SOMETHING FRESH with DAN HESPELER

SOMETHING FRESH

English - July 01, 2020 13:00 - 1 hour - 53.8 MB
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Previous Episode: #5 Johann Potgieter: Professional downhill mountain biker, coach & business man.

Next Episode: #6 John Wakefield: A coach at the top of his game in the cycling and motocross world talks to us about what it takes to be at the cutting edge or performance.

Cannondale is without doubt a global icon of the cycling world! From sponsoring Division 1 road racing teams in the late 1990s (team Saeco) to the current world renowned Cannondale Factory Racing team, they have essentially done it all!

How do some brands manage to build such a strong legacy? Through smart people who are fiercely passionate about what they do!

Introducing Dan Hespeler!

Dan has always enjoyed competitive sports! He was a ski racer turned bicycle racer by the age 14. He made the national German team in cyclocross and mountain biking from 16 to 23 years of age. Dan went on to compete in international road, cyclocross and mountain bike races till 25 years of age. Sadly a “career ending” knee injury from ski accident meant that Dan had to explore other opportunities.

In terms of his professional career, Dan has a University degree in Economics specialising in Sports Marketing and Energy Supply Management. He has worked as a professional race mechanic at a mountain bike world Cup level with Team T Mobile. He then moved across to working for Cannondale where he has been for the last 15 years filling various roles for the Cycling Sports Group (Cannondale's holding company)

Dan is the current Global Senior Sports Marketing Manager of mountain biking and is also the Team Manager for Cannondale Factory Racing.

When asked what is career highlights are, he noted them as follows:

Making my dream come true to work in professional sports and have an influence to it.Running the longest lasting racing program inside Cannondale from day 1. Creating his dream team in 2010 with Fumic and Fontana, a marketing mega machine with lots of racing success.Transferring the mega marketing machine into a performance machine, while still being relevant media wise.All the wins on paper and also the ones against ourselves not on paper over these years… world champions, world cup winners… across disciplines.

In this EP of SOMETHING FRESH, we talk to Dan about his journey, the highs, the lows, the team, managing the corporate aspect of the team, what he looks for in an athlete and how he has managed to bring together a collective of talented, focused and motivated people to form one of the strongest mountain biking assets in history!

Enjoy!