Recently retired Anna van der Breggen has completed the UCI's Sport Director Course in order to become the Sport Director of SD Worx in 2022.

Van der Breggen will join SD Worx next season as DS, where she has been for the past five years as a rider.

After finishing his last professional race at the World Championships in September, van der Breggen took a week-long training course at the UCI headquarters in Switzerland in November.

"I'm actually busier this time of year than I was as an athlete," he said. 'But I didn't want to take a long break. I'm excited about this new job and wanted to get started right away."

"I've been working on my new job for a few months now.

Before officially retiring in September, van der Breggen had already made the transition to directing, driving a Simac Tour stage in the SD Walks team car and shadowing DS Danny Stam in the first Paris-Roubaix Fam.

Introduced in 2009, the annual UCI course is aimed at existing sport directors of world or professional teams and covers topics such as team management, rider safety, technical regulations, anti-doping, UCI governance, and judicial bodies. 1 week of study will conclude with an exam.

Van der Breggen was one of 84 participants in this year's sport director course, 13 of whom were women.

In 2015, the UCI introduced scholarships to encourage more women to take the course.

"It was very good," Van der Breggen said. 'As an athlete you don't know all the rules. You don't have to know them. I gained a lot more knowledge by attending this course. It was also great to meet so many sport directors from both the men's and women's teams."

Van der Breggen will officially begin his role as sports director this month when he joins the SD Worx team for their winter training camp.

"I'll bring my bike to training camp, and if I get tired I can jump in the car," he said. I think it will be a relief, especially when I have to get back on the bike and go over and over again."