“We are very pleased to announce that we will be supporting François Parisien for 2014! More details to follow soon,” is all a short announcement indicates.
Parisien, Canada’s 2005 road champ, made the news in 2013 by becoming the first Quebecer to win a WorldTour event at Stage 5 of the Tour of Cataluña. He was in the headlines again after leaving his Netherlands-based Argos-Shimano team at the end of the season to return to Canada. Parisien was unable to come to agreement with team management on a new contract and soon after announced his retirement.
“Starting January 2014, I will be working for the company PowerWatts International. This association will give me the opportunity to keep racing for pleasure in local races, and keep me in contact with many athletes from all levels and help them to reach their own objectives,” announced Parisien in late 2013. He also told Pedal then that he intended to race at the Mardis Cyclistes crit series in 2014.
Opus sponsors individual road cyclists, such as Véronique Labonté, who typically races on both sides of the Atlantic wearing the jersey of French-based team CSM Épinay sur Seine. Opus also sponsors a national Cross-Country Mountain Bike Team that in 2013 included Andréanne Pichette, Alex Frappier, Steven Noble, Mathieu Bélanger-Barrette, Daniel Varga and Frédérique Larose-Gingras.
“Opus is fully supporting me for all bikes: road, MTB and XC,” Parisien told Pedal. “The bike I’m holding (in the Facebook photo) is the latest Vivace with Di2 Dura-Ace 11-speed.”
Thanks to Pasquale Stalteri for sending in this news.