On Wednesday morning, The UAE Team Emirates declared that their star rider, Alexys Brunel, has decided to put an end to his career as a professional road cycling. The 23-year-old star rider terminated his contract with the team on June 22ND.
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Brunel now joins his fellow companions in the list of those who have left the racing world to pursue other goals. His new pursuit is to participate in the long-distance triathlon races known as Ironman 70.3 World Championship. He took to Instagram to make a public announcement:
After a long reflection and multiple questions, it is time for me to announce that I am retiring from the world of professional [cycling].
He also shared his future plans:
We meet again for new adventures with this weekend my participation in the Ironman 70.3 in Nice
Mauro Gianetti, the team manager, expressed his grief over the situation as they believe that Alexys still has a lot of undiscovered potential for road cycling in him. But they support his decision and are ready to let him go. He said:
We still believe that Alexys has huge potential, and we saw glimpses of that already in the first part of this season. But we are talking about a human being and not just a bike racer, and we fully accept his decision to stop his career as a professional cyclist. We wish Alexys all the best in his future endeavors
This decision matches the like of Tom Dumoulin, who left only to come back and leave again. Dumoulin plans to retire by the end of this season, as he feels unsatisfied.
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Alexy Brunel started his career in road cycling by joining the team Groupama-FDJ. He remained a part of the team for two years and then switched to the UAE Team Emirates. His only big win has been at Étoile de Bessèges, where he won stage 1.
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Featured Image Via YouTube/ Cycling Pro Net
