Alain Gallopin Profile (Sports Director)

Alain Gallopin

Alain Gallopin (born 23 May 1957 in France) is one of the four “Directeurs Sportif” for Team Radioshack. Gallopin was a professional racing cyclist as a young man (in 1982), but suffered a serious accident early in his career, resulting in injuries that forced him to abandon the sport as a cyclist. He did not, however, leave cycling permanently.

After studying physiotherapy, Gallopin returned to work with various professional cycling teams. This experience associated him with some of the bigger names in professional road cycling, including Laurent Fignon (two-time Tour de France champion), Le Tour 1997 champion Jan Ullrich, and Sean Kelly, the great classics champion from the eighties.

It was with Kelly and a small cycling team (Team Catavana) that Gallopin took on his first position as sports director. Since then he’s be a director for La Francaise des Jeux (1997-2000), Mercury Viatel (2001), Team Coast (2002-2003), Team Bianchi (2003), Team CSC (2004-2007), and most recently Team Astana (2008-2009).

Over the fifteen years of experience as a team director, Gallopin has become known as a “rider’s director”. He understands the rider’s perspective and knows how to motivate. Gallopin listens to the riders – both the lead/veteran riders, as well as the younger members of the team — respects their opinion and input, and strives to help them achieve their established goals as cyclists and professionals.

One such rider with whom Gallopin has had a particularly positive effect, and with whom he’s forged a life-long friendship, is American Chris Horner, one of the racing veterans on Team RadioShack. Gallopin and Horner first met when they were both associated with La Francaise des Jeux in the late nineties. Horner also raced under Gallopin’s tutelage for Mercury-Viatel.

Horner can attest first hand to the positive effect Gallopin has on his team, both in training and when the cycling squad is in the heat of race competition. Gallopin brings a calm knowing, good decision making, and a sage understanding of how cyclists work together on a team, and how that team can win as a result.

Gallopin has worked with many of The Shack’s riders previously, so there’s sure to be an easy familiarity between director and riders. With team manager Johan Bruyneel having named Gallopin as the director leading the squad in Adelaide for The Tour Down Under (the season’s first competition), it will be the first opportunity for Gallopin and Team RadioShack to show they mean business in putting their riders on the champion’s podium in 2010, all the way up to and including Le Tour.

By Jeff Ludlum, staff writer