Freddy Ovett (21) son of 800m Olympic gold medallist Steve Ovett has quit running and graduated from the Victorian Institute of Sport’s cycling programme to chase his dream in Europe. Ovett has signed with the development squad of Ag2R-La Mondiale for 2015.

His father Steve won gold in the Olympic 800m in Moscow in 1980 and during his career, developed a massive rivalry with fellow Briton Sebastian Coe.

Freddy initally took up athletics, attending the University of Oregon in the US. However, he was hampered by a knee injury and took up the bike instead.

VIS coach Dave Sanders told The Courier Mail that the Scottish-born and Noosa-raised cyclist is a special talent. “He has a big motor and more than anything else he has the desire. He was very keen, and very green mind you and he won’t mind me saying that, so he’s got to learn how about style and how to race. But the European racing will suit him a lot better than the Australian racing because his talent will really shine when it’s a ‘last man standing, hill-top finish’.

His manager, retired Australian sprinter Baden Cooke who won the green jersey at the Tour de France helped secure him a spot on Ag2R-La Mondiale’s under-23 team.

“He (Cooke) spoke with Vincent Lavenu who is the head of the professional team and told him about my story,” Freddy said. “Baden and I discussed this at great length and figured that the French racing scene suited me best out of all the different racing scenes in the world.”

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