Team Visma – Lease a Bike’s new Service Course in The Netherlands houses all the bicycles, coaches and equipment the team’s top cyclists need to be among the best in the world. Heras helped the international top sports team to secure their premises while maintaining an open atmosphere.
Heras secured the Team Visma – Lease a Bike premises with an 18-metre-long sliding gate, barriers, sustainably produced fencing and swing gates. With these, Team Visma – Lease a Bike keeps unauthorized people out, meets strict insurance requirements and is able to give visitors a warm welcome.
Team Visma – Lease a Bike is the international top sports team, with a professional cycling and skating team. Both cyclists and skaters perform at top level, continuously competing for the most prestigious awards. Since November 2021, the team’s headquarters, the so-called Service Course, has been in a new building in Den Bosch. “We are extremely proud of it,” says Richard Plugge, General Manager at Team Visma – Lease a Bike. “There is a beautiful office to do our work and we have a beautiful environment where we can receive fans and visitors. The most important part of the Service Course is the shed and workshop. There we are constantly working on the more than 250 bikes of our athletes. We also store all our coaches and other materials there, waiting for the next race.”
All those bikes, coaches and materials together are invaluable. “Of course they are expensive, but for us the value is more in the sporting field: without all these things our athletes cannot perform,” says Plugge. “It is therefore very important that all our resources remain secure and that no unauthorized person can access them. This starts with good security on our grounds.”
– Richard Plugge, Managing Director, Team Visma – Lease a Bike
To be able to build the branch in Den Bosch, Team Visma – Lease a Bike looked for all kinds of partners to help them. “For the exterior security we turned to Heras”, says Marcel Kruithof, Manager Service Course at Team Visma – Lease a Bike. “Together we went through our wishes thoroughly in a few meetings. It was important to us that everything was as secure as possible, but that we could still continue to do our work. We also wanted the front of the building to remain open, so that fans and visitors feel welcome.”
Another spearhead for Team Visma – Lease a Bike was securing five large overhead doors leading to the workshop. Kruithof: “These rolling doors give direct access to our workshop, so nobody can just walk in there. But at the same time, you want to keep the workshop easily accessible for employees. So Heras had to find a suitable solution for this.”
Together with the parties involved, Heras looked for the best way to secure the site. “The insurer set all kinds of stringent requirements for site security,” continues Kruithof. “Ideally, they would like to see a meter-high fence around our premises, but that would be at the expense of our open appearance. Fortunately, Heras was fully up to date with all the insurance requirements, so they knew exactly how to meet our wishes and satisfy the insurer at the same time. This quickly resulted in a concrete security plan.”
The Team Visma – Lease a Bike site is now equipped with swing gates, barriers and sustainably produced low fencing on the visitor side. A single sliding gate with a free passage of about 18 meters protects the overhead doors. The workshop also has interior security. “It took a while for the sliding gate to arrive,” explains Managing Director Plugge. “Heras told me that this is the longest sliding gate they supply and that it had to come from France. Now there is an impressive gate that protects our crucial workshop and warehouse from unauthorized persons.”
Both Plugge and Manager Service Course Kruithof are positive about the cooperation with Heras. “We are very satisfied with Heras as a partner,” says Kruithof. “The communication is pleasant and our materials are safe, which is what it’s all about in the end. Heras also continues to think along with us. For example, now that we have been working in the building for a while, it appears that employees are using different walking routes from the car park than those indicated in the blueprint. That’s why Heras suggested installing additional walkways to make it easier for our mechanics to access the workshop.
Managing Director Richard Plugge adds: “We are experts in cycling and skating and we strive for top performances every day,” he says. “We must be able to concentrate fully on that. We therefore prefer to work with partners who also have a top-class sports mentality and who ensure that we can keep our focus on the sport. Heras is such a partner. They have proven themselves as experts in site security. So we couldn’t wish for a better partner in security.”