INTERVIEW | "There are new young riders like Lenny Martínez but also Paul Seixas" - Guillaume Martin hopeful of France's new generation regarding Tour de France

Groupama - FDJ showed up at the 2025 Tour de France's team presentation carrying a new jersey. The French leader comes without David Gaudu and Stefan Küng as planned, and so Guillaume Martin will have big shoes to fill in his first Tour away from Cofidis. CyclingUpToDate has talked to the Frenchman about his expectations ahead of the race.

"I don't know, we also have other good riders such as Romain Grégoire for punchy finishes; Valentin Madouas is also able to be in breakaways and win stages like this; Paul Penhoët for the sprints... We have riders for all kinds of stages so I don't feel a lot of pressure or extra pressure because of it," he said to us.

Martin is a rider that has throughout his entire career always chased the overall classification and stage wins simultaneously, and he is likely to continue that tactic. His difficulties in the time-trials see him regularly shed time, but his offensive style of racing and strong climbing abilities see him often bouncing back.

In 2021 he finished 8th at the Tour, and he could well be thinking of matching such a result. "I think I will see after 10 days. The first week is pretty flat and punchy but you can have a lot of things like crashes that could happen, so I think I will see after 10 days what has happened and what I can expect".

After two victories in France back in April and a 10th spot at the Criterium du Dauphiné, it's realistic to think that a peak form Martin could achieve this once again - however he will need to survive the tricky first week, with a team that is having modest firepower against rival GC teams. Regarding the French drought of 40 years at the Tour, the 32-year old also commented on the situation.

"I think you also saw that there are new young riders like Lenny Martínez but also Paul Seixas, he's only 18 years old and he did a super good Dauphiné. For sure we're going to have a winner of the Tour... It's not so easy with the contenders we have right now, but someday they will retire and that could be the time for the French guys," he concluded. "We also can't compare cycling of 40 years ago when there were only four or five big nations to the cycling of nowadays which is very international. Now it's time for others to win but our day will come".