2025 season review | Groupama - FDJ: How did Grégoire, Gaudu and Küng perform in 2025?

The 2025 season was a tumultuous ride for Groupama – FDJ. France’s long-standing WorldTour squad mixed bright flashes from its young talents with long, frustrating stretches where big results never quite arrived. I think that it is safe to say that this team has continued on its underwhelming trajectory that has been the norm in recent years. There were meaningful wins on home roads and a dramatic Grand Tour stage in Spain, but also a worrying slide down the rankings. This review looks at how Groupama – FDJ performed across the spring classics, the three Grand Tours, and the transfer market before landing on a verdict for their year.

Groupama – FDJ remains one of France’s flagship teams, run by veteran manager Marc Madiot and built on a long-established development pipeline. Their 2025 roster centered around David Gaudu for Grand Tours and Stefan Kung for time trials and cobbled classics, with Luxembourg champion Kévin Geniets supporting. A new generation led by Romain Grégoire took on more responsibility, especially after Lenny Martinez departed for Bahrain Victorious. The core of the season’s narrative revolved around whether this mixture of veterans and emerging riders could keep the squad among the WorldTour’s top performers.

At a glance, Groupama–FDJ matched their 2024 win total with 15 victories. Beneath those numbers, however, the season looked far weaker. Most triumphs came in smaller French races, and the squad’s WorldTour ranking fell to 18th, a steep drop from 10th the previous year. Although they stayed just ahead of relegation danger, this was a significant step backward for a team accustomed to mid-table security.

The spring classics summarized Groupama–FDJ’s year: honest performances, consistent presence, but no headline victories at cycling’s biggest one-day races.

Milano-Sanremo came and went with little impact, their lack of a top classics rider leaving them short of a viable plan on the Via Roma. On the cobbles, the weight fell heavily on Küng. He delivered strong results, 6th at E3 Saxo Classic, 9th at Dwars door Vlaanderen, and 7th at the Tour of Flanders, underlining his reliability. But at Paris–Roubaix, hopes of finally turning those numbers into a podium fizzled as he finished back in 43rd on a rough day where he suffered a nasty crash on the cobbles.

In the Ardennes, the spotlight shifted to Grégoire. The 22-year-old backed up his 2024 promise by finishing 7th at Amstel Gold Race and repeating his 7th place on the Mur de Huy at La Flèche Wallonne, with Martin close behind in 11th

The smaller one-days brought better returns. Grégoire opened the season with victory at the Faun-Ardèche Classic, while Martin bagged Classic Grand Besançon Doubs and Tour du Jura on consecutive days. Lewis Askey added Boucles de l’Aulne–Châteaulin and a stage of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque. These French successes kept morale up, but they did little for the WorldTour ranking. For that, presence in the big name races must be improved.

The Giro was meant to be Gaudu’s major mission after skipping the 2025 Tour. Early signs were decent, but the race quickly turned against him. Gaudu struggled in the high mountains, losing large chunks of time and falling deep down the standings. He ultimately finished 66th, and was never in the GC conversation. For a man who was once the next great French hope, outside the top 60 at the Giro was not good enough.

The Tour brought another early blow when Gaudu and the team decided he wouldn’t start, judging he wasn’t in the form needed after his Giro collapse. Leadership shifted to new signing Guillaume Martin, with a dual goal of hunting stages and shooting for a respectable GC.

Martin finished 16th overall, respectable, but nowhere near the kind of top-10 result that would change their season outlook. The fact his 16th at the Tour was the team’s second highest points haul of the year says enough. Meanwhile, Grégoire became one of the bright spots of the entire Tour for Groupama–FDJ. On debut, he sprinted to 4th on Stage 2, 5th on Stage 4, and later added another top-5 on Stage 20.

Stefan Küng worked hard, attacking breakaways and eyeing the long time trial, but never found the moment he needed. By the Champs-Élysées, Groupama – FDJ closed the Tour with no wins, no jerseys, and only mid-pack GC to show. It felt subdued, especially for a home Tour, though Grégoire’s progress stood out as a rare highlight.

The Vuelta began as a chance at redemption, and for a few days, it seemed they might seize it. With Gaudu, Martin, and Küng all starting, the lineup looked strong.

On Stage 3, Gaudu delivered one of the team’s top moments of the year. He powered to a stunning uphill sprint win over the mighty Danish duo of Mads Pedersen and Jonas Vingegaard, taking his first Grand Tour stage since 2019. The next day, he moved into the red jersey on countback. For a moment, Groupama – FDJ was leading a Grand Tour again.

That moment didn’t last. As the race hit harder climbs, Gaudu struggled with poor sensations, then crashed and injured his shoulder. Küng targeted the Stage 18 time trial but had to settle for a minor placing in 6th.

Taken across all three Grand Tours, Groupama – FDJ earned one stage win, one brief spell in a leader’s jersey, and a single 16th place as their best GC. It was a slight improvement in headline value but still a disappointing return for a team of their calibre.

The biggest off-season news was Küng’s departure after seven years, a major loss for a team that relied on his classics prowess and time-trial leadership. Lewis Askey also leaves for Premier Tech, and experienced helpers Sven Erik Bystrøm and Clément Davy exit too. Incoming riders fit the team’s traditional model: young and climbing-oriented. Clément Berthet, Bastien Tronchon, and Ewen Costiou give the squad more mountain depth.

Groupama–FDJ’s 2025 season was a step backward overall, softened by pockets of promise. Matching last year’s win count hid a deeper decline: fewer big results, fewer ranking points, and only one Grand Tour stage victory. Grégoire took a big step forward, Gaudu delivered one brilliant Vuelta stage, and the team’s French one-day results kept morale afloat. But the lack of major wins and thin GC results emphasised the season’s shortcomings.

Looking back on Groupama – FDJ’s 2025 season, I was left feeling torn. On one hand, the team showed real promise, especially with Romain Grégoire stepping up and David Gaudu delivering that brilliant Vuelta stage win. But the overall picture felt flat. Too many near-misses, too few big results, and a WorldTour ranking that drifted worryingly downward. It wasn’t a disaster, but it didn’t feel like a team pushing forward either. In reality, its all becoming too similar for Groupama and Mr Madiot.

I wouldn't put a certain number on Groupama, it continues to feel like a team that is stuck in the past so to say and races under different circumstances than most in the current peloton. Now, certainly budget plays a big role in this, but its leaders just do not perform as you'd expect.

There is one big exception which is Romain Grégoire, who won the Tour of Britain, at the Tour de Suisse where he led and overall he performed well throughout the entire year. But it's 2025, no World Tour team can depend on a puncheur to be its leader, because the strongest puncheurs are now also the climbers.

Stefan Küng is usually always there but can't win a cobbled classic and is now also unable to win time trials at the top level; David Gaudu continues to have the same good legs but only has 2 or 3 good race days a year; Guillaume Martin was too affected by injuries; Valentin Madouas was nowhere to be seen... And the team doesn't have other men it can rely on. There's no top sprinter, no top climber and it's essentially a French cup team like all French teams except AG2R (who to be honest, also had a lot of their success only there this year). Groupama just had a lackluster year, my most memorable moment was Grégoire trying to follow Pogacar, van der Poel and Ganna on the Cipressa - a race that didn't bring the team a result. That's about it.

Groupama is a team that works with limited resources in terms of firepower and the success of their season is directly translated as success of it's three leaders; David Gaudu, Stefan Küng and Romain Gregoire. Gregoire lived up to expectations most of the trio with a plethora of smaller (mostly 2.Pro) victories, but also one stage at the Tour de Suisse and distinguishable performances in Ardennes and hilly stages at Tour. 9/10

Kung rode once again a solid classics campaign where he was in the contention and even top-10'd most, but at the same time never really contested the desired victory. Haunted by a series of minor health problems, he didn't really perform in the rest of the season, particularly the time trials (10th at WC, 8th at EC and 3rd at Chrono des Nations), leaving much to be desired. 3/10

Gaudu showed us two completely different faces in 2025. Starting off the year well in Oman, he entirely disappeared for 6 months until he materialized from the thin air to win a stage and take Red jersey at the start of Vuelta. Afterwards, he again vanished without a trace. 3/10

Of course there are other riders in Groupama, but none really shined in the races that mattered. Guillaume Martin won two 1.1 races in France and finished 16th at Tour, Lewis Askey and Thibaud Gruel were strong in the non-WT races as well, but for me it doesn't change the overall impression of insufficiency. If I average it, I get 5/10 for Groupama - FDJ in 2025.