Merijn Zeeman: Team Visma Lease-a-Bike sporting director to step down at end of season to join AZ Alkmaar
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Updated 03/04/2024 at 16:43 GMT
Merijn Zeeman is to step down as Team Visma Lease-a-Bike's sporting director at the end of the 2024 cycling season to take on a new role as Chief Executive Officer at AZ Alkmaar, who play in the top tier of professional Dutch football. Zeeman will leave his role at Team Visma Lease-a-Bike after almost 14 years with the team who he has helped rebuild after a doping scandal in 2012.
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Team Visma Lease-a-Bike's sporting director Merijn Zeeman will leave at the end of the season to become CEO at Dutch football club AZ Alkmaar.
Zeeman has been at Team Visma Lease-a-Bike for almost 13 years and has helped rebuild the team after a doping scandal forced the team to rebrand in 2012.
During Zeeman’s tenure, the team has enjoyed great success in Grand Tours with Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Sepp Kuss all picking up victories.
Zeeman is also believed to have been instrumental in the transition of Wout van Aert from cyclocross to becoming a leading figure in Classics and one-day events.
In 2014, it was known as Belkin, before becoming LottoNL-Jumbo, Jumbo-Visma, and now Team Visma Lease-a-Bike.
"This is a difficult decision, which I also take with pain in my heart," Zeeman said in an official statement.
"Precisely because I have this great organisation so close to my heart. We have come a long way and together we have made sure that we have become one of the most successful teams in recent years.
"I am incredibly proud of that. Our culture with our people and our innovative approach has created an amazing development in which we were able to write history together, with the success in 2023 as the absolute highlight.
"Team Visma Lease-a-Bike is my family, which I have lovingly put my heart and soul into for 13 years. But I also believe that it is good for everyone's development to look for new challenges and stimuli over time.
"Continuing my career at football club AZ is my next step and I dare to take that step because I leave our strong professional organisation, led by my good friend Richard Plugge, in the capable hands of my colleagues. But first we want to write history together, also in 2024."
Team manager Plugge hints there could be a managerial restructure at the team when Zeeman departs for his new role which begins on December 1.
Plugge said: "Merijn's departure hurts on the one hand, but at the same time we have great confidence in our organisation, which is solid as a rock. In the coming months we will clarify how our organisation will be further structured towards the future and, as always, we will start internally.
"Of course we will also do everything together to make 2024 a successful year. We are now looking forward to that even more."
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