Julien Bérard

Julien Bérard

Bérard at the 2010 Four Days of Dunkirk
Personal information
Full name	Julien Bérard
Born	(1987-07-27) 27 July 1987 Paris, France
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	70 kg (150 lb)
Team information
Current team	Ag2r-La Mondiale
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Amateur team(s)
2009	Ag2r-La Mondiale (stagiaire)
Professional team(s)
2010–	Ag2r-La Mondiale
Infobox last updated on 30 September 2013

Julien Bérard (born 27 July 1987) is a French professional road bicycle racer riding for UCI ProTour team Ag2r-La Mondiale.^[1]

Amateur career

Born in Paris, Bérard recorded his first notable result in July 2005 when he won the third stage of the junior edition of the Tour du Valromey.^[2] In another stage during that same stage race he finished in second position. In 2008 he started as a stagiaire for the Ag2r-La Mondiale team. His first top-three spot he claimed in the Tour des Pays de Savoie where he finished in second position in stage 3, but also managed to claim the same second spot in the general classification.^[1] In the Tour de la Creuse he managed to finish in third position in the second stage, but he also claimed the victory in the general classification standings for that race.^[1] His first real road race win at senior level was a win in the second stage of the Tour du Gévaudan with the finish in Mende.^[1]

Bérard maintained his spot in the team for the 2009 season in which he claimed his first victory on the 28th of March, when he finished 32 seconds in front of the runner-up at the Grand Prix Saint-Etienne Loire.^[3] In the Tour du Perigord - A Travers les Bastides he became third and he won the third stage of the under-23 edition of the Ronde de l'Isard d'Ariège.^[1] That result was followed by two second places in the first stage of the Tour des Pays de Savoie and the Mi-Aout-Bretonne. In that last race he also claimed the third spot in the general classifications.^[1] In the Tour de l'Avenir he booked his biggest success as an amateur, by winning the first stage of the "Race of the future". Start and finish were both in Dreux, France, while Romain Sicard and Dennis van Winden were the first riders to cross the finish line after Bérard.^[4] Not only was this his biggest success as an amateur, it was also the last time he was performing as such.

Professional career

Ag2r-La Mondiale offered him a professional contract for the 2010 season, in which he struggled to come up with some top-three results. His best results of that season were accomplished during the La Tropicale Amissa Bongo race in Gabon. Here he finished fifth in the second stage, seventh in the fourth stage and sixth in the general classification.^[1] In 2011 Bérard made his debut in one of the grand tours when he was called up for the 2011 Giro d'Italia. Without any serious race winning attempts Bérard managed to complete the prestigious stage race with finish in Milan and a 122nd place in the general classification of the race.^[5] During the French national road cycling championship in Boulogne sur Mer Bérard finished in fourth position behind Sylvain Chavanel, Anthony Roux and Thomas Voeckler.^[6] Later on he took a third spot in the Tour du Doubs to finish the 2011 season.^[1]

Palmares

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2011	2012	2013
Giro	123	110	WD
Tour	-	-	-
Vuelta	-	-	94

WD = Withdrew; IP = In Progress

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Julien Bérard.

• Julien Bérard profile at Cycling Archives