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
Cycling
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".
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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