Roy reveals how retirement plans went awry

17 October 2018 03:40
Sylvain Chavanel wasn't the only French breakaway specialist who retired after the Chrono des Nations on Sunday. Groupama-FDJ's Jérémy Roy also hung up his cleats after the French time trial in Les Herbiers – although he was supposed to have retired the previous weekend after Paris-Tours. In an interview with L'Equipe on Tuesday, Roy explained how his season was extended beyond Paris-Tours in order to help cover injuries on the team, although just a few weeks before he was due to retire, even Paris-Tours – Roy's 'home race' – wasn't on his programme. "Three weeks ago, the Groupama-FDJ sports directors met up to work out the end-of-season race programme," Roy told L'Equipe. "A lot of riders were motivated and on form, and the team staff had already started thinking about the 2019 season.ADVERTISEMENT "It mean that I was left a little sidelined. I wasn't going to be doing Paris-Tours, near where I live, and I wasn't going to be doing Il Lombardia with Thibaut," explained Roy. Roy's great friend, Thibaut Pinot, is also the teammate that Roy raced most with during his career, the French newspaper points out: 392 race days together since Pinot joined Roy's FDJ team in 2010. "That's more race days than I've done with Benoît Vaugrenard, who I've been on the team with for 16 years," said Roy. You can read more at Cyclingnews.com.read full article

Source: Cycling News