Human Powered Health announced that it had appointed Ro De Jonckere as the team's new General Manager beginning in 2023.
De Jonckere, from Belgium, is currently the only female general manager in a men’s WorldTour or ProSeries team and is one of several female general managers at the women’s elite level in the sport.
Cycling is a part of her family life. Her father was the marketing director for Domo-Frites. De Jonckere said she started out in professional cycling as an office manager for the QuickStep programmes, where she had spent most of her career before becoming Head of Logistics at Team Qhubeka.
"I had no clue about cycling. I couldn’t tell you the difference between a front and a back wheel, but you grow into it very quickly. I studied languages, and back then, if you didn’t speak Spanish or Italian, it was very hard to work in the sport," she said of her first years in the sport.
She also noted the development and professionalism in cycling over the last twenty years.
"The sport has become bigger and more professional. When I started out at QuickStep, we had a general manager, an accountant and me.
"Also, at races, you didn’t have a lot of staff, but I have seen the progression, and how roles have been added, so the teams have become so much more professional and more international."
She has spent five seasons with Human Powered Health in its various title sponsors and has been promoted from European Operations Manager to General Manager next season.
Last year, she joined the women's team at the Tour de France Femmes and acknowledged the change in women's cycling and how many top-tier teams have both men's and women's rosters.
"I’ve been in Paris for the Tour almost every year since I started working, but this year was very special as it was with our women’s team. It’s an amazing platform to create a love for women’s cycling," she said.
"Now we have all the big teams starting women’s squads which is so exciting for the evolution of the sport. For me, it’s nice to have a women’s team. I try to go to the races now and then to see the staff, and I visited many of the women’s races because it was new to me.
"A big evolution will come in the next few years, it’s growing very fast, but you can see that there are still some differences in the professionalism between genders. Four years from now, we will see more growth and have a much broader field of female cyclists."
The UCI announced the list of teams who have applied for WorldTeam, Women's WorldTeam and ProTeam licenses for the coming season. Human Powered Health, who have a current Women's WorldTeam and men's ProTeam, were not listed on the press release by the UCI, but the team told Cyclingnews that this is due to a delay in their application.
