Groupama - FDJ is having a transition season. Arnaud Démare and Thibaut Pinot leave the team, David Gaudu struggled to match his 2022 season, but new stars like Lenny Martínez and Romain Grégoire have shown signs that they will take up the team's lead in future years.
"I could give 6.5 with the jury’s encouragement, but let’s say seven because we won a WorldTour Classic. We are above average because if we look at the various UCI rankings, we are above average. We are seventh out of the eighteen WorldTour teams, and we were even in fifth place at one point," team director Yvon Madiot said in a press release. "We agreed that it was a good season, but not exceptional. On the other hand, we also note that we became quite consistent... If we keep the school theme going, we have good students (he refers to the development team riders, ed.), who are young, who can improve, so that’s promising."
"Besides that, we’re aware of the fact that we face three/four teams with very, very high resources, and that it is hard to fight. Our goal is obviously to beat them. We may not be quite ready yet, but it will come. We probably won’t be able to win a Grand Tour next year, but we’re absolutely able to win a stage on the Grand Tours."
Valentin Madouas won the Bretagne Classic after the national championships and was perhaps the team's main figure of the season - and the one who was the most important for Groupama. Stefan Küng continued to perform, but despite the team's consistency and strong placing in the rankings, only two victories at World Tour level meant for a mixed result.
As the team sees riders like Arnaud Démare and Thibaut Pinot - who turned pro and spent over a decade in the team - leave, Madiot concludes with the belief that the team has already successfully adapted to the changes that are coming. "The transition is already made. I’ll also remember the words of Thibaut, who is retiring after having carried the team very high for all these years."
"After his last race, he shared meaningful words to the riders who were there, including a few young ones. He said, “take care of this team”. This is the most beautiful verbal handover that we could have hoped for. I firmly believe that his successors are able to take over."
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- He should have been allowed to go to Movistar. Right now both arent a good fit for each other and are just wasting each other's time and effortabstractengineer08-11-2026
- Thibau Nys does exactly what Iserbyt is calling for
Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - i did not see it. was the relegation justified or an overly hard decision? and don‘t cross riders deviate from straight lines all the time? bumping into each others when they cut corners, etc … why being more strict with the rules on the finish sprint?Ketterechts08-11-2026
- seems like we are advertising the website with pointless comments…Ketterechts08-11-2026
- So?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- The UCI do have their favorites.
Front24208-11-2026 - On a positive note, you maybe notice turning this topic into a discussion has the benefit of eliminating certain participants who do not see how they can turn it back to their sole interest ;-)Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- People see what they want to. I am actually the opposite of your accusation, probably more of a rebel than most of you who don’t get the big picture. The difference is, I don’t go moaning publicly about the consequences of my transgressions, I understand the need for rules and I take my OWN responsibility when deciding to ignore or break them or doing so involuntarily. I will also not hesitate to state my case or argue vehemently when relevant, sometimes it works, sometimes it makes things worse but that’s the price to pay for principles and having character.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- That may be but that was unknown to others and nothing says that’s the whole truth. Again, don’t try to misinterpret, it is a call and technically it is correct. Besides, even if there is a valid reason, that does not disqualify the ruling or punishment as far as the rules have been developed. I don’t think they’re as far as in football where for handball there is a distinction (in some ways and specific cases) between intentional or not. And football can be just as harsh and people live with it, eg the offside rule, also judged to within tiny fractions but often wrong or ignored. It’s the nature of every collective organisation and sometimes I wonder if our rebellion against it isn’t seated in the feelings we carry from the injustices we’ve felt personally, like being flashed driving 1km/h too fast when we are explained limits are just a security measure but we are absolutely certain not to have endangered anyone with our transgression. The problem is, nobody has better solutions and no 2 people have the same interpretation of where a limit should be.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Because for you deviated implies the other rider MUST have been made to fall and fail to finish ??? I don’t know if you ride a bike but next time someone carves you up or drives dangerously close, just hold back from those feelings of changing something, reporting or filming or even complaining. Everyone will just say, hey you’re still here undamaged, doesn’t seem like anyone did anything.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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