March 06, 2014 (Montreal, QC) – Francois (“Frank”) Parisien, who retired last year from the WorldTour peloton, has now joined the French-language sports channel RDS (Réseau des Sports) as a commentator and analyst.

“It is just a great opportunity for me. It is nice to receive a call and get offered this kind of job,” Parisien told Pedal. “Communication is exactly what I wanted to do after cycling and I’m able to do it live on TV with RDS, but also everyday for PowerWatts International. Now I just need to transfer all I have learned during 18 years of cycling and communicate it to people. I hope I won’t be too ‘stiff’ at first and that people will appreciate my work.”

When asked how English speakers can follow his broadcasts, Parisien responded that, “Anglophones are welcome to Tweet questions to RDS and it will be my pleasure to answer.” Parisien’s Twitter handle is @Frankywild.

We also asked Parisien how he will still find time to compete in albeit few races this year. “I’m starting to be pretty busy with all of the new commitments I made, but I’m still going to race a bit once again. I will be racing for fun and will try to communicate and give my cycling passion to the next generation of cyclists.”

Parisien, who rode for Argos Shimano in 2013, distinguished himself that year with a Stage 5 win at the Tour of Cataluña, becoming the first Quebecer to win a WorldTour race. The cyclist, who turns 32 next month, was the 2005 Canadian road champ. As previously reported, Parisien will also be riding both mountain and road bikes for OPUS this year as a brand ambassador (see link below).

Wikipedia describes RDS as, “a Canadian French language Category C specialty channel showing sports and sport-related shows. It is available in 2.5 million homes, and is owned by CTV Specialty Television Inc. (Bell Media 80% and ESPN 20%). Its full name (usually prefaced in speech by the French article “le”) translates literally as “The Network of Sports”, a rough translation of the name of its English-language sister network, TSN.”

Parisien’s signing with RDS follows on the heels of news that David Veilleux, another retired Quebec WorldTour rider, has signed on as a columnist with the Montreal tabloid le Journal de Montreal (see link below).

Parisien to ride for Opus here.

Veilleux joins le Journal here.