News – Ovett Junior Switches to Cyclesport

2015_Primera_Banner_Feb

Son of British Olympic hero Steve Ovett, Freddy, switches from running to cycling and signs for Ag2R-La Mondiale’s development squad

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

News – Ovett Junior Switches to Cyclesport

Son of British Olympic hero Steve Ovett, Freddy, switches from running to cycling and signs for Ag2R-La Mondiale’s development squad.

FreddyOvettFreddy, 21, graduated from the Victorian Institute of Sport’s cycling program and instead of going with the AIS development programme, the former runner will race with Ag2R-La Mondiale’s development squad.

A knee injury put paid to Freddy’s running career in the US but has quickly got up to speed on the bike.

Right: Freddy Ovett: Photo – Chambéry Cyclisme Formation

According to VIS coach Dave Sanders, the Scottish-born and Noosa-raised cyclist is a special talent and he told the Adelaide Advertiser in Australia .

“He has a big motor and more than anything else he has the desire,” Sanders said. “He was very keen, and very green mind you and he won’t mind me saying that, so he’s got to learn how about style and how to race. The European racing will suit him a lot better than the Australian racing because his talent will really shine when it’s a ‘last man standing, hill-top finish’.

“Climbing is his thing, it’s all about watts versus kilograms and his power to weight ratio is phenomenal. His skinfold at Ag2R is a record.”

Ovett explains “I weighed everything up, which was not easy as I was living out of home and supporting myself completely, and made the decision to go for it. Here I am in Europe a year on, riding for one of the biggest development teams in the world, funny how some things work out.”

His manager – retired Australian sprinter Baden Cooke who won the green jersey at the Tour de France – helped secure him a spot on Ag2R-La Mondiale’s under-23 team. “He (Cooke) spoke with Vincent Lavenu who is the head of the professional team and told him about my story,” Freddy said. “Baden and I discussed this at great length and figured that the French racing scene suited me best out of all the different racing scenes in the world”.

Read more here

Send your results as well as club, team & event news here

Other Results on VeloUK (including reports containing results)

Other News on VeloUK

Tags: