Lilian Jégou has decided to stop his professional cycling career. The Frenchman joined the Continental team Bretagne-Schuller in 2009. With a recent second child as part of the family, Jégou wants to spend more time at home, according to Cyclism'Actu.
Jégou was a stagiaire with Crédit Agricole in 2002 and rode for the French team in 2003 and 2004. He then moved to Française des Jeux, where he stayed until leaving the ProTour for Bretagne-Schuller.
Jégou won La Tropicale Amissa Bongo Ondimba stage race in Gabon in 2008. That same year he was third in stage four of the Circuit de la Sarthe - Pays de la Loire, between Angers and Fresnay-sur-Sarthe.
He had one of his best races in the 2008 Tro-Bro Léon. Dubbed the mini Paris-Roubaix for its cobbles and bad roads, the race was held in dismal weather that April. Jégou was one of the early active riders in the heavy rain, eventually finishing in fourth, just outside the podium. The winner of the 1997 Paris-Roubaix, Frédéric Guesdon, won the Tro-Bro Léon, ahead of Maxim Gourov and Julien Belgy. A year later, Jégou made it onto the podium in the Tro-Bro Léon, behind Saïd Haddou and teammate Stéphane Bonsergent. Jégou was also fifth in 2006.
Other top placings include a second place in the 2005 Classic Haribo, a third place in the 2006 GP Cholet - Pays de Loire, and a ninth place in stage 19 of the 2007 Giro d'Italia, from Treviso to Comano Terme. Jégou was tenth in the GP Fourmies, one of his last races as a professional.
One of his worse moments came in the 2008 Tour de France. After making some headlines by joining several breaks in the opening stages, the Frenchman crashed heavily in stage seven. He hit a tree and was lying on the road side, unconscious. Fortunately he quickly recovered, but it did turn out that his third Tour de France was also his last. The only one he finished was in 2007, when he came to Paris in 96th place.