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Nathan van Hooydonck on Primoz Roglic's departure from Jumbo-Visma: "It is a serious loss for the team"
CyclingMonday, 27 November 2023 at 10:57
The 2024 season is set to start and teams are on their final preparations before their first team training camps. Jumbo-Visma included, they have the presence of Nathan van Hooydonck but the Belgian has mixed feelings about his return in such an environment.
"Returning to the peloton is too dangerous. It's very nice to see everyone again, but also very confrontational and painful. It's always about next year. No one hears it, but I hear it. Then they say: riders have started training again, next month the riders will go on an training camp. But I'm not anymore," van Hooydonck told the Rode Lantaarn podcast. "There are a lot of people who come to me and show understanding for the situation. And how I understood it is that if I ask Merijn Zeeman next year if I can become a DS, he would still want to give me the chance. So it's a nice team."
Van Hooydonck suffered a heart attack in September, he was then given an internal defibrillator (ICD) and been diagnosed with a heart muscle anomaly. This condition made it impossible for the 28-year old to return to the sport at the highest level. He has since recovered and is back on the bike however with a different mindset of that in the past. He looks to continue connected with the team and perhaps behind the wheel, but any decisions are still being considered.
"I think they want to give me these opportunities because I have always done everything for the team. I really saw it as my team. More than other teams. That was all about winning together," he continues. "That's not something the marketing department made up, that's really something we stand for. There are a lot of people who don't believe that, but it is true. We do it together. I get the same treatment and facilities as Wout [van Aert] and Jonas [Vingegaard]."
Asked about the team's most notable transfer, the departure of Primoz Roglic, van Hooydonck comments: "I wouldn't call it a loss, but it is a serious loss for the team. He's also going to a good team! Primoz is one of the best riders in the world. At Arkèa Samsic he would not have been competition for Jonas, they cannot facilitate him. But BORA-hansgrohe is a good team with a good coaching staff."
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- I counted 16 riders under 24 out of 43 that started. Once was only 16 ! Two of the top riders are Zoe and Schreiber and both under 23 yet that have done 50 min races in the past with the elites so I think it's just bad clock management. Let them race 50 freakin' minutes! One more lap could have made a big dffierence most times in the podium and winner.frieders319-11-2024
- He needs to finish out his contract and then go hit MTB and Cross/Gravel really hard, that's where his heart is.awp18-11-2024
- Pidcock is starting to sound like Froome now.Sweep18-11-2024
- I think this was because there were junior women in the race. If a race has junior women am pretty sure it has to be less than 45 minutes. I believe a rule is coming in for next season that will fine organisers that don't put on a junior women's race a fine equivalent to the prize money. So fingers crossed we should see more longer elite and junior women's races from next season.NorrisHippocampe18-11-2024
- Of course he CAN. Big salary in cycling is not when you win but when they talk about you (and your team / sponsors). For every news about Jonas, MVdP or Wout there are 10 times more(!) news about Pidcock (like everyday for last 2 months?). Since cycling is advertising sport not competitive sport (in terms of from money comes from) Pidcock is winner and GOAT - change my mind. ;-)averagecyclist18-11-2024
- Why do the women CXs keep getting short changed with the length of theor races? They could have easily done another lap to put them at 50 minutes which is their time limit. Yet another CX race where they fail to reach this when they had a chance to. Come on ... the math isn't that hard to figure out lap times and divide into 50 min!frieders318-11-2024
- All pro cyclists are massively underpaid! The amount of riding and physical exertion they put their bodies through is crazy compared to other sports. I can't think of any other sport where you are physically active at a very high level of power output for hours on end each day.Pogboom17-11-2024
- When I was working for Starkist/Heinz my manager quit. So the next week my group was put under another manager. During our first meeting he asked if there was anything we needed to tell him. I said that I would be out the following week on vacation. He said "I don't know if I can let you go on vacation". I replied, "You can't tell if I can go. You can only tell me if I can come back".Sweep17-11-2024
- :-)Sweep17-11-2024
- What a mess there :-)
DareDevil17-11-2024