Maarten Ducrot

About Maarten Ducrot

Maarten Ducrot is a former professional cyclist and commentator at NOS for, among others, the Tour de France. He has also been active as an organizational consultant since 1992, currently as an independent entrepreneur and runs a consulting firm. He studied Organizational Psychology at the University of Utrecht, with a minor in business economics. In addition to this main focus, he has delved into sports psychology. This is due to a career as a professional cyclist and an interest in the effective functioning of individuals in organizational and team contexts. In 1982, he became world champion in the team time trial. In 1985, he began his professional career with Jan Raas’s team and ended his cycling career in 1991.

He started working as an organizational consultant and, together with a number of like-minded individuals, established a consulting firm. Maarten Ducrot became the successor to co-commentator Erik Breukink at NOS Studio Sport in 2004 and made his debut on April 4, 2004, as a reporter for the Tour of Flanders. In his commentary, Ducrot creates the illusion that he finished yesterday and not 16 years ago. Change management is Ducrot’s specialty.

Vision & Approach

“Just ride, because that’s what you’re paid for.” This statement is a striking reflection of how Maarten Ducrot tries to motivate cyclists. This is also how riders are made into domestiques in cycling. However, domestiques perform less than free individuals. “Mustism” (doing something because you have to, and not because you chose to) is detrimental to top performance, and therefore, in all his projects, the desired change is translated into visibly different behavior among people and measurable results for the organization. To achieve this, every role needed is filled: advisor to managers, trainer of employees, temporary manager, organizational analyst, ‘on-the-job’ coach.

Nature of the Presentation

Maarten Ducrot is a speaker who shares a lot from his own sports experiences. However, the anecdotes from sports are used to illustrate the story that is relevant to the audience and are not the actual subject. It is about the content and the message to the audience, rather than entertaining ‘clown behavior’. Experience shows that the story requires at least 30 minutes due to questions from the audience. Ideally, it is 60 minutes. If desired, this can be extended or adapted with ‘workshop’-like elements where the audience needs to be more active.