Trinity Racing Announces Ian Stannard as Directeur Sportif

The UK-based multi-discipline cycling Team Trinity Racing has announced that former pro rider Ian Stannard will join the team in a directeur sportif role. It’s a big move for a team that’s on an upward trajectory this season, including moving up to Continental level and registering a UCI mountain biking team.

Having spent a large part of his career riding for others, Stannard was a key part of Team Sky’s Tour de France winning squads in 2013, 2015, and 2016, and Vuelta winning squads in 2011 and 2017. Amidst all the team success, he also enjoyed individual accolades with back-to-back Omloop Het Nieuwsblad victories in 2014 and 2015, a podium at Paris-Roubaix in 2016, and two stage wins at the Tour of Britain.

Stannard was forced to retire prematurely due to rheumatoid arthritis at the end of last season. He is now relishing the new opportunity to share his knowledge with the next generation of talent.

“I have been very impressed with the progression of Trinity Racing since the team’s inception in 2018. They have quickly become one of the leading development teams in Europe and I look forward to starting my new role for the coming season. Obviously the road is what I know best, and we have an impressive roster of riders—Ben Healy and Thomas Gloag to name a couple—who we are confident can build on the success they showed last year in some of the biggest U23 races in the world.

“However I am also very excited about getting stuck into the other sections of TRINITY’s calendar during the year, particularly gravel and MTB. As a WT pro for so long, I only ever got to enjoy a small bit of MTB’ing in the winter, but I have seen how the off road side of the sport has grown, how riders these days really benefit from mixing disciplines, and I look forward to immersing myself in these worlds to learn, and help our roster in the process. My goal is to use my experience and knowledge to help our young talent to become better riders and hopefully allow them to achieve results wherever they want to achieve them; be it on the road, on the trails or on gravel tracks around the world.”

Trinity Racing is owned by London-based sports management, marketing, and events company, Trinity Sports Management, who work extensively in cycling.

TSM Director, Andrew McQuaid, said, “I have worked for Ian for over a decade now as a client of Trinity Sports Management, and I could not think of a better guy to bring on board with TRINITY to help achieve the Team’s objectives. Ian is passionate, knowledgeable, hard working and has a real desire to pass on what he has learnt to the next generation. He is recognised as one of the most respected team riders of his generation, having supported many different team leaders to glory during his time at Team Sky. Having someone with his experience in our Team environment is a huge asset for TRINITY Racing. I know all of our riders are excited to work with him and I am very confident that he will excel in his new role.”