Bringing to an end a career which saw him win stages in the Tours of Britain and Wallonie, take team time trials in the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia and twice become New Zealand road race champion, Julian Dean has revealed that he is hanging up his wheels and will instead go into a management role.
The 37 year old will switch from his current position as an Orica GreenEdge rider to that of assistant directeur sportif and mentor for 2013.
“It is not the way I had envisaged finishing my career. I thought hard about another season,” he told Fairfax NZ News. “GreenEdge were great to offer me another chance to ride but it is the right time, and the team has an opportunity to begin a new career in team management.
“The sport is in a very good place. With all world-tour riders part of programmes such as the biological passport it has the most comprehensive anti-doping system in the world. That encourages me and is one of the reasons that I have decided to remain in the sport I love because I firmly believe the future is bright.”
Dean turned pro in 1999 with the US Postal Service team and stayed there for three years. That squad was investigated by USADA and as a result of that enquiry, Lance Armstrong was stripped of all of his results since 1998, including his seven Tour titles, and was also handed a lifetime ban.
After leaving the US squad at the end of 2001, Dean spent two years with CSC Tiscali and then four with Crédit Agricole. He then moved to Garmin Slipstream and helped riders such as Tyler Farrar there, as well as winning the team time trial in the 2010 Giro d’Italia and 2011 Tour de France.
GreenEdge came calling prior to the 2012 season and he moved across to there, although the year didn’t go as well as he had planned. He broke his shoulder last December during a team training camp, then after he returned to racing in the Volta Ciclista Catalunya, broke his leg in that event.
The fractured tibia and fibula meant that he missed the Olympic Games and was unable to reach his usual level of form before the end of the season. He did complete the Vuelta a España, the twentieth Grand Tour of his career.
Dean had intended to retire at the end of 2012 but gave serious consideration to doing one more season as his first with Orica GreenEdge was so disrupted. The Australian squad was prepared to give him a green light to do so, but he has ultimately opted to move into management instead.
However he will race a little more before hanging up his wheels. He will line out in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour next week, presumably as part of the New Zealand national team, using that event as a build-up for one last tilt at the Kiwi road race championships.
According to Orica GreenEdge manager Shayne Bannan, Dean has a reputation as one of the hardest riders in the bunch. “Orica GreenEdge was fortunate to have the experience of Julian for his final competitive year in what has been an outstanding career,” he said. “Toughness is a word you think of when you describe Julian as it has been this attribute that has made him one of the most respected on the scene.”
That toughness helped him come back from several big injuries, and also to complete all three Grand Tours in 2009.