“Almost impossible for us to compete” – Cofidis react to invisible Tour de France

Cofidis slipped through this year’s Tour de France with little fanfare and even fewer results. The French squad failed to register a single stage win, never threatened the leaderboards, and earned just €15,510, about 2.2% of what dominant team UAE Emirates-XRG took home. Most of their visibility came when 11 of their bikes, worth an estimated €143,000, were stolen during the first week. On the road, their involvement was largely limited to Bryan Coquard’s role in a crash that forced Jasper Philipsen to abandon, a collision ruled a racing incident.

No, not exactly a Tour to write home about. But how has the team reacted to a disappointing three weeks in France?

"We struggled to find our rhythm and were often absent in the decisive stages of the race," team director Cédric Vasseur told DirectVelo. "We found some of our joy on the Champs-Élysées with Dylan Teuns and Alex Aranburu as protagonists, but it was still a difficult edition... We'll have to take a step back to understand the reasons for our leaders' absence."

Vasseur acknowledged that the team fell short of expectations despite strong performances earlier in the season. "We saw him perform very well in the Dauphiné, but he probably peaked at the wrong time," he said of Emanuel Buchmann, their top finisher in 30th overall. "We saw him start the Tour de France looking very thin. We're going to do medical tests to see if he's injured anything. His level in the Dauphiné was well above that of the Tour."

Vasseur stood by his roster, even in the face of underperformance. "We have riders of a very high level, who have won the Tour in the past, and guys who should have performed better. Perhaps they arrived at the Tour tired... We weren't at our best, we're disappointed, but on paper, we had the best team."

He pointed to modest successes outside the Tour as a sign the team isn’t broken, just outclassed at the sport’s highest level. "Oliver Knight won the second stage of the Tour de Wallonie, Jesús Herrada finished second in Spain, so you could say... But there's such a huge difference in level between the Tour de France and other races... We deployed the most experienced team here, and it didn't work."

Whilst these results outside of the Tour are positive, nothing compares in terms of priority with the Tour. It has now been two years since Ion Izagirre won stage 12 of the 2023 Tour, the teams last victory at the Tour de France.

Looking for answers, Vasseur hinted at deeper changes ahead. "We'll have to look at how other teams are preparing for the Tour de France. Is there work to be done in terms of nutrition? Are technological developments possible, particularly in aerodynamics?" He reflected on how racing has evolved beyond what Cofidis brought to the line. "We see that riders hardly need to take a break during a stage... A new kind of cycling is emerging, and that only leaves room for those who truly perform at the highest level."

The presence of Pogacar, who claimed another Tour title, set the bar impossibly high. "When Pogacar and his team are at the start of a race, it's almost impossible for us to compete. He's extremely fast; he's never been that fast in a Tour de France. When I was a rider, we needed a break every now and then. Now there was never a moment of rest," Vasseur said.

Despite all of it, he’s not throwing in the towel. "There will be a strong desire for revenge. The team is ready to fight all the way to Guangxi."