No one forgot to pay tribute to Marco Pantani, former Tour de France winner, who wore the famous bandana on the Milan Cortina track, as well as a silver loop on the ear that belonged to the “Pirate.” Biathlete èmilien Jacquelin, Olympic champion with the men’s relay, is living his childhood dream. He is joining Decathlon CMA CGM’s development team for six months. “Being part of a World Tour team would be something unexpected, incredible. I will do everything I can to try to reach that level,” explained the 30-year-old skier from Villard-de-Lans, on the set of the Stade 2 program.
Examples before him
On paper, this could look like a marketing move by the Decathlon team, which has excellent riders like the promising Paul Seixas, but èmilien Jacquelin practiced cycling at a good level when he was a teenager. “The race schedule has not been established yet. They talk about the Tour du Limousin (August 18 to 21), but first, I will recover (in April). Then three months of pure training to try to race in August,” detailed the skier, with a height of 1.86 m and weighing around 80 kg.
Cycling is full of examples of athletes who have dabbled in other disciplines. American Eric Heiden, five-time Olympic speed skating champion at the 1980 Lake Placid Games, participated in the 1986 Tour de France, although he did not finish.
Norwegian Per Strand Hagenes excelled on skis in youth competitions before becoming junior world cycling champion and is now under contract with Jumbo Visma, a path followed by his compatriot Jørgen Nordhagen, seen as the new Jonas Vingegaard, Tour de France winner. Cross-country skiing legend Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who won eleven gold medals at the Olympics, may also join the Uno X team in the coming weeks. And it also works the other way around. Laurent Jalabert, former winner of the Tour of Spain, has become one of the top French triathlon specialists.
