British Cycling is delighted to confirm the appointment of five-time former Irish national champion Matt Brammeier as the lead academy coach for the Great Britain Cycling Team’s men’s endurance programme to coincide with the announcement of his retirement from professional cycling.

Brammeier will be responsible for the provision of high performance coaching services to the senior academy men’s endurance programme riders and will split his time between the National Cycling Centre in Manchester and the European training base in Montichiari, Italy. His responsibilities will also include co-ordinating the activity of the elite men’s road riders at major competitions throughout the year.

Brammeier said: “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. 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. There’s been so many happy memories created along the way and I’ve been lucky enough to cross paths with so many fantastic people and cultures in some amazing parts of the world. I’d like to sincerely thank everyone who has supported me over the years and made my racing career and journey so far as happy and as memorable as it has been.

“Looking ahead, I’m meeting with the riders and Keith Lambert, the academy coach, at the HSBC UK | National Road Championships on Thursday where I’ll be spending time with the riders and observing how they operate before officially starting with the team in August.

“I’m excited about the prospect of coaching the next generation of professional cyclists who have potential to excel on both the road and the track and sharing my passion and the learnings from my career with them. I’ve been following the progress of the squad and it’s been fantastic to see the results they’ve been getting so I can’t wait to join their coaching set up.” 

At the age of 18, Brammeier was crowned as the junior British national champion in both the road and time trial events in 2003, the same year where he finished fourth overall in the prestigious Tour de l’Avenir.

In 2006, he signed his first contract for a UCI continental team. After a few years of ups and downs he finally made the step into the professional peloton when he signed his first pro deal with HTC-Highroad, from there he won a record breaking four consecutive Irish national road titles as well as one TT title, he achieved podium finishes at the 2011 Tour of Austria, the 2012 Tour of Qatar and the 2014 Langkawi Tour as well as winning stage four of Ster ZLM Toer in 2015.

In his role as a leadout rider and domestique, Brammeier has played a part in countless victories for his team mates during his time with UCI professional teams.

Brammeier also has experience of track cycling, representing Great Britain at the UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships in Moscow in 2003 and Ireland at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Manchester 2009 where he finished fourth in the scratch race.

Performance director Stephen Park said: “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.

“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 our endurance riders continues as strongly as ever and will also take on the responsibility of co-ordinating 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.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming Matt onto the coaching team and I look forward to seeing the senior academy men’s endurance riders progress under his guidance.”