Nathan Van Hooydonck has been appointed Sporting Director of Team Visma | Lease a Bike with immediate effect, completing an unusual return to the sporting side of the team three years after his racing career was brought to a sudden end.
The Belgian will lead the team’s Sport Management Team and take responsibility for the overall sporting direction of the organisation. Team Visma | Lease a Bike confirmed the appointment in its announcement on Monday.
The role is broader than the traditional image of a sporting director working from the team car. Van Hooydonck will oversee the team’s key sporting objectives, help set the long-term direction and work across the different performance, racing, development and strategy departments.
Van Hooydonck moves from the business team back into sport
Van Hooydonck remained closely connected to the organisation after being forced to retire in September 2023. He initially returned to races through the team’s hospitality programme before joining the commercial department in 2024, a move that gave him experience of the organisation away from racing.
His new position brings him back into the sporting structure, but with a remit that extends well beyond his previous life as a rider. He will lead a Sport Management Team that includes Marc Reef as Head of Racing, Mathieu Heijboer as Head of Performance, Robbert de Groot as Head of Development, Patrick Broe as Head of Strategy and CEO Richard Plugge.
That structure means Van Hooydonck is effectively being asked to connect the different sporting departments rather than replace the specialists already responsible for racing, performance and development.
Plugge said the decision followed a review of what the Sporting Director role now requires inside the organisation. The team wanted someone with knowledge of professional cycling, a strong connection to its culture and the ability to work across departments.
Van Hooydonck said returning to the sporting side felt “very special”, adding that his period in the business team had helped him understand how the wider organisation fits together.
A key rider in Visma’s rise before his forced retirement
Van Hooydonck raced for the team from 2021 to 2023 and became one of its most trusted domestiques in both the Classics and Grand Tours. He played an important supporting role in Jonas Vingegaard’s Tour de France victories and was also part of the wider structure that helped Primož Roglič win the Vuelta a España.
His strongest individual result came with second at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in 2023, but his value to the team was more often seen in the work done before the finale, particularly alongside Wout van Aert in the spring Classics.
That career ended unexpectedly in September 2023 after Van Hooydonck suffered a cardiac incident while driving. Tests identified a heart muscle anomaly and he was fitted with an internal defibrillator, making a return to professional racing impossible. ProCyclingUK covered his adjustment to the diagnosis later that year when Van Hooydonck discussed the unanswered questions around the condition.
Visma promote from within again
The appointment continues Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s preference for developing people inside its own structure. Van Hooydonck has gone from rider to hospitality work, then into the commercial department and now into one of the most senior sporting positions in the organisation.
It is also a significant step for a former rider who is still only 30. Rather than moving directly from the peloton into a conventional directeur sportif role, he has spent three years seeing the team from different sides before returning to sport with responsibility for how those areas are connected.
His immediate task will be to help align the team’s racing, performance and development programmes around the same objectives. For a structure that now runs men’s WorldTour, women’s WorldTour and development programmes, that coordination has become increasingly important.
Van Hooydonck described the aim in simple terms: winning, while making sure the organisation continues to move in the same direction. His appointment gives Team Visma | Lease a Bike a Sporting Director who already knows the team as a rider and employee, but who now returns with responsibility for the decisions that shape its sporting future.
