Written by California Mist at 16:40 29/7-2014
After the final stage of Cymru Taith, Giovanni Faulk (USA) announced his legs were in pain and he doesn't know if he can keep competing at the top level of cycling for much longer. The 36 year old USA legend, produced great displays during the 3 stage race to help De Nooy win the hill stage, get 3rd in GC and also manage to keep Bullock around the GC situation.
He announced, "my legs are in considerable pain, and I can't keep riding at that level anymore. These young guys can turn over bigger gears, and don't feel the exhaustion so much. I have the experience which helps, but feel the time may be right to use that in a different role within the cycling world".
We have sat down with him since, and it's been decided he will continue to ride, but on a reduced schedule for the time being. He will continue with his mentorship role within the team, and once the sporting director role becomes available in the team, he will officially take that job, and hang up his cycling gear.
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In other news, Cymru Taith turned out superb for us as mentioned above. 3rd and 5th in GC, stage win and 2 top 9's in other stages. Ayers training has been put on hold, while we focus on Kermarec. This was a decision made to compensate for Faulk's pending retirement, and finally we signed another young talent Kregel, who can become a good leadout 2. With Kermarec, Ayers and Kregel (all 20 years old), the futures looking bright for the West coast squad, California Mist.
Carson Shannon
PR Manager
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Comments
I'm back from the OCM grave. Happy to see Faulk's afterlife treating him well!
The advantage of having old riders lol... Need to hope Kermarec maxes high or I could have problems in the coming seasons
Think Nick said a rider can do a job for 10 seasons, but that may change when the roles actually come out. I've got Faulk, who is ready for it, and Ostrup who will surely be ready soon, aswell as Osgood for a slightly lesser role
... around in the game as team manager.
Interesting. I looked at his profile and didn't see a retirement option. You are probably the only one that can see it. I agree, keep him until the sporting director comes around. Then he would be good in that. However that might take a long time and he will probably be ready to, croak. LOL I wonder how long they can stay alive so to speak. It would be quite funny seeing a 70 year old Faulk still
Haha, the way I look at it, is I get RV for him when the time comes. That amount doesn't reduce that fast so it's worth him keep riding to improve experience, and he's still a fairly good hiller.... The reason for the press release was pretty much to say he's now got the retire option next to him :) thanks
I know the feeling of having sore legs, or rather a sore knee in my situation, which is hampering my riding a lot.
Faulk is 36 now and by the time the sporting roles come in to effect he will probably be 46 or 56 or even dead! LOL Keep him around, hopefully that will be instituted sooner rather than later... Good luck. :-)
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