be this season, but I think it would be nice to ride the UAE Tour again. I had a good time there with the team last year and that was another opportunity that the team gave me.”

“Of course I hope to participate in the Tour de France again, especially because we will also ride through the Netherlands in the first days and we of course have a good chance of getting yellow there with Charlotte. But apart from Charlotte and Juliette, no one is yet certain of a place in the selection.”

Annemiek van Vleuten
Peperkamp’s route to the highest level in cycling is one that is strongly reminiscent of that of Annemiek van Vleuten (“an example”). Like ADVERTISEMENT she switched from football to cycling during her Bachelor’s degree in Science. She first got on a racing bike six years ago. After many trips back and forth to and from Nijmegen, she soon found that things were going so well that she decided to participate in competitions.

As a member of the Nijmegen student cycling association Mercurius, she won the Student Cup in 2018, after which she managed to get into the spotlight at De Jonge Renner with Iwan Spekenbrink’s selection corps. Peperkamp will be announced as a new recruit at the end of 2020. And it turns out to be a fruitful collaboration, because the Gelderland rider manages to go even further every year. We will continue to see her in the uniform of DSM-firmenich PostNL until the end of 2025.