Adrien Petit is one of the recruits of the Direct Energi team. After several years at Cofidis, the Frenchman is ready for new challenges in the classics and sprint.

The Direct Energie team already has a 'Coq' (cock): Bryan Coquard. He will now be accompanied by a 'Bison'. That's the nickname of Adrien Petit, one of the recruits of the Vendée team, due to his size: 1.88m. He is a specialist in the effort that is requieted for the final kilometre and will play a role as a lead-out man for his sprinter Coquard.

He proved those skills in 2011 when he finished second at the U23 World Championships behind teammate and lead sprinter Arnaud Demare. He now wants to use his talent in his new team to support Coquard.

"I won the prologue of the Tour of Luxembourg in June," he tells Ouest-France. "A race of 2.6 km. He came to tell me that if I was capable of such an effort, I could also be useful to him. I wanted a change of scenery and to work with him."

So Petit made the decision to join his new team and return to the track like his father. "My dad was the French madision champion," said Petit who played football until he turned 15. 

Before embarking on his first race with Direct Energie, the Tour of Gabon, the winner of the Tro Bro Léon in 2014 has done a lot of work. The former Cofidis rider falls into the category of hard workers. The workouts of 4 to 5 hours per day in mid-December in Essarts were not enough. He travelled to a personal training camp in Calpe, Spain and nd he will return in early January for another 10 days before heading to Africa.

"I found some friends there, many teams are there at this time of year. I know how to manage weeks of almost 20 hours on the bike. I speakt a lot with Jimmy (Engoulvent, the team coach, ed.) and I adapt my program to my shape and the climate. Usually in December, I'm doing some cyclo-cross with my friends Arnaud Labbe in Bordeaux and Sébastien Minard in Picardy. Or I am doing mountain biking in the sand at an event in Calais. But the priority is to work on endurance on the road. "

"Last year, I rode less but I did more weight training: I had cramps in the races. This year, I am doing specific sprint work. Explosiveness, maximal efforts: exercises with big gears, a kind of weight training on the bike. This is ideal for the climbs and the intensity need to be a bloc in the last 800 meters."