Despite all the troubles I get with my last story, I've decided to come back to story writing. This time it will be a rider story similar to the Mark Velpois one. It will have perhaps more background but the same amount of racing.

"it was a cold Sunday morning and my dad and I went for a ride. It was very foggy and it was impossible to see further than 500 feet. We were riding for almost 30 kilometers when we saw that car, it was the team car of Crédit agricole. It was followed by the whole squad, It was so cool to see those riders in action just passing right before my eyes, it was like in a dream, they were coming outside the fog to get back in after few meters. Since that time i knew I wanted to be a professional rider in the future."

"Few months after that revelation, I was going to a summer camp especially dedicated to cycling. During one month I was with kids of my age riding between 50 and 70 kilometers per day.
The first days were very exhausting but I was enjoying so much that it was soon a pleasure for me to wake up at 6 AM to prepare my bike and then to train before leaving the buildings for the ride at 11. We had to prepare a lunch pack for 13 AM as we always made a break to eat. This experience brought so much to me as I discovered many discipline of Cycling. The instructor told me I was kind of an all rounder with good skills in many fields, he also recommended me to try Cyclocross and Mountain Bike."

"At the age of 14 I was entering my first real competition, I did not end the race because of a crash but it was the day were I felt I was made to ride a bike, one week after I was racing in another competition, there were not many riders of my age as most of the competitors were between 16 and 18. This day I was on fire, many big guys tried to make me give up by pushing me away of the road but every time I get back on my bike, I was so angry at their behavior that I wanted to give the a lesson, I did it, I won the race and after that the president of cycling club approach me asking if I was interested in riding for his team. Of course it was not the biggest team of the region but it was a good way for me to learn riding in groups and not just alone."

admirschleck wrote:
I read it like "May the dream Crue True". Anyway, good luck!

"When I was 16, I decided to start cyclo-cross, I really liked it and most of all I was also good at it. It took me only three races before winning one. My dad was so proud of me that he bought be a brand new bike designed by a local manufacturer of my region, that bike was a jewel, I was flying over the races with it and my coach recommended me to ask for training in the local team CC Etupe. The now famous Julien Pinot (Brother of Thibaut) decided to take me under his wing like he did with Kenny Elissonde, Warren Barguil and of course his brother. I made many test to see my skills and were I should work to improve. According to Julien, I might one day be a legitimate contenders for the Ardennes Classics. Thanks to my cyclo-cross experience, I'm now able to handle the cobblestone, I might never win a cobble classics but again if we just look at the figures I could be a potential threat in the cobbled classics."

"And here we are, I'm now 18, I had a pretty good season with the U23 French Team and after my training with BigMat - Auber93 many teams wants me in their squad for 2013, of course there is BigMat - Auber93 but there is also Lotto Belisol, FDJ, Europcar and Cofidis. These are teams were I could have the possibilties to express myself as a rider. My first choices would be FDJ or Lotto Belisol as they are in World Tour but the contracts offered by Europcar and Cofidis are pretty attractive. Even if BigMat - Auber93 took me as a trainee by the end of 2012, they don't really seem to want to keep me and I think that it would not be a good idea to go with them for 3 years (their proposition)."

"During one week I was with my family in the Swiss Alps for the summer holidays. During a ride with my dad we talked about those propositions, he advised me to go with FDJ as they had riders who were also coming from Franche Comte like Arthur Vichot, Thibaut Pinot or Francis Mourey . He also told me that going to Europcar would not be a bad choice as they have good riders that could teach me their race intelligence and they also have many young riders. Lotto Belisol is a team that want to have a younger image and the philosophy is not like in the french teams. Finally there was Cofidis, a good team on the decline, but with riders that have a good potential like Adrien Petit, Yohann Bagot or Rudy Molard."

And Finally...

"This is it, I will ride under the colors of FDJ next season, they recontacted me last week with a much more interesting offer, the kind of offer I could not refuse, I'm saying that but I still waited 6 days before accepting, asking myself if I was ready to go the step up. The advice of my father and the fact that Julien also work with that team really helped me in this very difficult choice. I know I'm very lucky because many riders are still looking for team for next season, it will be hard for many riders and also manager to get out of this crisis that threatened our discipline."