“We don’t have any impact on the race” – Guimard unleashes damning verdict on sorry state of French cycling

As the final week of the 2025 Giro d’Italia begins, the headlines have rightly focused on the thrilling battle for pink. But back in France, the mood is far more sombre. Cyrille Guimard, the iconic French directeur sportif and former national coach, has delivered a bleak and unfiltered assessment of the state of French road cycling, and it’s hard to argue with him.

Writing in his column for Cyclism’Actu, Guimard did not hold back: “French cycling is a little bit in decline. And the figures also demonstrate this.” The data he points to is damning. As of today, France sits eighth in the UCI nations ranking, having fallen from first place in 2020. That slide isn’t just a coincidence, it reflects a deep and structural downturn in French performance at the sport’s top level.

In the last few years, we’ve seen Thibaut Pinot retire, and Julian Alaphilippe is no longer the rider he once was. So where is the next French star?

Guimard highlights that only three French riders have made podiums in major WorldTour one-day races so far this season: Paul Magnier at Omloop, Kévin Vauquelin at Flèche Wallonne, and Lenny Martinez at the Tour de Romandie. All second places. Zero wins. Outside of these, there is a glaring absence of French riders in the sharp end of the biggest races. No presence at Milano–Sanremo. None at the Tour of Flanders. Irrelevance at Paris–Roubaix. Even in the so-called ‘lesser’ classics, France is nowhere to be found.

This isn’t just an issue of perception, it’s performance. “We don’t have any impact on the race,” Guimard says plainly. There’s no sugar-coating it. While the Coupe de France provides some domestic shine, 4, 5, sometimes 6 French riders in the top 10, these are, as Guimard bluntly puts it, “Franco-French races.” The moment the calendar shifts to international competition, the tricolour fades from view.

Lenny Martinez, still only 21, is one of the few reasons for hope. Guimard admits as much, calling him “incontestably the one who has been the best since the beginning of the year.” But even Martinez’s results only paper over the cracks. The wider ecosystem, teams, recruitment, development, leadership, is faltering.

French teams are sliding too. Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale and Groupama - FDJ, ranked 11th and 13th respectively, are showing some stability but lack the depth to regularly challenge the super-teams like UAE Team Emirates – XRG , Visma | Lease a Bike, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe, and INEOS.

Meanwhile, Cofidis, long a staple of the WorldTour, is clinging to its status. XDS Astana is breathing down their necks, aided by a strong Giro performance, particularly in the mountains classification. Without Milan Fretin’s recent surge, Cofidis might already have slipped out of the WorldTour bracket. As Guimard asks pointedly, “Will he single-handedly save the team? I don't think so.”

Guimard’s dissection of the numbers is forensic. He notes that even the top-ranked rider on a French team in the UCI individual standings is not French, it’s Swiss time trial specialist Stefan Küng, sitting in 34th. That alone underlines the issue. Not only are French riders not delivering, but the foreigners riding for French teams are struggling too.

Is this a question of talent? Management? Motivation? Guimard doesn’t offer a single cause, he suggests several. The financial argument looms large, French teams simply don’t have the budgets to compete with the UAE’s and Visma’s of the world. “But there are other teams that don’t have those budgets and that run relatively well,” he counters, pointing to Soudal – Quick-Step and Alpecin–Deceuninck. The money gap is real, but it cannot excuse everything.

Then comes the most provocative point: “France is the world champion in terms of expenses.” The cost of employing a rider is higher in France than in most other cycling nations, largely due to tax and labour regulations. The implication is clear. some French teams may be financially penalised simply by operating in France. Guimard doesn’t just raise the alarm; he goes further: “Is it in the interest of French groups, French teams, to stay in France? That is the question.”

It’s a controversial but not unfounded suggestion. If French teams continue to lag in performance while struggling financially, relocation might begin to look like a survival strategy rather than betrayal. Already, teams from smaller cycling nations are outperforming their French counterparts, not through heritage, but through smarter structures, talent pipelines, and racing philosophies.

But, ouch, can you imagine how French teams outside of France would be received?

What’s perhaps most frustrating is that just five years ago, French cycling looked resurgent. Julian Alaphilippe was the reigning world champion and tearing up the WorldTour calendar. French GC riders like Romain Bardet and Thibaut Pinot remained relevant. Madouas had just claimed silver at the Tokyo Olympics. Now, Alaphilippe is past his peak, Pinot has retired, Bardet is no longer a contender, and Madouas (whom Guimard singles out) has been “non-existent” in 2025.

French cycling, for all its tradition and passion, seems caught between generations. The veterans are fading. The young stars, Martinez, Magnier, and perhaps Romain Grégoire, show promise, but lack a clear pathway to the top. And the teams, while numerous, are too fragmented and financially constrained to build sustained success. Unlike the unified projects of UAE or Visma, French squads often operate in isolation, unable to build a cohesive national strategy.

Guimard’s column, then, is not just a scolding, it’s a warning. The fall from first to eighth in the nation rankings in just five years should be a wake-up call. His tone may be harsh, but his logic is hard to dismiss. France is not simply underperforming, it is sliding towards irrelevance at the very top level of the sport. And without urgent changes in talent development, financial strategy, and structural cohesion, that decline may continue.

So whilst the rest of us enjoy the final week of the Giro, French eyes are turning to the Tour. Last year, there were some glorious moments for the home nations, but did those moments hide a nation in decline?