As a very promising young athlete, Rico Bogen joined the Kú Next Gen program in January 2022, as he believed this was the right program for him to build the next phase of his athletic career. In April 2022 Rico picked up his personal Kú TF1 in Almere and took part in a Kú Aero camp to help him achieve the perfect fit on his new TF1 and find as much aerodynamic gain as possible. Over the months that followed Rico went from strength to strength as an athlete.

By November 2022 Rico decided to focus more on the middle-distance triathlon (as opposed to the short course distance) and his coach Roland Knoll advised him to select a coach that was better suited for this type of racing. In November 2022 Rico took the decision to work with Jo Spindler as his coach.

Jo Spindler is an ex-professional athlete and member of the former TEAMTBB professional triathlon team. For the past 15 years Jo has been an accomplished age group and professional athlete coach and can often be found as a consultant to Kú Cycle at the Kú Aero Camps.

Since coming together, Rico, Jo and Alex have worked closely to develop a unique project with Rico as the athlete, Jo Spindler as coach and with Alex as the athlete manager.  Kú Cycle co-founder and Technical Director Richard McAinsh has an ideal young professional athlete to test technical upgrades of the Kú TF1 helping to continuously improve athlete performance. As a former Formula 1 engineer at Ferrari, Richard knows the importance of product testing with the best possible athletes available. Rico has provided feedback that has helped Kú Cycle achieve product improvements.

In April this year Rico participated in a second Kú aero camp before embarking on his 2023 race season and to learn how he would stack up against his peers in a real race environment.  

From a 14^th position and fastest bike split at the ITU Long course World Championship in Ibiza in May 2023, to his first professional win at the Ironman 70.3 Kraichgau in the same month, a 6^th position at Ironman 70.3 Luxembourg to the 2023 Ironman 70.3 World Championship held in Lahti, Finland on 27^th August 2023. An incredible journey till date!

“Sometimes good things come fast”, and Rico certainly proved this statement to be true by becoming the youngest Ironman 70.3 world champion till date. The future looks bright and Kú management look forward to achieving many more successes together with Rico and his coach!