Human Powered Health signed eight riders in September to bolster its men’s ProTeam roster, including WorldTour talents Gijs Van Hoecke from AG2R Citroën Team and Barnabás Peák of Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux.
The duo will be critical for one-day races and serve to support new sprinters Sasha Weemaes, who moves from Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise, and Stanisław Aniołkowski, most recently with Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB. The team added Norwegian Embret Svestad-Bårdseng of Team Coop and a pair of Canadians, Benjamin Perry, who raced in 2021 with Astana-Premier Tech, and Charles-Étienne Chrétien, who races with HPH this past year as a stagiaire.
“I’m here to put the train on the rails,” Van Hoecke said in a team statement. “I have experience in the sprint train having worked with Dylan Groenewegen in the past so this is what I love to do.
“The sprint train will be the most important thing, but on Human Powered Health I will get a chance to ride for myself in the other races and this is what I like about this team. Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Le Samyn and Nokere Koerse are the races I really like and those are the ones where I really want to show what I’m capable of, but also guide the young guys in those races.”
The 30-year-old Belgian begins his 12th pro season next year, half of that time with three WorldTour teams. In the last two years at AG2R Citroën, he trained and provided the lead out for 2016 road Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet. Van Hoecke himself is a 2012 Olympian from the track and at UCI Track World Championships that year won a gold medal in the Madison.
“It’s not easy if you don’t come from Flanders and you have to learn it all by yourself, so I think I can help the young guys,” Van Hoecke explained. “It’s like we are born with it, there are races that go past every town you live. In other countries you have football, but in Belgium you have cycling. You live with it.”
Peák, just 23 years old, made his Grand Tour debut at the 2022 Giro d’Italia to support top 10 finishes for Intermarché teammates Jan Hirt and Domenico Pozzovivo. Weemaes, 24, races the past four and half seasons with the Spot Vlaanderen programme, highlighted with a trio of top fives at the Tour de Hongrie and a pair of podiums in one-day races, Trofeo Playa de Palma and Dorpenomloop Ruchpen.
Perry was fourth on GC at the Tour of Britain this year riding for a British Continental team, WIV SunGod. Compatriot Chrétien, just 23, raced a full schedule with HPH…
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