She is the team’s second signing announced, after Aurore Pernollet. The news came through on Sunday 27 September, early in the morning, at the hour when the bikes come out of the garage. Charlène Clavel has only one full season at national level, in 2026, riding for Team Buffaz Gestion de Patrimoine, with a second place on the second stage of the Grand Prix Diffusport at Leval and a fifth place at the Tour d’Ambert Livradois, two rounds of the Coupe de France N1, then a sixth place at the Tour de Charente-Maritime and an eleventh at the French Amateur Championship.
Before that came ten years of professional handball at Nîmes then Nantes, and triathlon, up to a world title over the long distance. Turning professional in a third different discipline is presented as a rare feat. Riders usually count seasons; she counts sports.
In handball, you pass the ball, you catch it with your hands, everyone finds that normal. In the bunch, we call it a bidon, and you catch it at the team car, with one hand, while riding, and suddenly everyone finds that difficult. Now there will be wheels everywhere, a sports director on the radio, and a car whose window height she’ll have to learn. That takes a spring. At the front, I couldn’t tell you. At the back, I can tell you we’ll be glad to have someone who knows how to catch.
Three sports means three changing rooms, three ways of saying good morning. I only ever knew one, the bunch, and the bus, and the club car on Sundays, and I’ve already been told I talk too much about bidons. Where I came from, you went back to the car and came back with your jersey full, and nobody asked where you’d been, they only asked if you’d remembered the still water. She arrives with a stage runner-up finish and a world title in another sport, that’s more than my whole palmarès. A hundred and twelfth. Inside the time limit. A bidon has to be earned, and she’s already used to hands.
It’s true, we checked: DirectVelo.
