"Vingegaard seems less impactful to me than last year" - French legend Cyrille Guimard talks French cycling, WorldTour relegation, and Pogacar versus Vingegaard

Cyrille Guimard, the 78-year-old Frenchman who won seven Tour de France stages and earned two World Championship bronze medals, recently spoke to Cyclism’Actu about the start of the 2025 season. With his knowledge and experience, he also gave a detailed overview of the current state and prospects of French cycling.

One of the first topics discussed was the early-season form of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. Pogacar recently claimed victory at the UAE Tour, while Vingegaard secured the overall win at the Volta ao Algarve.

"The most impressive, if we talk about the two, there is no comparison, there is Pogacar and the others, including Vingegaard who, of course, won but he also has a status that allows him to win in this type of race which was not the most difficult event at his level. Pogacar was imperial.

“In fact, he is starting on the same basis as last year. Let's hope for his opponents that not because there will be Pogacar and the rest but we are not going to cut off Pogacar's leg. It is true that on the last stage, in the last climb, he took his bike for a walk but I think we will perhaps have to get used to it. Vingegaard seems less impactful to me than last year. He may also have a blow to morale when he sees the other.”

"Nothing is worrying. We don't have the power to change that or it would be disgusting. The race is still alive. There is always a moment when things will happen. Remember last year when we were talking about the Tour de France and I said that we didn't know who would be at the start of the Tour.

“And then there was this serious crash where Evenepoel and Vingegaard were seriously injured. They weren't the only ones who changed the whole start of the season and we could almost even say the normal course of the Tour.

“I still think that Vingegaard is a little less impactful but we'll see how things evolve. He is at his level in his role at this stage of the season. Not all riders are at the same level, at the same level of physical preparation depending on the objectives of each, but Vingegaard winning the time trial, yes, he made small gaps but for me it doesn't really matter if it was on Pogacar or on other great riders like Ganna. Yes, we could have said that there is no lesson to be learned from that. He didn't beat Tarling or Evenepoel either.”

Guimard also shared his thoughts on French rider David Gaudu and his prospects for the season.

"Gaudu is used to making good debuts and remember that he has already finished 2nd in a Paris-Nice. He needs to demonstrate things because compared to the expectations that are placed on David, he has not been up to his expectations for 2 or 3 years.

“We will always find a lot of excuses and a lot of alibis. There, he has just fallen but apparently nothing serious since he stopped for a big week. It is up to him to meet the different expectations and he is reaching an age where he no longer has the right to fail. I find that his start to the season is logical, classic and nothing special. It is good to raise your arms. It is good for the head, the team, the teammates. It is always good to win.”

Guimard was asked if the next French star would be Lenny Martinez or Paul Seixas, "From what I have seen since Seixas left the cadet squad, for me, Seixas is a notch above. He can enter the caste of the greats, not forgetting that he will be 19 at the end of the year.

“You have to look, especially among the youngsters, if they were born on December 31 or January 1. That's a year's difference."

Guimard also highlighted other young French talents.

"We have Paul Magnier in the classics who is also in his twenties. And then Paret-Peintre. We have Valentin who is almost 24, but who is doing interesting things and who is a real climber. A warrior too.

“And then he is in a team where we are used to winning and where we want to win. The culture of winning is important. Moreover, he has already started to assert himself. For the general classifications, on the Grand Tours, I think he is the one who perhaps has the greatest abilities."

Two French teams, Arkea and Cofidis, face significant challenges in the battle to remain in the WorldTour, particularly due to Team XDS Astana’s strong start to the season.

"That's another problem. We do more politics in the federations than dealing with real sporting and human problems. But it's in place, it works like that. For me, there's only one team that can get out of it, it's Cofidis. Arkea, I don't think so, unfortunately, because behind them, you have Uno-X, Astana.

“You have to know that Arkea is still 2700 points behind Cofidis. That's still a lot to make up over a year. We can see that Astana, Uno-X, they have 3100 points on Cofidis. Astana, they have already made up almost 1000 points since the beginning of the year, so it can go very quickly and Cofidis will get out of it with victories. They are lucky to have a very fast rider who can go and get points: Milan Frétin. But others will be needed.”

Guimard acknowledged Astana’s threatening early season form, "Apparently, they managed to find financial means. They have a team structure that is still well made and riders who are starting to perform.

“So we will have to be careful because there we are probably over-motivated on enormous workloads to try to take as many points as possible on the first events and simply keep hope. Will they last over time? That is more difficult and more complicated to know.

"One thing is certain, we realize that Uno-X is on such significant progression. Tudor, it is not doing too badly either but they are very far away, they are at 10,000 points. So they will not pass 10,000 points this year at Cofidis. So it must be very stressful when you are in this situation. The problem is whether Astana will maintain its momentum or not and who will be able to go after Cofidis."