Guillaume Martin blames lackluster Tour on 'too heavy' bicycles: "I wouldn't have finished 45 seconds behind the Pogacar group at the top of the Bonette"
Cycling
Guillaume Martin fought at the Tour de France to the best of his abilities, however it wasn't good enough to reach further than 13th place in the GC and without a realistic shot at a stage success. According to the Frenchman, the 'too heavy' LOOK bikes are to blame for his struggling.
He reports this in a roundabout way when Le Monde asks him to analyse his own performance data from the last Tour. "Unfortunately, that is not possible, because I do not have a power meter. Our bikes weigh 7.7 kilograms, 1 kilo more than the UCI's permitted weight. I do not want to make my bike even heavier with a bike computer and meter, which also weigh 200 grams."
Martin explains that one kilo more in cycling is really a lot these days. He gives an example of what it makes a difference in practice. "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..."
The team reacted as if stung by a wasp after the interview with Martin, who will probably pack his bags for Groupama - FDJ after this season. They came up with a statement on their website very quickly.
"The weight of the bike is an important consideration, but not the only performance factor. The bike used by Martin is specifically designed not to exceed 7.4 kilograms, a weight that is slightly below the average of the bikes of the best riders in the peloton. Our riders benefit from advanced material with frames from LOOK," it says.
"We are convinced that our material partners have enabled us to compete with our opponents. We have also achieved several victories with the same bike in the 2023 Tour, the 2023 Vuelta and this year's Giro," Cofidis also points out.
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- 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
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- 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
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- And we, what are we doing?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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- he is doing 460 watts for 35 min to achieve 7 w/kg with VO2 at 96 , just unreal numbers.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just do it, and put up with the consequencesJumpyjohn08-11-2026
- "was a headliner at the Tour de France" Nobody cared about Piddie. Only rivals that were there for Pogi, Jonas, Remco, Sexias, Lipo, Del Toro and they were all expected to lose. Piddie was not even in any conversation.abstractengineer08-11-2026
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