Voigt to stay with Trek Factory Racing team

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Jens Voigt will continue his association with the Trek Factory Racing team, initially as a consultant and then as a directeur sportif. The 43-year-old German retired as a rider this fall after a 17-year career.

He is currently attending the team training camp in Alfas del Pi, Spain, and his first racing assignment with the team will be at the Tour Down Under.

“I’ll take on an active role in the team staff and my new role involves a lot of things: coaching and motivating the riders, helping out the youngsters, and directing at a few select races, once I have obtained my director certificate,” Voigt said in a team press release.

While he was looking forward to the new challenges, he admitted that the transition may be difficult. “Of course, it hurts seeing the boys go out for training in the morning and leaving the “old man” back at the hotel."

General manager Luca Guercilena said of the German, "We want to keep Jens’ heritage alive and tie it to the present team. I’d love all of our riders to ride like Jens used to ride . He raced full gas and gave everything to the team, every race.

"Jens won a whole lot of races, but maybe he is more popular because of the races that he didn’t win than the races that he won. His attitude, motivation, and experience is something that we want to continue within our team."

Voigt rode for only four teams in his career: Giant-AIS, GAN, CSC and Leopard Trek - which later became Trek Factory Racing. He won two individual stages at the Tour de France and one at the Giro d’Italia. His numerous other victories include taking the title five times at the Criterium International, and he set the World hour record in September of this year, although it was beaten by Matthias Brändle the following month.