Bryan Coquard

Bryan Coquard
	Coquard at the 2015 Tour de France
Personal information
Full name	Bryan Coquard
Born	25 April 1992 (age 29); Saint-Nazaire, France
Height	1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	60 kg (132 lb; 9 st 6 lb)
Team information
Current team	B&B Hotels p/b KTM
Disciplines	Road; Track;
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter (road); Endurance (track)
Amateur teams
2008–2010	US Pontchâtelaine
2011–2012	Vendée U
Professional teams
2013–2017	Team Europcar
2018–	Vital Concept
Major wins
	Stage races Four Days of Dunkirk (2016)
Medal record
Representing France
Men's track cycling
Olympic Games
World Championships
European Championships
Men's road bicycle racing
World Championships

Bryan Coquard (born 25 April 1992) is a French cyclist, who currently rides for UCI ProTeam B&B Hotels p/b KTM.^[3] He was a silver medalist at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Omnium.^[4]^[5]

Career[]

Youth and amateur[]

Coquard began cycling in 1999 at the age of seven, at the US Pontchâteau club. In September 2008, aged sixteen, he joined CREPS Bordeaux, where he was coached by Eric Vermeulen.

In 2009, Coquard became World Junior Omnium Champion, as well as winning the Scratch Race at the European championships. He retained his Junior Omnium crown in 2010, winning four of the six events, he also finished second in the Scratch Race. Due to his track success, in June 2011 Coquard signed a contract with Team Europcar for the start of the 2013 professional road season. Later that month, he became the omnium champion of France, winning 5 of the 6 races. Following this, he was selected to represent France in the omnium at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He won the silver medal finishing behind Lasse Norman Hansen of Denmark.

Professional[]

Coquard signed a contract for a professional career on the roads from the 2013 season onwards, signing with Team Europcar.^[6] His 2013 campaign began well, as he took two stages in the Étoile de Bessèges in January and February.^[7] In 2015, Coquard won the first stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk. The stage featured cobbled sectors, fracturing the peloton to bits, and Coquard won the sprint of a small group of three.^[8]

Bryan Coquard began the 2016 season with two victories in the first and second stages of the Etoile de Bessèges. However, on 16 February, in preparation for the Tour of Andalusia, he fractured his right shoulder blade. He returned a month later in time for the classics season, having missed his first objective of the year Paris-Nice. He started off well finishing 2nd behind Jens Debusschere in a small bunch sprint at Dwars door Vlaanderen. After a stage win the Circuit de la Sarthe, his form continued into the hilly classics of Brabantse Pijl and the Amstel Gold Race finishing fourth in both. In May, he won his first professional stage race at the Four Days of Dunkirk while also winning three stages in the process. The following month, he won his first race against the clock during the prologue of the Boucles de la Mayenne, as well as winning the next stage. In his build up to the Tour de France, he beat Arnaud Démare in the first two stages of the Route du Sud.

Vital Concept[]

In August 2017 it was confirmed that Coquard had signed for the newly formed Vital Concept team, as team leader for 2018,^[9]^[10] shortly after Coquard was excluded from the Direct Énergie Tour de France team.^[11] Coquard was also offered a place on the Quick-Step Floors team, but turned it down as he felt he would be put as 2nd sprinter behind Fernando Gaviria^[12]

Coquard made his debut for Vital Concept in January 2018 at the Sharjah Tour. He took his first victory in February at stage 1 of the Tour of Oman where he won a sprint finish ahead of Mark Cavendish.^[13] Earlier in the month Coquard narrowly missed out on victory at the Etoile de Bessèges, when Christophe Laporte passed him out at the finish line while Coquard was celebrating the victory he had thought he had won.^[14]