It is now certain: Emilien Jacquelin will skip the 2026/27 biathlon season and is targeting a professional cycling contract

Emilien Jacquelin is heading towards saying “no” to the 2026/27 season in the sport where he achieved tremendous success, including two Olympic medals last season: biathlon, which he has put on hold to embark on a crazy but wonderful and deeply meaningful cycling adventure, given his passion for cycling since childhood.

Last Monday, the Frenchman secured an excellent 14^th place in the road race at the Mediterranean Games in Taranto (he was racing alone for the French selection and also suffered a mechanical problem while he was in the group fighting for the top five). However, his performances on his debut in top-level professional races such as La Polynormande, and especially the Tour du Limousin, were even more impressive, where he was a key domestique in his teammate Noa Isidore’s two stage victories.

Decathlon CMA CGM signed Jacquelin from May 1 with its Devo team, meaning he can only compete in events outside the World Tour (cycling’s top circuit). However, according to L’Equipe, talks are under way to enable Emilien to race as a professional for the entire 2027 season, not necessarily with the powerful French team that is placing its strongest focus on Paul Seixas and sprinter Olav Kooij.

At present, the World Tour team has 22 riders under contract for next year, although the signing of Pavel Sivakov from UAE is already certain, and there is room to reach 30. The Olympic champion has hired an agent, who also works with several leading French riders, to secure a contract with either a World Tour team (there are 18 on the global scene) or a ProTeam. The latter would still offer important opportunities to race the best events in the world, clearly not with the objective of achieving results personally, but certainly allowing him to make a significant contribution.

Europe’s leading sports daily stressed that several teams have already formally expressed interest in the 31-year-old from Villard-de-Lans. Regarding his future, he had said that he was not certain he would return to biathlon ahead of the 2030 Olympic Games on home soil, in the French Alps, preferring to remain focused on his current cycling career and hoping to have another good race schedule in September.

Simon Fourcade, the French national team’s shooting coach, was very clear from the training camp in Bessans, as were the conditions for returning to the Équipe de France for a possible season on skis with rifle in hand: by the end of August. “I don’t think Emilien will return to us for the next competitive winter.”