"A clear objective for the team to win" - Valentin Madouas hopes to strike big in 2023 cobbled classics campaign

Valentin Madouas upped his game in 2022 and had a tremendous season with Groupama-FDJ. In 2023 he will start the year with many ambitions, the main ones revolving around his return to the cobbled classics.

"For this new 2023 season, I am planning for the Classics campaign and the big races with a clear objective for the team to win," the 26-year old said in a press release. "Last year, we came very close to a victory with many podiums, especially in Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders. This year, the desire to raise our arms to a Monument is naturally all the greater."

Whilst his goal is for the team to succeed collectively, he has a big part to play. At the Tour des Flandres Madouas showed incredibly talent on the punchy terrain and sprinted to third in Oudenaarde. This followed a 7th place at the E3 Saxo Bank Classic which is the most comparable race to the Ronde.

His success wasn't only in the cobbled however, but his first goals will lay there. The Tour de France, World Championships and late-season classics should form his second part of the season. This year he was close to a stage win, but finished 10th at the Tour whilst supporting David Gaudu, and won the Tour du Doubs and two stages wins at the Tour Luxembourg towards the end of the year. Alongside Stefan Küng, Arnaud Démare and Jake Stewart there will be weapons to aim high at the cobbles, mainly in the more gentle classics.

"Personally, I hope to be as efficient as in 2022 and even go one step further, by continuing to progress and raise my arms for the team. We have a very good collective which will improve further, with the aim of reproducing the very good performances achieved last year," he concluded.