As he stepped into the Lampre-Daikin campervan, Brent Copeland felt his heartrate rising. By now in his late-20s, Brent had already spent seven years plying his trade in European cycling. Starting off as an aspiring elite amateur rider in Switzerland in 1994, he then assumed the role of soigneur at the elite and then professional level. And now his unplanned trajectory had taken another step; he was now the youngest sporting director in the upper echelons of professional cycling. And as he explains, it was a role that made him particularly nervous.
'I was only 27 years old then,' remembers Brent. 'Lampre-Daikin had promoted me to the role of sporting director (DS) because of a change in the UCI rules at the end of 2000. Up until then, I'd been working for the team as a soigneur but had always driven the second team car in the race convoy. The rule change now required the second car to be driven by a DS and because I already had a DS license, the team asked me to assume the role. It was a little nerve wracking in the beginning to say the least.'