Frustrated Guillaume Martin felt like he was 'going round in circles' at Cofidis: "I needed a new challenge"
Cycling
After five seasons at Cofidis, Guillaume Martin has switched to Groupama - FDJ for the 2025 season and beyond. According to the man himself, a fresh start and a new challenge could be exactly what was needed for the 31-year-old Frenchman.
"It's a new adventure, and a return to my roots too, because I was an intern here a little over 10 years ago now. I was an intern at FDJ in 2014," Martin explains in conversation with Cyclism'Actu. "Afterwards, our paths separated for various reasons, but I had been at Cofidis for 5 years and I felt like I was going around in circles a bit; in any case, I needed a new challenge. We spoke, first with Philippe and Julien Pineau, then with Marc Madiot on the phone, and it quickly became obvious that this was the team I needed to be in, in 2025 and for the years to come."
With nine victories on his palmares, Martin has shown moments of brilliance over the course of his career to date. 3rd overall at the Criterium du Dauphine in 2020 and a three-time Top-10 finisher in a Grand Tour, Martin has also showcased his capabilities in a general classification sense. As such, in 2025, Groupama - FDJ have a dual Grand Tour schedule planned for the French star.
"Obviously, when you do two Grand Tours in a season, it will be the same for David Gaudu, you have to plan the rest of the season accordingly. My start to the season will therefore be a little lighter, even if there will be some great races on the program," he says. "But it's certain that the start of the Tour de France will be special for me, because there will be this passage at home in Normandy."
"One after the other, with David, we will be served," he adds in conclusion with a smile. "We have already divided up the stages: 'Stefan Küng wins the time trial in Caen, I win the next day and then David wins at the Mûr de Bretagne!'"
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- She is the strongest and the strongest don't need no tactics. As soon as the road rises, she comes to the front and drops everybodyabstractengineer10-01-2025
- I feel like he is past his peakabstractengineer10-01-2025
- Its the curse of a French rider on a french teamabstractengineer10-01-2025
- This guy is making a very stupid decision. His agent should have brought him superior offers. He is going to play 2nd fiddle to Remco and then wonder why he isn't at the TDF or missing all GTs in a season.abstractengineer10-01-2025
- Hirschi and Alaphilippe on Cancellara's team, honestly sounds like a great choice if they manage to play the game the way Van der Poel did, a few years ago. They know where they need to be at the end of next year, in terms of points, so now it's just a question of being there. I'm not sure Alaphilippe will play the role he dreams of, and his jerky movements on the bike continue to annoy me, but I truly wish him and the team the best of luck in reaching their goal. It makes for better racing when teams like Tudor (he still refers to it as a "project," love that) are fighting to get into the World Tour.RidesHills09-01-2025
- Nice to see him with a sense of humor about the wins. That's actually a really good sign of how he's feeling, most of the time.RidesHills09-01-2025
- He’s good at messing up his WCs ;-)Mistermaumau09-01-2025
- so, tom could dedicate himself to CX all year, every year and probably never beat mathieu in a cyclocross world championship, barring a crash or injury or whatever. does pidcock have that kind of advantage over van der poel in XCO, or is that a gap mvdp can close even at this latter stage of mathieu’s career?OCexile09-01-2025
- Yes, I also think teams should start re-evaluating their TdF commitments according to rider goals. As long as a rider doesn’t have any realistic chance of sone form of glory, don’t force them just to end up with a forgettable result, give someone else on the team the experience and chance to prove themselves and let your better rider focus on goals they CAN aim for. You really get the feeling some riders are being forced to pretend they can achieve something when they know they haven’t got a hope.Mistermaumau09-01-2025
- It’s very difficult to say now since he’s hardly ever raced over the last 5-6 years. Had he continued when he was good at it he’d most definitely have won it at some point, the type of course playing a decisive role. But business dictated he should focus more on road racing. Much as he tries, you can’t be everywhere at once and win it all and there are only so many years to a career.Mistermaumau09-01-2025