Stagiaire season brings new faces to North American road racing

[updated 9/6/2013]

Silvan Dillier, the 23 year-old Swiss rider on BMC Racing Team who won the Tour of Alberta’s Stage 2 yesterday, races for the World Tour team as one of its three stagiaires.

The French term stagiaire means trainee or intern. Starting August 1 and through the end of the year World Tour teams can bring on up to three stagiaires in addition to the current roster to assess their mettle in pro races. Elite or under 23, the athletes must meet certain criteria as described in the UCI rulebook, such as the type of team they raced for previously. They can only race on the UCI continental circuits. Pro-continental and continental teams may also engage trainees.

In addition to Dillier, Julien Taramarcaz and Jakub Novak have already participated in North American races with BMC Racing Team. Taramarcaz and Novak both competed in the Tour of Utah and Novak is also racing in the Tour of Alberta. Typically a stagiaire provides support, riding for a more senior teammate or team leader. That’s why Dillier was surprised to be in a position to win in Alberta.

A stagiaire’s initiation can suddenly involve a significant level of responsibility in his support role. Call it trial by fire.

Jakub Novak in Utah

In Utah Novak found himself approaching an intermediate sprint line on the final stage in a break-away group with Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE). As the only BMC rider in the break, it fell upon Novak’s shoulders to defend teammate Greg Van Avermaet’s best sprinter jersey against the powerful Australian who could gain the jersey with the day’s intermediate points.

It was a task even a seasoned rider would find challenging. Novak latched onto Matthews’ wheel but couldn’t get around the Orica rider when he launched his sprint 700 meters from the line. Those points gave Matthews the jersey.

In the coming days ProVéloPassion will feature mini-profiles on World Tour team stagiaires, starting with Taramarcaz.

Jakub Novak

• age: 22
• born: Pardubice, Czech Republic
• results highlights: 2013 – 4th overall, Cascade Cycling Classic. 2012 – Czech Republic U23 time trial champion. 2011- Czech Republic U23 road champion.
• teams: 2013 – BMC Development Team. 2012 – Trevigiani Dynamon Bottoli.