Tour de France stage win biggest achievement in Frenchman’s career
Sylvain Calzati has announced his retirement from professional cycling at the end of the season. The Frenchman rode for Bretagne-Schuller this season after making the move from Team Sky last year. He had a less than desirable time with the British team as an intestinal virus disrupted most of his racing program last year. The illness forced him to miss out on Tour de France selection, which was a major goal for the 32 year old.
Similarly, Calzati spent few days racing this year and will not be returning to the peloton next season.
Upon leaving Team Sky last year Calzati was very critical of the team telling l’Équipe, “Cycling is still about riding your bike. But when the scientific part becomes too important, that makes your brain work more than anything else. But the basis of everything is training on the road. They’ve got a lot of theories but if you look at the results, they have not lived up to their expectations.”
The team has conceded that it got several things wrong last year, but has turned things around in 2011.
Throughout his career Calzati has also spent time riding for Barloworld and Agritubel but his best performance came in 2006 while riding for AG2R-Prevoyace. That year Calzati soloed to the finish of stage eight in the Tour de France to take what was his only major victory as a professional.
The initial signs suggested a bigger list of successes were in store; in 2004, he won the Tour de l’Avenir – a race used to spot future talent – ahead of Thomas Lövkvist and Christophe Le Mevel.