Silver medal at the Paris Olympics! Bretagne Classic winner in 2023! French champion the same year! You might think that professional cyclist Valentin Madouas enjoys nothing more than sitting back and chatting about his achievements. Or maybe discussing bike frames, brakes and tyres. Not so much. Turns out, what really greases his gears in his spare time is football – and, more specifically, his beloved home-town club Brest.
“But I talk about cycling all year – football is a bit different,” says the 28-year-old, who is not just any old fan. Lifelong super-fan might be a more fitting title, Madouas making pains to attend matches whenever he can. And his eagerness to see Brest in action was never more acute than this season as the Brittany outfit took their very first steps in Europe as surprise Champions League contenders.
“I actually told my partner that we’re not booking our holidays until we had the fixtures,” he recalls. “Afterwards, we looked at the dates more closely and said we wanted to go to the game in Barcelona, so we came back from our holiday on the day of the match and managed to organise it. I was able to go to Prague before that and I saw a few matches in Guingamp, so it was really amazing.”
With Brest’s own stadium too small to host Champions League games, the club were obliged to stage their home fixtures in Guingamp, over 100km away, though that didn’t prevent them from securing a knockout phase play-off berth before their 3-0 home loss to Real Madrid on Matchday 8. For that historic fixture, around 1,000 Brest supporters marched to the stadium together in a carnival of noise and colour, chanting songs and waving flares. Naturally, Madouas was right there with them. “It was great. No matter the result, everybody wanted to enjoy it and get the most from the experience.”
A member of the Groupama-FDJ cycling team, Madouas is still pinching himself after Brest’s eye-catching maiden campaign, which finally ended in a heavy 10-0 aggregate defeat by Paris Saint-Germain in the play-offs. However, not even their most optimistic fans had imagined them getting that far.
Silver medal at the Paris Olympics! Bretagne Classic winner in 2023! French champion the same year! You might think that professional cyclist Valentin Madouas enjoys nothing more than sitting back and chatting about his achievements. Or maybe discussing bike frames, brakes and tyres. Not so much. Turns out, what really greases his gears in his spare time is football – and, more specifically, his beloved home-town club Brest.
“But I talk about cycling all year – football is a bit different,” says the 28-year-old, who is not just any old fan. Lifelong super-fan might be a more fitting title, Madouas making pains to attend matches whenever he can. And his eagerness to see Brest in action was never more acute than this season as the Brittany outfit took their very first steps in Europe as surprise Champions League contenders.
“I actually told my partner that we’re not booking our holidays until we had the fixtures,” he recalls. “Afterwards, we looked at the dates more closely and said we wanted to go to the game in Barcelona, so we came back from our holiday on the day of the match and managed to organise it. I was able to go to Prague before that and I saw a few matches in Guingamp, so it was really amazing.”
With Brest’s own stadium too small to host Champions League games, the club were obliged to stage their home fixtures in Guingamp, over 100km away, though that didn’t prevent them from securing a knockout phase play-off berth before their 3-0 home loss to Real Madrid on Matchday 8. For that historic fixture, around 1,000 Brest supporters marched to the stadium together in a carnival of noise and colour, chanting songs and waving flares. Naturally, Madouas was right there with them. “It was great. No matter the result, everybody wanted to enjoy it and get the most from the experience.”
A member of the Groupama-FDJ cycling team, Madouas is still pinching himself after Brest’s eye-catching maiden campaign, which finally ended in a heavy 10-0 aggregate defeat by Paris Saint-Germain in the play-offs. However, not even their most optimistic fans had imagined them getting that far.
“When you’re Stade Brestois, you think you’re going to lose all your matches,” says Madouas. “When you’re sitting in the top three for four or five matchdays, it’s quite remarkable. Then you play in Barcelona against one of Europe’s biggest clubs. Going there with thousands of people from Brest, you tell yourself only football can make this kind of thing happen.”
Not that cycling doesn’t provide its own rewards. Huge crowds cheered Madouas on as he took silver in the men’s individual road race at the 2024 Olympics. The Brest players were watching too, albeit on TV during a pre-season trip to Italy, but coach Éric Roy invited Madouas to visit the squad back in France. “I knew they’d watched me racing – I’d received videos of them all supporting me,” he says. “I went there to show them the medal at the beginning of the season.”
The son of former pro cyclist Laurent Madouas has formed a close bond with his fellow athletes, especially midfielder Jonas Martin. “I often exchange texts with quite a few players,” he says. “Jonas lives just a few blocks away. We went out on a bike ride one day. He told me, ‘I love cycling,’ so we found a bike and cycled for a little bit more than 60km. He has good cardio.”
That may not be enough to enter the Tour de France, but Madouas feels Brest completed their own metaphorical Tour stage this season, likening their Champions League feats to one of the race’s most notorious climbs. “They had a really good start and then it got harder,” he explains. “I might say it was like the Alpe d’Huez, because when you start, you have all the wide turns, and the closer you get to the end, the more turns there are. That kind of resembles the campaign Stade Brestois had.”
Their eventual drop off the other side of the mountain may have felt a little brutal, but what a ride it was to get there.
Silver medal at the Paris Olympics! Bretagne Classic winner in 2023! French champion the same year! You might think that professional cyclist Valentin Madouas enjoys nothing more than sitting back and chatting about his achievements. Or maybe discussing bike frames, brakes and tyres. Not so much. Turns out, what really greases his gears in his spare time is football – and, more specifically, his beloved home-town club Brest.
“But I talk about cycling all year – football is a bit different,” says the 28-year-old, who is not just any old fan. Lifelong super-fan might be a more fitting title, Madouas making pains to attend matches whenever he can. And his eagerness to see Brest in action was never more acute than this season as the Brittany outfit took their very first steps in Europe as surprise Champions League contenders.
“I actually told my partner that we’re not booking our holidays until we had the fixtures,” he recalls. “Afterwards, we looked at the dates more closely and said we wanted to go to the game in Barcelona, so we came back from our holiday on the day of the match and managed to organise it. I was able to go to Prague before that and I saw a few matches in Guingamp, so it was really amazing.”
With Brest’s own stadium too small to host Champions League games, the club were obliged to stage their home fixtures in Guingamp, over 100km away, though that didn’t prevent them from securing a knockout phase play-off berth before their 3-0 home loss to Real Madrid on Matchday 8. For that historic fixture, around 1,000 Brest supporters marched to the stadium together in a carnival of noise and colour, chanting songs and waving flares. Naturally, Madouas was right there with them. “It was great. No matter the result, everybody wanted to enjoy it and get the most from the experience.”
A member of the Groupama-FDJ cycling team, Madouas is still pinching himself after Brest’s eye-catching maiden campaign, which finally ended in a heavy 10-0 aggregate defeat by Paris Saint-Germain in the play-offs. However, not even their most optimistic fans had imagined them getting that far.
Silver medal at the Paris Olympics! Bretagne Classic winner in 2023! French champion the same year! You might think that professional cyclist Valentin Madouas enjoys nothing more than sitting back and chatting about his achievements. Or maybe discussing bike frames, brakes and tyres. Not so much. Turns out, what really greases his gears in his spare time is football – and, more specifically, his beloved home-town club Brest.
“But I talk about cycling all year – football is a bit different,” says the 28-year-old, who is not just any old fan. Lifelong super-fan might be a more fitting title, Madouas making pains to attend matches whenever he can. And his eagerness to see Brest in action was never more acute than this season as the Brittany outfit took their very first steps in Europe as surprise Champions League contenders.
“I actually told my partner that we’re not booking our holidays until we had the fixtures,” he recalls. “Afterwards, we looked at the dates more closely and said we wanted to go to the game in Barcelona, so we came back from our holiday on the day of the match and managed to organise it. I was able to go to Prague before that and I saw a few matches in Guingamp, so it was really amazing.”
With Brest’s own stadium too small to host Champions League games, the club were obliged to stage their home fixtures in Guingamp, over 100km away, though that didn’t prevent them from securing a knockout phase play-off berth before their 3-0 home loss to Real Madrid on Matchday 8. For that historic fixture, around 1,000 Brest supporters marched to the stadium together in a carnival of noise and colour, chanting songs and waving flares. Naturally, Madouas was right there with them. “It was great. No matter the result, everybody wanted to enjoy it and get the most from the experience.”
A member of the Groupama-FDJ cycling team, Madouas is still pinching himself after Brest’s eye-catching maiden campaign, which finally ended in a heavy 10-0 aggregate defeat by Paris Saint-Germain in the play-offs. However, not even their most optimistic fans had imagined them getting that far.
Silver medal at the Paris Olympics! Bretagne Classic winner in 2023! French champion the same year! You might think that professional cyclist Valentin Madouas enjoys nothing more than sitting back and chatting about his achievements. Or maybe discussing bike frames, brakes and tyres. Not so much. Turns out, what really greases his gears in his spare time is football – and, more specifically, his beloved home-town club Brest.
“But I talk about cycling all year – football is a bit different,” says the 28-year-old, who is not just any old fan. Lifelong super-fan might be a more fitting title, Madouas making pains to attend matches whenever he can. And his eagerness to see Brest in action was never more acute than this season as the Brittany outfit took their very first steps in Europe as surprise Champions League contenders.
“I actually told my partner that we’re not booking our holidays until we had the fixtures,” he recalls. “Afterwards, we looked at the dates more closely and said we wanted to go to the game in Barcelona, so we came back from our holiday on the day of the match and managed to organise it. I was able to go to Prague before that and I saw a few matches in Guingamp, so it was really amazing.”
With Brest’s own stadium too small to host Champions League games, the club were obliged to stage their home fixtures in Guingamp, over 100km away, though that didn’t prevent them from securing a knockout phase play-off berth before their 3-0 home loss to Real Madrid on Matchday 8. For that historic fixture, around 1,000 Brest supporters marched to the stadium together in a carnival of noise and colour, chanting songs and waving flares. Naturally, Madouas was right there with them. “It was great. No matter the result, everybody wanted to enjoy it and get the most from the experience.”
A member of the Groupama-FDJ cycling team, Madouas is still pinching himself after Brest’s eye-catching maiden campaign, which finally ended in a heavy 10-0 aggregate defeat by Paris Saint-Germain in the play-offs. However, not even their most optimistic fans had imagined them getting that far.
“When you’re Stade Brestois, you think you’re going to lose all your matches,” says Madouas. “When you’re sitting in the top three for four or five matchdays, it’s quite remarkable. Then you play in Barcelona against one of Europe’s biggest clubs. Going there with thousands of people from Brest, you tell yourself only football can make this kind of thing happen.”
Not that cycling doesn’t provide its own rewards. Huge crowds cheered Madouas on as he took silver in the men’s individual road race at the 2024 Olympics. The Brest players were watching too, albeit on TV during a pre-season trip to Italy, but coach Éric Roy invited Madouas to visit the squad back in France. “I knew they’d watched me racing – I’d received videos of them all supporting me,” he says. “I went there to show them the medal at the beginning of the season.”
The son of former pro cyclist Laurent Madouas has formed a close bond with his fellow athletes, especially midfielder Jonas Martin. “I often exchange texts with quite a few players,” he says. “Jonas lives just a few blocks away. We went out on a bike ride one day. He told me, ‘I love cycling,’ so we found a bike and cycled for a little bit more than 60km. He has good cardio.”
That may not be enough to enter the Tour de France, but Madouas feels Brest completed their own metaphorical Tour stage this season, likening their Champions League feats to one of the race’s most notorious climbs. “They had a really good start and then it got harder,” he explains. “I might say it was like the Alpe d’Huez, because when you start, you have all the wide turns, and the closer you get to the end, the more turns there are. That kind of resembles the campaign Stade Brestois had.”
Their eventual drop off the other side of the mountain may have felt a little brutal, but what a ride it was to get there.
Silver medal at the Paris Olympics! Bretagne Classic winner in 2023! French champion the same year! You might think that professional cyclist Valentin Madouas enjoys nothing more than sitting back and chatting about his achievements. Or maybe discussing bike frames, brakes and tyres. Not so much. Turns out, what really greases his gears in his spare time is football – and, more specifically, his beloved home-town club Brest.
“But I talk about cycling all year – football is a bit different,” says the 28-year-old, who is not just any old fan. Lifelong super-fan might be a more fitting title, Madouas making pains to attend matches whenever he can. And his eagerness to see Brest in action was never more acute than this season as the Brittany outfit took their very first steps in Europe as surprise Champions League contenders.
“I actually told my partner that we’re not booking our holidays until we had the fixtures,” he recalls. “Afterwards, we looked at the dates more closely and said we wanted to go to the game in Barcelona, so we came back from our holiday on the day of the match and managed to organise it. I was able to go to Prague before that and I saw a few matches in Guingamp, so it was really amazing.”
With Brest’s own stadium too small to host Champions League games, the club were obliged to stage their home fixtures in Guingamp, over 100km away, though that didn’t prevent them from securing a knockout phase play-off berth before their 3-0 home loss to Real Madrid on Matchday 8. For that historic fixture, around 1,000 Brest supporters marched to the stadium together in a carnival of noise and colour, chanting songs and waving flares. Naturally, Madouas was right there with them. “It was great. No matter the result, everybody wanted to enjoy it and get the most from the experience.”
A member of the Groupama-FDJ cycling team, Madouas is still pinching himself after Brest’s eye-catching maiden campaign, which finally ended in a heavy 10-0 aggregate defeat by Paris Saint-Germain in the play-offs. However, not even their most optimistic fans had imagined them getting that far.
