Brammeier to retire from cycling and take role at British Cycling

Image 1 of 7

Matthew Brammeier has announced his retirement from cycling with British Cycling confirming that he will take up a new role with them as the lead academy coach for the men's endurance programme. Brammeier, who has been racing with Aqua Blue Sport over the past two seasons, will begin his new job in August.

Brammeier is set to meet up with some members of the British Cycling coaching team, including academy coach Keith Lambert, at the British national championships this week.

"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 in a statement issued by British Cycling. "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.

Brammeier, who races under an Irish licence, began his career with British Cycling and has previously represented Wales at the Commonwealth Games. He took the junior British national title at the age of 18 and also raced for Britain on the track.

In 2007, Brammeier's career suffered a major setback when he was hit by a cement truck while training and broke both of his legs. He endured a difficult return to fitness, which eventually led him to declare for Ireland at the end of 2009, something which he has credited with getting his career back on course. He has won five Irish national titles, four in the road race and one in the time trial.

Brammeier signed his first full professional contract with HTC-Highroad for the 2011 season. There was more bad luck for Brammeier when the team folded at the end of the season, but he secured a one-year deal with Quick-Step Floors for the following year. He left the squad at the end of the year, only finding out via a newspaper article that he had failed to earn a contract for the next season. He spent the next two years riding for Chinese outfit Champion System and Azeri team Synergy Baku.

In 2015, he signed with MTN-Qhubeka and returned to the WorldTour when they made the step up the following season. In 2017, he left the squad to join Aqua Blue Sport, Ireland’s only professional team.

"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," said British Cycling’s performance director Stephen Park. "Matt Brammeier fits this requirement perfectly; in addition to his coaching qualifications, he has lived the past twelve 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 coordinating 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."