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In the two years since he won the British national Omnium title, Oscar Nilsson-Julien has moved to France, switched racing nationality, and earned his spot in the country’s track cycling squad for the Paris Olympics.
“It’s been incredible,” he tells Cycling Weekly inside the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome. “We’ve got probably the best accommodation possible, in a castle. We’ve got great cooks, nutritionists. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so well. And we’ve got massive gardens.
“[Julian] Alaphilippe, first day, comes up and sits next to me at dinner and we just chatted for a bit, and [Christophe] Laporte is really humble. That was quite cool. For them, they don’t care, but for me, these are guys I’ve watched on TV.”
Nilsson-Julien grew up in North London, born to a French-Swedish father (hence the surname) and an English mother. As a child, he went to a bilingual school, and began riding on the track at Herne Hill Velodrome, the athlete factory that boasts Fred Wright, Ethan Hayter and Tom Gloag among its alumni, when he was nine years old.
Later, as many of the country’s most promising cyclists do, he joined the British Cycling academy programme, and moved to Manchester to train.
“On the academy, it was difficult, but I learned what I wanted to get out of cycling,” the 22-year-old says. “It’s very structured. You only have one coach, and you have to hit these targets, but it forces you to dig deep and really push yourself. If you win a gold medal with GB, it’s expected. If you win a gold medal with France, it’s incredible.”
(Image credit: Allan McKenzie/SWpix)
In late 2022, after winning a British national track title, the Londoner moved to the south of France to pursue a road career with AVC Aix-en-Provence. At that point, switching nationality wasn’t on his mind. “I was finding it tough to enjoy what I was doing, basically. I needed a change,” he says.
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Nilsson-Julien initially put a pin in his track cycling to focus on his road ambitions. Then, one day, his coach put him in touch with the French national team. “Florian Rousseau, the boss of the French federation, called me up saying, ‘Do you want to swap?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah. I’ve got nothing to lose’,” he remembers.
Eighteen months on, the 22-year-old is now at a home Games in Paris. He’s part of France’s squad as a reserve, an understudy for Benjamin Thomas, the nation’s new Omnium champion. Within the team, he says, there have been hints of mockery towards him.
“Sometimes they’re like, ‘Ah, but you’re British’, as in, ‘You’ve got a different culture’. Not in a negative way, but in a funny way,” he says. “There are things I’ll do that they won’t get, like I’ll be very sarcastic, and they won’t always understand my sarcasm.
“I definitely feel more French now than I did before. I feel very French. I live in France now, my French has progressed, and I’m fully bilingual. But I feel both. I’ve always felt both. I don’t feel attached to either country more than the other. I like both cultures for different reasons,” he says, adding with a smile: “and I dislike both cultures for different reasons.”
For the remainder of this year, Nilsson-Julien will ride with French Continental team Van Rysel-Roubaix as a stagiaire on the road. He’s set to race the Tour of Britain next month, before his attention turns to the Track World Championships, scheduled for October in Copenhagen, which is his “main goal” of the season.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Since moving to France two years ago, life has been “way happier”, Nilsson-Julien explains. Does he have any regrets about leaving the British Cycling system? “There was a moment when I had to take a risk,” he says.
“I didn’t know what the French federation was like, either. It was a good decision. It’s put me here. I’ve come second in a Nations Cup. I don’t have any regrets, really. The only thing you miss is the people, the staff, the riders that you get along with.
“It rains all the time in Manchester, southern France is way better. It’s hot all the time, blue skies, and it barely rains.”
Now, with just a few days remaining of the Olympics, the Londoner is determined to learn as much as he can from the experience. “I’m trying not to get in the way of the guys in the group,” he laughs. “I’m just trying to have fun and soak up what I can do, so that in four years, when I actually have to race, I’m not trying to do things I can’t do.”
Come the Los Angeles Games in 2028, Nilsson-Julien might be standing on the podium, singing ‘La Marseillaise’ as a proud Frenchman, one that was born and raised in London.
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