Groupama - FDJ believe 2023 "was a good season, but not exceptional"

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."