Lars Bak has accepted the position of assistant sport director for the team formerly known as Dimension Data and will join the NTT Pro Cycling management staff in 2020. The Dane spent the last season of his long racing career with Dimension Data before retiring in October at the Paris-Tours.

"I am really happy that everything has worked out for me to take on this new challenge in my life, but now I have to quickly switch from thinking as a rider to thinking as a sport director," Bak said in a statement released by NTT Pro Cycling He said in a statement. [Of course, it's a big change and everything will be new for me. Everything is new, so I'm effectively going back to being a practitioner."

Bak will work with NTT's sports director, compatriot and former Saxo Bank director sportif Lars Mikkelsen. He said, "The important thing is that back then Lars Bak was always constructive, thinking about how to tackle the next day's race from the team's point of view.

Bak will begin his new role at the team's training camp in Oliva, Spain, but the 2020 race program has not yet been finalized.

"For me, I would like to start with a few small races, but before that, next week will be a learning process to plan everything relevant with all my colleagues and learn the protocols as a director," Bak said.

Bak spent 20 seasons as a professional racer, 17 of them at the World Tour level with CSC (later Saxo Bank), HTC Colombia, Lotto Soudal, and Dimension Data. 2005 Tour de Lavenir, 2012 Giro d'Italia, and a stage win at the Sestrie Levante.

NTT's new 2020 squad includes Victor Kampenaerts and Max Valscheidt, while Edvald Boasson Hagen, Michal Valgren, and Giacomo Nizzolo remain with the team. Mark Cavendish has moved to Bahrain McLaren, and performance director Rolf Aldag has parted company with the team.