Marc Madiot on 2023 Groupama-FDJ: "We’ve gradually created the team that I have dreamt about for twenty years"

Marc Madiot has been at the helm of Groupama-FDJ for several decades and into the 2023 season he has talked about how he is satisfied with the current lineup, comparing it to great cycling and football teams of the past.

In an interview with L'Équipe, Madiot said that "I like watching football and I wanted to be able to reproduce what FC Nantes, or AJ Auxerre, or Ajax Amsterdam were able to do in their heyday: have an identity, a style. They’re teams that have a plan and mark era."

Over the last few years the team has created and maintained a heap of French stars. Arnaud Démare, Thibaut Pinot and David Gaudu all started their career with the team and have led the team through the 2010's and now 2020's. Furthermore Valentin Madouas has undergone the very same path and is growing as a classics specialist capable of winning monuments - having finished third at the Tour des Flandres this year.

“We’ve gradually created the team that I have dreamt about for twenty years. Having this mix of young talent and experience is like when I was at Renault with Hinault, Fignon, LeMond. We have all the ingredients to go to the top, we have people who have special qualities like Pinot, Démare and Gaudu, and at the same time we have a young wave coming in," Madiot continued.

Instead of focusing on bringing in leaders into 2023, the French team did not have to worry about that as they secured their own. Besides the four riders above, Stefan Küng has brought in heaps of success throughout the year in the classics and time-trials.

Instead, the team put their focus on a new generation. Eight riders left the team, and all of the seven signings were rides brought in from the team's development project - Equipe Continentale Groupama-FDJ. This includes Lenny Martinez and Romain Grégoire who are some of the most successful under-23 riders and follow the French trend. Every single one of the riders has either won or impressed in the youth rank this year. Madiot is thrilled over the mix of comfortable leaders and a big block of riders which is set to take a step in the coming years.

“With the 'Continental team, we could have claimed to be a candidate for a Grand Tour place. It shows what this team was like this year, with riders aged 19 and 20, with the oldest being 21 years old. I wouldn’t swap any of them for anyone else," he added. “Now I want to take advantage of their enthusiasm. They already have this philosophy and I’d like to take advantage of it and nurture it. That’s a nice challenge."

“We’re talking more about construction. If that translates into twenty-five wins, or fifteen, we'll do the accounts at the end of the season. The difference compared to the past is that now we have the ability to assert our ambitions. We’ve got the extra talent to, as they say in football, play our own game," the manager of the French team explained.

With the team presenting it's riders and goals for the 2023 season in a recent training camp, they stand out already from most of the competition. Thibaut Pinot will aim towards the Giro d'Italia, whilst David Gaudu, Arnaud Démare and Valentin Madouas will ride the Tour de France in search of success most likely, and Stefan Küng will search for success in the cobbled classics and World Championships in Glasgow.

“Of course at the start of the first race, I’ll be tense. We have to feel the desire to work hard and to progress to where we want to go," Madiot concluded.