The 2024 French elite and amateur road cycling championships will take place in the South Channel, around Saint-Martin-de-Landelles, near Avranches, from Thursday June 20 to Sunday June 23, 2024. A historic event, the Channel hosting the event for the first time. A dream, too, for the most promising young riders in France, who will compete during the amateur event, Friday June 21, 2024. But to find a place among the best hopes of cycling and knock on the door of The professional world demands greater and greater sacrifices. And some explode in mid-air. This was the case for Parisian Théo Nonnez. French junior champion in 2016, the former Groupama-FDJ Continental rider, now 24 years old, was one of the greatest promises in French cycling. Until this Wednesday, December 23, 2020, when his body said stop, in the middle of training, cut down by burnout. Théo confides in West France on his journey, this day when all his dreams of pro cycling collapsed, and on his construction of a new life, far from racing.
“I stopped, and I couldn’t get going again and I was crying”
What happened on December 23, 2020?
I go to train like every day, without being too motivated, which happens from time to time. And, after a while, complete breakdown. The body takes over the mind: I stopped, and I couldn’t get going again and I cried. The straw that broke the camel’s back, the expression of complete fed up. That’s when I understood that I was going to stop professional cycling. I continued to run for a few more months, but not for long. That day, on my bike, I understood and accepted that I was no longer happy to make a living from cycling. A click.
At that time, was cycling non-stop?
I started cycling at 14 years old, and each season I took a new step in my training, qualitatively and quantitatively. As well as the side effects: eating by bike, sleeping by bike, living by bike, not going out… Everything that characterizes the life of a high-level athlete, when I was a teenager. The sacrifices piled up and I wondered when I could have some free time, just enjoy life. I still have quite a few contacts and friends in high-level cycling, always passionate, who enjoy each training ride. I have always been a competitor, I can’t say that training made me enjoy it, and it had become a constraint, then a profession….
