After calling an and to his career at the age of just 27, Jonny Bellis hopes that he can use his experience and remain in the sport. Bellis retired after struggling to return to his former level that saw him earn a ProTour contract at the age of 19 following a crash that nearly ended his life in 2009.
Bellis was part of a special generation of riders coming out of the Isle of Man in the early 2000s. The group that included 2011 World Champion Mark Cavendish and double British national champion Peter Kennaugh. Bellis showed promise on the track but made his name with a bronze medal in the under-23 World Championship road race in 2007. His performance was enough to earn himself a contract with CSC for the following season, when he would also make his Olympic debut. His accident in 2009 meant he was never able to express his full talent. Now he hopes to share his experience via coaching.
“I still want to be in the sport, I’m still passionate and enthusiastic about the sport, and I’d like to stay amongst it,” Bellis told Cyclingnews from his native Isle of Man. Bellis has not raced much in 2015 and has instead spent that time training as a coach. He may have been prepared for this next stage of his life, but he’s still feeling his way and says that he is effectively starting from scratch.
ADVERTISEMENT
“It’s all new to me. I’ve been a rider for so long and being a coach is all new to me, so I’ll have to work my way up,” said Bellis. “It’s about building my reputation and having people gain confidence in me and believe in me to be a good coach. It’s like with anything you’ve got to prove yourself in being capable of that. It’s what I need to do in the short term and then who knows what will happen in the long term.”
Bellis had been toying with retirement for several months before he made his announcement on Twitter at the start of December. While the Manxman was able to do the unthinkable and get back on the bike, he hadn’t been able to get back to the level that he’d been at before the incident.
“It was hard to motivate myself to go out and train,” he said. “I’ve been hanging onto it because I didn’t know anything else to do so I continued going at it. I’m 27 now, and there are other things to do. The motivation and drive to do it just went, and I thought that now was the time to stop it. I don’t dislike the bike, I like to follow it and I still enjoy riding my bike for fun now and then but I don’t want to do it as a career anymore.”
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1SpYMtF
No comments:
Post a Comment