The Debrief #1 - Lars Quaedvlieg's podium in Visegrad 4 Kerekparverseny (1.2)

Hi all!

Quick promo and sneak peak of the first article of a new page on Grassdune: The Debrief. 👇🏻

Welcome to The Debrief, a new series on Grassdune. Every edition reconstructs one remarkable activity through the athlete’s FIT file, performance data and personal reflections. As you read along, you can explore Lars’ complete activity yourself at the bottom of this post, including the power file, lap data and graphs discussed throughout this article.

For this first edition, Lars Quaedvlieg was kind enough to share his complete race file and answer a couple of questions about his podium finish in Visegrád 4 Kerékpárverseny (UCI 1.2).

Most cycling fans know (kind of) how hard it is to race at the Tour de France. But many underestimate the level just below the WorldTour.

UCI 1.2 races don’t make many headlines, but don’t let that fool you. These races are seriously hard. Continental teams chasing UCI points. Young riders hoping to earn a professional contract. And some teams that simply love racing bikes and everything that comes with it.

Universe Cycling Team belongs to that last category. Rather than following the traditional Continental calendar, they travel wherever the racing takes them, hence the name Universe. They race because they love racing. Different countries, different cultures, different races. Performances matter, of course, but so does the adventure.
Their Instagram (@universe_ct) captures that spirit. Not polished sponsor content, but the kind of cycling that reminds you why many of us fell in love with the sport in the first place.

In this Debrief we’ll reconstruct Lars’ race from start to finish. Using his activity data, race metrics and his own reflections, we’ll break down what it really took to stand on the podium alongside Luca Cretti and Alessandro Verre, yes, the same Alessandro Verre who finished second on the Finestre stage of the 2025 Giro d’Italia.

So, what does it actually take to share the podium with a rider of that calibre?
Let’s find out.

The race at a glance
Before diving into the data, it’s worth understanding the challenge Lars was up against. The Visegrád 4 Kerékpárverseny startlist consisted of 1 UCI ProTeam (MBH Bank Ballan CSB Telecom), 10 Continental teams and 13 club teams.

The course itself offered little room for recovery. Riders first completed seven laps of a larger circuit, before finishing with two shorter finishing laps. Both circuits included the race’s defining moment: a 1-kilometre climb averaging 9.7%, meaning the climb had to be done nine times throughout the day.

After 3 hours, 52 minutes and 5 seconds of racing, the podium looked like this:
🥇 Luca Cretti MBH Bank Ballan CSB Telecom
🥈 Alessandro Verre MBH Bank Ballan CSB Telecom (+16s)
🥉 Lars Quaedvlieg Universe Cycling Team (")
Behind them followed another MBH rider, Márton Dina, just one second later, underlining the dominance of the Italian ProTeam throughout the race.

So what did it take to be on the podium with a rider like Alessandro Verre?
First thing I noticed: 205 watts average?! That can’t be right… For context, Lars weighs 63 kg. 205 watts doesn’t scream “podium in a UCI race.”

Then I noticed the normalized power: 70 watts higher. That immediately tells you this wasn’t one long threshold effort. This was a race of constant braking, accelerating, recovering, attacking and hanging on for dear life. And that’s exactly how Lars described it...

CONTINUE READING 👇🏻
The Debrief: https://www.grassdune.com/@the-debrief