Tour de France 2023: the secrets of Tony Gallopin on his divorce from Marion Rousse

While participating in his last Tour de France, before ending his career next October, Tony Gallopin returned to his relationship and his divorce with Marion Rousse, in an interview with L’Equipe.

Tony Gallopin comes to the end of the road. Currently present on the Tour de France, the French rider (35) will end his career and hang up his bike next October after Paris-Tours (October 8). He will then turn the page of 16 years as a professional. As he turned the page on his relationship with his former companion Marion Rousse, who shared his life for more than ten years, between 2008 and 2019.

A complicated ending

The couple met in 2008 before getting married six years later. He was living happy days, but the relationship was much more publicized, especially during the 2014 Tour de France when Tony Gallopin put on the yellow jersey and won a stage. Champion of France in 2012, Marion Rousse was present on this Grande Boucle as a hostess, and their story had thus become much more exposed after a kiss exchanged on the finish line. What was not necessarily “obvious” to live.

And in 2019, Tony Gallopin and Marion Rousse decided to divorce. Four years later, the Lidl-Trek team cyclist has “no regrets” and has fond memories. “There have been some very good things. Marion (Rousse) was there in the good times. From a very young age, we have experienced incredible things, ”he told L’Equipe. Even if the end of their adventure was complicated. “It didn’t end in the best way and it’s part of the things in life, which we all live,” he added. And this period was not easy to manage both privately and professionally. “There were two fractures in the same year, falls, then the Covid. It was a difficult turning point in my career,” he conceded.

Since their breakup, Marion Rousse, who ended her career in 2015 at just 24 years old and became director of the Tour de France women as well as a commentator on France Télévisions, has been in a relationship with Julian Alaphilippe. Together, they had their first child born in June 2021 and named Nino.