Cofidis respond to Guillaume Martin's complaints and insist bike weight "is not the only performance factor"

Guillaume Martin had a solid if unspectacular 2024 Tour de France. Finishing as the top ranked French rider in the general classification, Martin was still over 14 minutes off the top-10 in 13th, a total of 43:49 down on Maillot Jaune winner Tadej Pogacar.

Post-Tour de France, the Cofidis star lamented in conversation with Le Monde about the weight of his LOOK bicycle, insisting the extra weight had held him back over the course of the Grand Tour. "If you calculate with a bike that weighed a kilo too much, I wouldn't have finished 45 seconds behind the Pogacar group at the top of the Bonette. I could have stayed with them and also taken some time to eat. I would have felt better anyway if I knew that everything was better. We pay attention to weight with nutrition all year..."

With Martin's comments since going viral across cycling social media, Cofidis have felt the need to come out in defence of their bicycle supplier. "The Cofidis team affirms its total confidence in Look and Corima," the team statement begins. "The bikes used by all the riders were designed jointly with our performance department and the design and research offices of our partners. Some of our riders actively participated in this design by providing their expertise and sharing their feelings, to offer the team high-tech equipment."

"The weight of the bikes is an important subject of attention, but it is not the only performance factor. The bike used by Guillaume Martin is the subject of specific equipment choices so as not to exceed 7.4 kg, a measurement slightly below the average of the bikes of the best riders in the peloton," the team continues. "Our riders benefit, with the LOOK 795 Blade RS frames, from cutting-edge equipment developed by our partners' engineers, offering a stiffness/aerodynamics/weight ratio approved by our riders for over a year. We are convinced that these performances have allowed us and will allow us to compete with our competitors. We have also won several victories in the 2023 Tour de France, the 2023 Vuelta and the 2024 Giro with this same bike and have just finished once again with the highest-ranked French rider overall in this 2024 edition of the Tour de France. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our partners and especially the LOOK Cycle and CORIMA brands for their trust and the involvement of their teams who work alongside us to develop the best equipment for our riders."