Mickaël Delage

Mickaël Delage (born 6 August 1985) is a French former professional road and track cyclist, who last rode for UCI WorldTeam .

Career Born in Libourne, Delage participated at the World Track Championships in Moscow in 2003 as a junior, where he won the silver medal at the points race, after Australian Miles Olman. In that same year he would become national junior champion of France at the team pursuit (alongside Jonathan Mouchel, Yannick Marie and Mickaël Mallie) and the madison (together with Mouchel). In 2004 he would win the national title in the points race at the under-23 level.

Delage spent 17 years as a professional rider on the road, riding for 15 of those years with the team across two spells. He made his Giro d'Italia debut in 2006 and finished in 129th position and he won the 1st stage of the Tour de l'Avenir. Later that year he would again become French national champion when he won the team pursuit together with Mathieu Ladagnous, Jonathan Mouchel, Sylvain Blanquefort and Mickaël Preau. In 2007 he made his Tour de France debut.

Delage's two periods with FDJ were separated by an interlude with , joining the Belgian squad alongside FDJ team-mate Philippe Gilbert. Whilst at Lotto he achieved what he later described as the best performance of his career, finishing as runner-up in the 2009 Clásica de San Sebastián. He returned to FDJ in 2011, where he found a role as a leadout man for Arnaud Démare.

Delage suffered injuries at the 2020 Tour de Pologne when he crashed whilst riding downhill at 80 km/h, including a meniscus injury and friction burns. Following this he decided to retire from competition when his contract expired at the end of the following season. Although his 2021 season was disrupted by undergoing knee surgery in March, he returned to competition at the French National Road Race Championships, and finished his career at Paris–Chauny in the autumn.

Major results

2003 National Junior Track Championships

2004

2005 9th Overall Circuit Franco-Belge 2006

1st Stage 1 Tour de l'Avenir 2007 10th Tour de Vendée 2008 4th Overall Tour Down Under 2009 2nd Clásica de San Sebastián 2010 3rd Road race, National Road Championships 2011 5th Overall Tour de Luxembourg 6th Paris–Tours 7th Overall Tour de Picardie 9th Overall Four Days of Dunkirk 9th Grand Prix d'Isbergues Tour de France

2012 3rd Cholet-Pays de Loire 3rd Grand Prix de la Somme 6th Polynormande 2013 1st La Roue Tourangelle 7th Paris–Bourges 2014 6th Paris–Bourges 9th Grand Prix d'Isbergues 10th Grand Prix de la Somme 2016 1st Stage 1 (TTT) La Méditerranéenne 4th La Roue Tourangelle 2018 8th Paris–Bourges 2019 7th Tro-Bro Léon

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

+ Legend — Did not compete DNF Did not finish