Jens Voigt stays with Trek Factory Racing - teaching others to tell their legs to "shut up"

Jens Voigt is to stay with Trek Factory Racing as a consultant to the Luxembourg-based team and encourage a new generation of riders to tell their legs to “shut up.”

The German, aged 43, retired in September after a professional career spanning 18 seasons, with this season seeing him take part in a record-equalling 17th Tour de France.

His final ride saw him break the Hour record, the first man to do so under current UCI rules, though his distance was beaten by Austrian rider Matthias Brändle.

Trek Factory Racing general manager Luca Guercilena said: "We want to keep Jens’ heritage alive and tie it to the present team. I’d love all of our riders to ride like Jens used to ride. He raced full gas and gave everything to the team, every race.

“Jens won a whole lot of races, but maybe he is more popular because of the races that he didn’t win than the races that he won. His attitude, motivation, and experience is something that we want to continue within our team."

Voigt is currently with the team at a training camp in Spain but starts his new role next month at the Team Down Under.

He said: “I’ll take on an active role in the team staff and my new role involves a lot of things: coaching and motivating the riders, helping out the youngsters, and directing at a few select races, once I have obtained my director certificate.”

He added: “I am really looking forward to continue working with Trek Factory Racing, the team I love! Of course, it hurts seeing the boys go out for training in the morning and leaving the ‘old man’ back at the hotel. But I am sure that this is the dream job after my active career on the bike.

“I've always raced with my heart and left all I had on the road. I'm super happy to share my advice and especially help the young riders to race like that in the future. I want to inspire them to take chances and be an active part of a race.”