{{Short description|French cyclist (born 1976)}} {{Infobox cyclist | name = Florent Brard | image = Florent Brard 2008.jpg | caption = Brard in 2008 | full_name = Florent Brard | nickname = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1976|2|7}} | birth_place = [[Chambray-lès-Tours]], [[France]] | height = 1.87 m | weight = 74 kg | currentteam = | discipline = Road | role = Rider | ridertype = | proyears1 = 1998 | proteam1 = Mattei | proyears2 = 1999–2001 | proteam2 = {{UCI team code|FES|1999}} | proyears3 = 2002 | proteam3 = {{UCI team code|C.A|2002}} | proyears4 = 2003–2004 | proteam4 = {{UCI team code|TSV|2003}} | proyears5 = 2005 | proteam5 = {{UCI team code|AGR|2005}} | proyears6 = 2006–2007 | proteam6 = {{UCI team code|GCE|2006}} | proyears7 = 2008–2009 | proteam7 = {{UCI team code|COF|2008}} | majorwins = French National Road Race Champion (2006) }}
'''Florent Brard''' (born 7 February 1976)<ref>L'Équipe, France, 13 July 2007</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.memoire-du-cyclisme.net/pelotons/coureurs.php?c%3D1538 |title=BRARD Florent |access-date=2009-11-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322022642/http://www.memoire-du-cyclisme.net/pelotons/coureurs.php?c=1538 |archive-date=2012-03-22 }}</ref> is a French former [[road bicycle racer]]. He won three national championships, including the professional road race. He became a professional in 1999<ref>Vélo, France, March 2001</ref> and stopped racing in November 2009 after not finding a place in a team.<ref>L'Équipe, 29 November 2009</ref>
==Childhood== Florent Brard was born into a cycling family. His father bought two copies of cycling magazines, one to read and the other to save, untouched.<ref>Vélo, France, February 2007</ref>
==Early career== Florent Brard raced as an amateur as a member of the Cercle Paul-Bert in the [[Tours]] region of France. He won the national youth pursuit championship in 1992 and 1993 and the junior pursuit in 1994.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.memoire-du-cyclisme.net/pelotons/coureurs.php?c%3D1538 |title=BRARD Florent |access-date=2009-11-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322022642/http://www.memoire-du-cyclisme.net/pelotons/coureurs.php?c=1538 |archive-date=2012-03-22 }}</ref> He tried professional racing as a ''stagiaire'', or apprentice, with the [[Française des Jeux (cycling team)|Française des Jeux]] team in 1997, riding at the Élite 2 level. From there he moved to next year as a full professional to Festina.
==Professional career== Brard showed from his youth that he had a talent for long, lone efforts and for riding a large gear for long periods.<ref>Vélo, France, March 2001</ref> He said: "I've ridden a lot on the track during the course of my career. The [[Individual pursuit|pursuit]] is an excellent school for progressing on the road. So I'm a fairly good ''rouleur''<ref>A rider who can ride at speed for prolonged periods.</ref> and that's, therefore, the talent that I try to exploit to make an impression."<ref>Vélo, France, March 2001</ref> That brought him his first win as a professional, the last stage of the [[Étoile de Bessèges]] on 11 February 2001. He won alone after being in a breakaway group close to being caught by the main field after 120 km. He said: "It would have been just too stupid to miss the chance a kilometer from the finish. My legs hurt, I was cooked, but I gritted my teeth and threw my last force into the battle."<ref>Vélo, France, March 2001</ref> He won the national time-trial championship later the same year and he won a stage in and led the [[Tour de l'Avenir]]. He also won [[Paris–Bourges]] and GP-Cholet-Pays de la Loire.<ref>L'Équipe, France, 13 July 2001</ref>
He moved to [[Crédit Agricole (cycling)|Crédit Agricole]] in 2002, earning 30,500 euros a season but he was fired after starting the season poorly, then missing the middle following a fall which broke [[vertebrae]]<ref>Vélo, France, November 2003, p45</ref> finally being caught in a drugs test [''See below.'']. Only the small Marlux team in Belgium offered him a place for 2003.<ref>Vélo, France, November 2003</ref> He said: "When I signed for them I wasn't at all happy because, when you come from big teams like Festina and Crédit d'Agricole, which have a prominent image, it's strange, I had the impression of going backward in my career. I went there on tiptoe, not knowing what I was going to find, and then I felt fine."<ref>Vélo, France, November 2003, p14</ref>
In 2004, he stayed in Belgium with the [[Chocolade Jacques (cycling)|Chocolade Jacques]], team. He had tried to ride again with French teams "but their sponsor didn't want a doped rider."[''See below.'']<ref>Vélo, France, November 2003, p44</ref> He won the final stage of the Giro di Lucca and the second stage of Paris–Corrèze
In 2005, with [[Agritubel]], he won Paris–Troyes, the Trophée Luc Leblanc, and a stage at the [[Circuit de la Sarthe (cycling)|Circuit de la Sarthe]].
In 2006, he moved to Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears, with whom he rode the [[2006 Tour de France|Tour de France]] after winning the [[2006 National Cycling Championships|national road championship]] at [[Chantonnay]] a week before the start. He said: "When you've been down at the bottom [''See below''] you appreciate the heights even more."<ref>Vélo, France, July 2006</ref> He spent the rest of the year racing and training in his blue, white, and red jersey.<ref>Vélo, France, February 2007</ref> "You only have it until the following June," he said, so he wore it when he could.
He did not finish the Tour de France, falling during the penultimate stage.
==Doping== Florent Brard was prescribed [[corticoid]] to recover from a crash in the [[Grand Prix du Midi Libre]]. He said he had seen his doctor "''n'' times" (''pour la énième fois'') and neither he nor the doctor thought of him as a racing cyclist, "only as a man broken everywhere who couldn't do anything because of all his sleepless nights."<ref>Vélo, France, November 2003, p45</ref> and was caught in a dope test in the Tour de l'Ain, which he finished an hour behind the winner.<ref>Vélo, France, July 2006</ref> He was suspended for nine months by the [[Fédération Française de Cyclisme]]. His sponsor, Crédit Agricole, fired him. He said:
<blockquote>I think it's fair to say that that long period allowed me to change the way I looked at life. Until then, for me, the professionals were gods. Now, when I see a sportsman, I see the man. The status of the champion isn't enough. A champion can be a good guy as much as a bad one.</blockquote>
He rode then for Belgian teams because, he said, [[Roger Legeay]], his former boss at Crédit Agricole, was president of AC2000.<ref>AC2000 is a grouping of French cycling teams making a stand against drug-taking in the sport. A condition of membership was not to employ riders or staff implicated in doping.</ref> "He knew that I was in touch with [[Agritubel]]; he said to a meeting of AC2000, 'If a French team takes on a former dope-taker, we'll throw it out of the association.'"<ref>Vélo, France, February 2007</ref>
==Personal life== Brard is married to Nathalie, with whom he has two daughters. In 2006 they moved to Serres-Castet, near the [[Pyrenees]], to profit from better weather for training than in the Loire valley around Tours and to improve his riding in the mountains.<ref>Vélo, France, February 2007</ref>
==Major results== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} ;1994 : 2nd [[French National Road Race Championships|Road race]], National Junior Road Championships ;1998 : 3rd [[Paris–Troyes]] ;2000 : 5th [[Grand Prix de Plumelec-Morbihan]] ;2001 : 1st [[File:MaillotFra.PNG|20px]] [[French National Time Trial Championships|Time trial]], National Road Championships : 1st [[Paris–Bourges]] : 1st [[Cholet-Pays de Loire]] : 1st Joseph Voegeli Memorial (with [[Christophe Moreau]]) : 1st Stage 5 [[Étoile de Bessèges]] : 2nd Overall [[Tour de l'Avenir]] : 3rd [[Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise]] : 3rd [[Châteauroux Classic]] : 4th Overall [[Tour du Limousin]] : 5th [[Grand Prix des Nations]] : 7th Overall [[Critérium International]] : 7th [[Grand Prix de Rennes]] : 10th [[2001 Tour du Haut Var|Tour du Haut Var]] : [[2001 Tour de France|Tour de France]] ::Held [[File:Jersey white.svg|20px]] after Prologue, Stage 1 & Stages 3–4 ;2003 : 2nd [[Paris–Bourges]] ;2004 : 1st Stage 2 [[Paris–Corrèze]] : 1st Stage 4 [[Giro della Provincia di Lucca]] : 6th Overall [[2004 Tour de Pologne|Tour de Pologne]] : 6th [[Châteauroux Classic]] ;2005 : 1st [[Paris–Troyes]] : 1st Trophée Luc Leblanc : 1st Stage 2b ([[Individual time trial|ITT]]) [[Circuit de la Sarthe (cycling)|Circuit de la Sarthe]] : 5th [[Route Adélie de Vitré]] : 7th [[2005 Paris–Roubaix|Paris–Roubaix]] : 7th [[2005 Tour du Haut Var|Tour du Haut Var]] ;2006 : 1st [[File:MaillotFra.PNG|20px]] [[French National Road Race Championships|Road race]], National Road Championships ;2007 : 5th [[Paris–Camembert]] : 7th [[Duo Normand]] (with [[Nicolas Fritsch]]) ;2008 : 5th [[Grand Prix de la Somme]] : 8th [[2008 Tro-Bro Léon|Tro-Bro Léon]] {{div col end}}
==References== {{reflist|2}}
==External links== * {{Official website|http://florentbrard.wixsite.com/officiel}} {{in lang|fr}}
{{French National Road Race Championships (men) |state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brard, Florent}} [[Category:French male cyclists]] [[Category:1976 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Sportspeople from Chambray-lès-Tours]] [[Category:Cyclists from Indre-et-Loire]]