"We fought to keep him on our team, but not unreasonably" - Cofidis priced out of keeping Victor Lafay says Cédric Vasseur

Victor Lafay was one of Cofidis' star riders in 2023, including ending their long wait for a Tour de France stage win. Sadly for the team though, Lafay has now departed for the AG2R Citroën Team.

"We have always had very constructive discussions with Victor and his entourage. Obviously we fought to keep him on our team, but not unreasonably," Cofidis boss Cedric Vasseur explains the departure to Cyclism'Actu. "We saw figures in the press of 1.5 million per year, we never proposed that, because Victor's value today is not 1.5 million. We must not fall into some kind of madness."

The finances involved were clearly unreasonable for Cofidis and as such, they allowed their star to move on. Nevertheless, there are no hard feelings between rider and team. "We also saw at the end of the season that he was having a little trouble," Vasseur says. "We offered him a project, but I think Victor wanted a change of scenery, and I can understand that."

"The choice was not easy, since I think that in his head, before the Tour de France, he had turned the page on Cofidis, and then he had a fantastic Tour... But we set a financial limit and it's no problem letting a rider go," he concludes. "I use the Patrick Lefevere method, "When he has an Elia Viviani at the top of his art, he sells it to Cofidis and then we see what it did for us, it wasn't great."

コフィディスの人達がみんな優しくて顔ちいーさかった！🇫🇷雰囲気が良くて、ヴィクトルさんとトマさんファンサたくさんして優しかったから来年はコフィディスをちょっと応援しようと思う✨✨✨#Cofidis #VictorLAFAY #ThomasCHAMPION #さいたまクリテリウム pic.twitter.com/0x1pkysQqj

— aki (@tourdeaki) November 8, 2023