Matt Brammeier retires from professional cycling to join British Cycling as academy coach

Matt Brammeier has announced his retirement from professional cycling at the age of 33 and that he will join British Cycling as the lead academy coach for the Great Britain Cycling Team’s men’s endurance programme.

The Irishman, who represented Great Britain on the track as a junior and was a former British junior national champion on the road and in the time trial, will leave his current team Aqua Blue Sport after a career that has spanned 12 years.

Brammeier made the step into the WorldTour for the first time in 2011, riding alongside Mark Cavendish at HTC-Highroad. The next season he joined Omega Pharma - Quick-Step before further stints at Pro Continental level. He then returned to the WorldTour with MTN-Qhubeka stepping up and changing to Dimension Data in 2016, before moving to Irish team Aqua Blue last year.

Along with his four consecutive Irish national road titles from 2010 to 2013, Brammeier took a time trial national title in 2011 and achieved podium finishes at the 2011 Tour of Austria, the 2012 Tour of Qatar, the 2014 Tour of Langkawi and victory on stage four of Ster ZLM Toer in 2015.

In his new role, Brammeier will be responsible for coaching riders on the senior academy men's endurance programme as well as coordinating the elite men's road riders at various competitions during each year at "major competitions."

In that part of the role, he will replace Rod Ellingworth, who helped deliver Mark Cavendish to World Championship victory in 2011. Ellingworth leaves the role with his contract now up, but continues his role as performance manager at Team Sky.

BC says Brammeier will split his time between its base in Manchester and the European training base in Montichiari in Italy.

“After 12 years of racing in the professional peloton, my focus was beginning to turn to the next stage of my career and the lead academy coach role at British Cycling seemed like a great opportunity for me," Brammeier said.

"As such, now is the right time to announce my retirement from professional racing. I feel massively privileged and proud of my career to date. There’s been so many happy memories created along the way and I’ve been lucky enough to cross paths with so many fantastic people and cultures in some amazing parts of the world.

"I’d like to sincerely thank everyone who has supported me over the years and made my racing career and journey so far as happy and as memorable as it has been."

British Cycling performance director Stephen Park said on the announcement: “When recruiting for the role of lead academy coach, it was important to us that the successful candidate would be able to offer more than just coaching advice to the riders.

“Matt Brammeier fits this requirement perfectly; in addition to his coaching qualifications, he has lived the past 12 years as a professional cyclist meaning he can share his experiences and values with the riders in order to support their all-round development.

“Matt will be responsible for ensuring the pipeline of endurance riders continues as strongly as ever and will also take on the responsibility of co-ordinating the activity of the elite men’s road riders at major events in which the Great Britain Cycling Team are represented.

"He takes on this aspect of the role from Rod Ellingworth who completed his contract in March 2018 and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Rod for the hard work he committed to the Great Britain Cycling Team and all the successes he contributed to during his time with us.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming Matt onto the coaching team and I look forward to seeing the senior academy men’s endurance riders progress under his guidance.”