Jens Voigt has spent the last few seasons at Trek Factory Racing and despite the 42 year old retiring after the 2014 USA Pro Challenge, he will remain with the squad as a team consultant.

In an interview with TrekFactoryRacing.com, the German says that he isn’t coping with retirement too well and says that he is missing the hustle and bustle of being in the peloton.

“I have to say it’s a challenge and I struggle with it sometimes. You have to take care of things you never had to before. It’s a complete turnover in life!  It’s like someone has chopped your leg off, or a hand  – something is just missing after doing this for 33 years.”

“It’s a whole new process – for the moment I am more busy with more travel then what I wanted, I need to adjust my lifestyle. I thought retired means I go fishing everyday and I have not even been fishing once yet!  I have to look at everything and organize things; it’s a big change and I am in the middle of this transition period but I am looking forward to the new challenges.”

Voigt elaborated on exactly what his new role at the American-registered WorldTour team would be as well:

“It seems like it will be a bit of everything, which I really like. There will be some coaching, sport director, and I will work on the motivational side with the younger riders, give them advice and help coach their careers, and tackle obstacles in their way.  I will work with Tim (Vanderjeugd, PR and Media) and do some press work, and with Nathalie (Desmarets, Hospitality and Events) to do some events at the races.”

Voigt will slowly begin to adapt to his new role and he will try and get his Directors license, in order to make himself even more useful to the team in the coming seasons.

"Hopefully, I will start easy at the smaller races. I will be a total newbie assistant! I will sit next to Adriano (Baffi) or Kim (Andersen) or Alain (Gallopin) at first, go with them to the director’s meeting, listen to what they say, and find out how everything works. I have to find out how to do the daily program - what time we leave the hotel, what time the soigneurs leave, what time the bags have to be ready…”

“At first I will sit in the co-driver’s seat to see how they actually drive and talk to the riders, listen to the tour radio, look in front, in the mirror behind, change wheels and all that. The driving I think is going to be a crazy challenge! What frightens me is that I have only retired two and half months ago and know 80% of the riders more or less personally, and the other 20% are probably nice blokes, so I don’t want to hurt any of them!  I will have to pass the peloton in a race, or if a rider is hanging at the car getting bottles I have to look at the right, left, for others – I mean you don’t want to hurt any of your friends!  That is a challenge, and a little frightening to not make a wrong move there.”

Voigt has hardly touched his bike since retiring and he says that wants to keep it this way, only using it to ride Charity Events and for Trek Travel rides. He will try to do some commentating for NBC in the US and Eurosport in Europe as well. He says the hardest thing is seeing his old teammates at the Calpe training camp and not being able to ride with them.

“You see all the brand new shiny Trek bikes and think, ‘yah they look good,’ but it is the first time in 33 years that I don’t get a new bike! I mean I will get one later, I was promised one, but you see the boys on the new bikes leaving for training and you go back into the hotel and that is a little sting in the heart.”

“Probably next year when Paris-Nice comes around and the boys have to do a stage in the rain and crosswind then I will say, ‘ah yah, good that I stopped!’”

"But definitely it’s different.  Quite frankly I think I underestimated how much racing meant to me and how hard it was going to be to cut the connection.What I like about retirement is I get to do things I have not done before.”