Jos van Emden was not given an easy task at Visma | Lease a Bike ladies: "My job is to bring them in line with the men's team"

Jos van Emden did not completely disappear from the peloton after hanging up his racing bike, taking on a role of sports director at women's Team Visma | Lease a Bike. And the Dutchman's goal is no less than to ut the ladies' team on the same level as their male teammates, who are considered the best team in the world.

"We want to approach things much more professionally from this year onwards," Van Emden unveils ambitious plans speaking to Rouleur. "That's the job I was assigned, to bring them in line with the men's team. I was given no guidelines, they just said that we want the same approach for the women's team as for the men's team."

"I guess they think that after so many years it's second nature to me to act in a certain style and in a certain way. I can't say exactly what they did last year because I wasn't with the team, but of course you hear things that they did differently and to be honest it was even lower than amateur level: racing without good plans during the race or at all for the entire year. All these little things add up to a big step back in professionalism."

"It has always been one close-knit organization," Van Emden continues. "All the knowledge that was in the men's team is also there for the women's team. But they didn't use it. That's the main reason why the old staff left. We had some fights in the team, where the women said they weren't being treated the same and that they felt neglected. I explained that was the previous staff's fault."