Who?

Aike Visbeek, Dutch roots, Swedish life. 

What about him?

Aike Visbeek joined the team as Academy Manager ahead of the 2020 season. After a very successful career as a Performance Coach and Sports Director at Team DSM, he felt that he wanted to make another step and work on the development of tomorrow’s stars. He took the role in the midst of an expansion phase of the team, but he had to face the most difficult season of all as the Covid-19 pandemic sent all the plans back to the drawing board in early 2020. 

How did he perform?

With the situation that he was thrown at, he fought hard to keep all the partners involved and the riders engaged in during a time that bike racing was not on. The Academy led a transformation to Esports, temporarily changing its name to SEG eRacing Academy and creating ground-breaking esports action for U19 and U23 riders as well as looking for the next U23 talent worldwide with the Tacx Climbing Challenge. Once road racing was back on, the team was back to winning ways in Ronde de l’Isard, Giro d’Italia U23 and the Czech Tour. 

What was next after the Academy?

With the success that he had at the Academy as a team leader together with his successful background in the sport, many pro teams kept an eye on his next steps. However, the timing was right for Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert, as they were looking for an experienced professional with forwarding ideas to be able to transform the team and improve its structure to WorldTour level as the team was getting promoted to the top division of the sport. The results speak for itself and in two years at the Belgian team, Aike has been one of the key factors to bring to time to stage wins in the Giro d’Italia and La Vuelta a España in consecutive years as well as in one-day classics like Gent-Wevelgem.