Directeur sportif

Last updated

A directeur sportif (French for sporting director, although the original French term is often used in English-language media; plural directeurs sportifs) is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is seen as the equivalent to a field manager in baseball, or a head coach in football. At professional level, a directeur sportif follows the team in a car and communicates with riders, personnel and race officials by radio.

The directeur sportif warns of obstacles or challenging terrain, updates the team on the situation in the race, and provides mechanical help. The car carrying the directeur sportif also usually carries a bicycle mechanic with spare bikes, wheels and parts. It also carries spare water bottles, food and medical equipment.

Since the late 1990s, the role has increased, in keeping with better team cohesion, tactics and communication and telemetry equipment. The directeur sportif can have split times, find where riders from other teams are in the race, and dictate orders to riders. This has made teamwork and tactics more important.

A directeur sportif can also be involved in the riders' training and racing programme. Many are former professionals, such as Johan Bruyneel and Sean Yates.

Gord Fraser described his role as directeur sportif as follows: [1]

Probably the first thing is that I’m the person who has to come up with a tactical plan at the races that will maximize the potential of the team. I’m also a motivator. I have to have a good eye for talent. I have to have recruitment skills. I have to be good with media and sponsors. And it’s best if I’m not a reckless driver since I spend so much time driving in close proximity to people riding bikes. But really, it all goes back to having the right plan in place, and coming up with a good set of options, then making sure those scenarios are communicated to the riders so they can execute that strategy during the race.

Several directeurs sportifs are also associated with famous riders whom they have nurtured. Patrick Lefevere with Johan Museeuw and Tom Boonen, Cyrille Guimard's relationship with Lucien Van Impe, Bernard Hinault, and later Laurent Fignon as well as a young Greg LeMond prior to his Tour victories; Jean de Gribaldy with Sean Kelly and Joaquim Agostinho; and Bruyneel with Lance Armstrong are examples. Others include Guillaume “Lomme” Driessens who was a Directeur for Eddy Merckx and Roger Legeay who directed LeMond during his win in the 1990 Tour de France.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg LeMond</span> American racing cyclist

Gregory James LeMond is an American former professional road racing cyclist, entrepreneur, and anti-doping advocate. A two-time winner of the Road Race World Championship and a three-time winner of the Tour de France. LeMond is the only American male to win the Tour de France and is considered by many to be the greatest American cyclist of all time, one of the great all-round cyclists of the modern era, and an icon of the sport's globalisation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Individual time trial</span> Road bicycle race time trial for an individual

An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock. There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes, and team time trials (TTT). ITTs are also referred to as "the race of truth", as winning depends only on each rider's strength and endurance, and not on help provided by teammates and others riding ahead and creating a slipstream. Individual time trial are usually held on flat or rolling terrain, although sometimes they are held up a mountain road. Sometimes the opening stage of a stage race is a very short individual time trial called a prologue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard Thévenet</span> French cyclist

Bernard Thévenet is a retired professional cyclist. His sporting career began with ACBB Paris. He is twice a winner of the Tour de France and known for ending the reign of five-times Tour champion Eddy Merckx, though both feats are tarnished by Thévenet's later admission of steroids use during his career. He also won the Dauphiné Libéré in 1975 and 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astana Qazaqstan Team</span> Kazakh cycling team

Astana Qazaqstan Team is a professional road bicycle racing team sponsored by the Samruk-Kazyna, a coalition of state-owned companies from Kazakhstan and named after its capital city Astana. Astana attained UCI ProTeam status in its inaugural year, 2007. Following a major doping scandal involving Kazakh rider Alexander Vinokourov, team management was terminated and new management brought in for the 2008 season. The team was then managed by Johan Bruyneel, former team manager of U.S. Postal/Discovery Channel team. Under Bruyneel the ethical nature of the team did not improve, although Astana in this period was very successful. With a lineup including Grand Tour winner Alberto Contador, as well as runner-up Andreas Klöden the results were there, however the team was on the verge of financial collapse in May 2009. A battle for control of the team led to the return of Vinokourov for the 2009 Vuelta a España caused Bruyneel and at least fourteen of its riders to leave at the end of the 2009 season, most for Team RadioShack. Only four Spanish riders, including Contador, and most of the Kazakhs remained with the rebuilt team for 2010. Those four Spaniards all left the team for Saxo Bank–SunGard in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cycling team</span> Organizational unit consisting of cyclists and supporting personnel

A cycling team is a group of cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle races whether amateur or professional – and the supporting personnel. Cycling teams are most important in road bicycle racing, which is a team sport, but collaboration between team members is also important in track cycling and cyclo-cross.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sean Kelly (cyclist)</span> Irish cyclist

John James 'Sean' Kelly is an Irish former professional road bicycle racer, one of the most successful road cyclists of the 1980s, and one of the finest Classics riders of all time. From becoming a professional in 1977 until his retirement in 1994, he won 193 professional races, including nine Monument Classics, Paris–Nice a record seven years consecutively and the first UCI Road World Cup in 1989. Kelly won one Grand Tour, the 1988 Vuelta a España, and four green jerseys in the Tour de France. He achieved multiple victories in the Giro di Lombardia, Milan–San Remo, Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, as well as three runners-up placings in the only Monument he failed to win, the Tour of Flanders. Other victories include the Grand Prix des Nations and stage races, the Critérium International, Tour de Suisse, Tour of the Basque Country and Volta a Catalunya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyrille Guimard</span> French cyclist and commentator

Cyrille Guimard is a French former professional road racing cyclist who became a directeur sportif and television commentator. Three of his riders, Bernard Hinault, Laurent Fignon, and Lucien Van Impe, won the Tour de France. Another of his protégés, Greg LeMond, described him as "the best (coach) in the world" and "the best coach I ever had". He has been described by cycling journalist William Fotheringham as the greatest directeur sportif in the history of the Tour.

Jonathan "Jacques" or "Jock" Boyer is a former professional cyclist who, in 1981, became the first American to participate in the Tour de France. In November 2002, Boyer was convicted after pleading guilty to seven counts of child molestation and three counts of genital penetration of an 11-year-old girl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johan Bruyneel</span> Directeur sportif and former road bicycle racer

Johan Bruyneel is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer and a former directeur sportif for UCI ProTour team RadioShack–Nissan, and U.S. Postal Service, a US-based UCI ProTour cycling team. On 25 October 2018, the World Anti Doping Agency imposed a lifetime ban on Bruyneel for his role in a doping scandal that also saw Lance Armstrong stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

The 7-Eleven Cycling Team, later the Motorola Cycling Team, was a professional cycling team founded in the U.S. in 1981 by Jim Ochowicz, a former U.S. Olympic cyclist. The team lasted 16 years, under the sponsorship of 7-Eleven through 1990 and then Motorola from 1990 through 1996. From 1989 to 1996 it rode on Eddy Merckx bikes.

La Vie Claire was a professional road bicycle racing team named after its chief sponsor La Vie Claire, a chain of health food stores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glossary of cycling</span> Bicycling terminology guide

This is a glossary of terms and jargon used in cycling, mountain biking, and cycle sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean de Gribaldy</span> French cyclist

Jean de Gribaldy was a French road cyclist and directeur sportif. He rode in the Tour de France in 1947 and 1948.

Marcel Tinazzi is a former French professional road bicycle racer of Italian parents. He was the cousin of an Italian professional cyclist Giorgio Tinazzi. He was a professional cyclist from 1977 until 1986. It was the famous and successful directeur sportif Jean de Gribaldy who offered Tinazzi his first professional contract in 1977 for the French squad of the Belgian team Flandria-Velda. The highlight of his career came in his first year as a professional, in 1977, when he won the national championships road race in France after a late attack inside the final kilometre. He spent most of his career with Jean de Gribaldy and was a teammate of Sean Kelly. He also won the old Classic race Bordeaux–Paris in 1982. Tinazzi now owns a cycling clothing company that is based in Italy called MS TINA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peugeot (cycling team)</span> French professional cycling team (1901–1986)

Peugeot team was a French professional cycling team that promoted and rode Peugeot racing bikes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Système U (cycling team)</span>

Système U was a French professional cycling team that existed from 1986 to 1988 and which cycled on and promoted Gitane racing bikes. In 1989 the team was renamed Super U–Raleigh–Fiat and rode Raleigh bicycles. Super U being a chain of supermarkets owned by the Système U group.

The Sem–Loire France cycling team was a French professional cycling team that existed for four years from 1980 to 1983. Although a small team, directeur sportif Jean de Gribaldy directed the team to success in various classic races and in stage races such as Paris–Nice and the Tour de France as well as the French championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Caput</span> French cyclist (1921–1985)

Louis Caput was a French professional racing cyclist and then team manager. He was born in Saint-Maur-des-Fosses, and won Paris–Tours in 1948, and two stages of the Tour de France. He was national champion in 1946.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Team RadioShack</span> American bicycle racing team (2010–2011)

Team RadioShack was a professional road bicycle racing team, with RadioShack as the title sponsor, the creation of which was announced on July 23, 2009. Lance Armstrong co-owned and led the team, which raced in the Grand Tours and the UCI ProTour. The team was managed by Capital Sports and Entertainment, an Austin, Texas sports and event management group that also manages the Trek-Livestrong U23 development cycling team and that ran the former Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.

Miko–de Gribaldy was a Belgian professional cycling team that existed from 1974 to 1976. The directeur sportif was former professional rider Jean de Gribaldy, who gave his name to the team. For the final year and a half of its history, its main sponsor was French ice cream manufacturer Miko, whose part-owner, Louis Ortiz, was a friend of de Gribaldy. Its most notable victory was the 1974 Liège–Bastogne–Liège with Georges Pintens.

References

  1. Sumner, Jason (21 February 2012). "At the Wheel, and Still in the Race". Bicycling . Retrieved 28 September 2016.