Adrien Garel chose the year, day, date and time of the end of his career. “As much as I did not choose to end my career with the pros (end of 2020, Editor’s note)as much as I chose to end my amateur career“, comments for DirectVelo the member of Team Bricquebec Cotentin. Until the end he remained competitive and placed 3rd in his last race, the Souvenir René-Lochet in Saint-Méen-le-Grand (see ranking). On the line, he raised his fist. “I’m happy to finish on a podium, at home in front of the family. I’ve been sick for two weeks, at the Challenge Océane I had everyone on the wheel. I am the last runner from the club to run this weekend, I also wanted to thank them“.
Now, time for retraining and Adrien Garel has a very precise idea of what he wants to do. “I want to be a sports director on a women’s pro team. This is something I’ve wanted to do since I got the DE in 2017. This is not a default choice, I am passionate about this positionhe insists. I learn about how to coach, psychology, etc. Afterwards you need a little luck, a place that becomes available, a team that trusts“.
“I HOPE A CLUB CAN GIVE ME A CHANCE”
The former European Scratch Champion is still without a position for 2025. “I hope to find N1 to gain experience. I had good contacts with Côtes d’Armor… I hope a club can give me a chance. When I am told that I have no experience to be a DS among the pro girls, I still have ten years of experience, including three with the pros, namely running, strategy“. The former winner of the Grand Prix de Saint-Hilaire recognizes his shortcomings. “I still have to learn about managing a team, a staff, but everyone has learned it, I’m not stupider than the others, I did my studies in that, that should go“.
The 28-year-old runner waits “a response from a team for a DS position. If I don’t have a position by December 1st, I will have to go to work but I will remain open to sessional positions, I do not despair“, he announces. But like all young people on the job market, he must prove himself. “I understand that we ask for experience but I won’t spend four or five years struggling if they don’t give me a position among the women. I have a wife, and a house to pay for“. In Saint-Méen, late Sunday afternoon, all his loved ones, even Justin Mottier who came from Laval, were there to see him hang up in good spirits. But above all not turn his back on the bike.
