Laurent Pichon, Maxime Bouet, Léonard Cosnier appointed sports directors
“I am delighted to continue within the ARKEA-B&B HOTELS team. I would like to thank the team, and especially Emmanuel Hubert, General Manager, who has always supported me in my approach to becoming a sports director. He supported me in my desire to obtain my diplomas, which allowed me to move from the status of professional runner to a position of sports director within the UCI WorldTour ARKEA-B&B HOTELS structure in less than a year. I know what a runner can feel in their daily life, during a race, but also at home. I will also be able to benefit from the experience of my fellow sports directors in order to best understand my new job. As a runner, I played the role of road captain. From now on I will manage the runners, establish a race strategy to bring them to the best possible performance. I have always thrived on competition. It’s a real appetite that motivates me. I will continue to use this state of mind. I also want to bring my “freshness” to this group that I have known for many years.”
“My wish has always been to become a sports director at the end of my career as a professional cyclist. This function as I see it must be made of sharing and transmission of the knowledge that I have been able to store on the bike. I also wanted to be in contact with young riders in order to train them and gradually bring them to the highest level. When Emmanuel Hubert, General Manager of the ARKEA-B&B HOTELS teams, told me about his continental development team project, I immediately told him of my desire to lead it on a sporting level. This winter I passed my sports director diploma at the UCI, which gives me the right to manage a professional team on a sporting level, and at the same time I am continuing my training by passing the DEEJPS, a diploma which must have all French DS, and this position serves as a sort of life-size training course for me with real action on the ground.”
“My desire was to return to the road after a long and great experience on the track within the FFC, at the Pôle France in Bourges, with the mission of managing and developing the endurance track sector among young people. I would also like to thank the FFC for all these years spent at its side. I am happy to begin this new adventure with ARKEA-B&B HOTELS, a professional structure carrying a global sporting project with a UCI WorldTour team at the top of the pyramid, to which is attached continental development training with young people who can jointly lead a double project high-level sport and studies, without forgetting the women’s structure with this strong desire for diversity. I already know riders in the WorldTour, such as Kévin Vauquelin and Donavan Grondin, whom I worked with and trained at the Pôle France Espoirs endurance track in Bourges. Training young riders and bringing them to the highest level has been my mission for many seasons on the track, it will be the same for the road within the ARKEA-B&B HOTELS continental development training, a mission that we will carry out in concert with Maxime Bouet and me.