(Milton) Hugo Barrette is not at the Nations Cup in Milton, Ontario this weekend. In fact, he hasn’t been anywhere since the start of 2022, a situation that annoys head coach Franck Durivaux.
Posted at 7:14 p.m.
“I have no news from Hugo. I left him several messages, on several platforms, ”he said on the edge of the track at the Mattamy National Cycling Center.
Barrette asked Durivaux to take time off to participate in the reality show Big Brother: Celebrities, at the start of the year, which the coach accepted, given the schedule that allowed it. But it’s been radio silence ever since.
“When he left Big Brother, we expected to see news from him. […] Under the calendar of the season, I thought it was absolutely possible (that he participates). So I gave him permission to go there, thinking that afterwards he would come back to prepare for the season with the team.
“It went well for us at the end of the season, especially in Cali and at the World Championships, in Roubaix, so that gave us a glimpse of great things. But we have zero news: no answer, no message, no text message, nothing. »
Without closing the door to Barrette’s return to the troops, we feel that Durivaux will have several conditions to which the cyclist from the Magdalen Islands will have to comply.
“It will depend on how it goes. We have already welcomed him back in 2020 after his falls and after he decided to go work with other people. I was clear at the time: I need to know what he’s doing; I can’t be responsible for results I don’t care about. I don’t know what he looks like on a bike right now.
“It’s very simple now: no news, I do without. It’s the way I work. I can’t wait for an athlete: we have to move on. The athletes who are here, they are young, they are hungry, they perform well. So I work with people who are motivated and who want to go far. »