The Groupama-FDJ cycling team presents its high ambitions and a new tunic for 2023

In 2022, 20 victories and prestigious podiums have rewarded the work of the WorldTour team, performances that have contributed to the team maintaining its 7th place in the international rankings over the last three years, proof that the Groupama-FDJ cycling Team has become a permanent fixture among the world’s best teams. 2022 will remember David Gaudu’s fourth place in the general classification of the Tour de France, but also the podiums of Valentin Madouas in the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Stefan Küng in ParisRoubaix, two Monuments of cycling. The second cyclamen jersey won by Arnaud Démare at the Giro d’Italia with three victories, making him the most successful French rider at this Grand Tour with a total of eight wins. In the last Grand Tour of the year, Rudy Molard marked the season by wearing the red leader’s jersey in La Vuelta. Collective performances at the highest level are the result of the involvement and precision of all the team’s poles and its 22 technical partners.

A strong new identity to shine through
The 2023 presentation of the Groupama-FDJ cycling Team opened with a nice surprise: the unveiling of the team’s new colours. A new tunic in which we can still find the strong marker of Marc Madiot’s team: the reference to blue-white-red, the team’s historical colours. At the initiative of the title partners, Groupama and FDJ, a group of six riders collaborated in the process of developing this new identity. This is an unprecedented coconstruction that the entire Groupama-FDJ cycling Team is proud to present today and that the riders are even more determined to defend and make shine throughout the year.

Renewed ambitions at the highest level and in all fields
This solid 2022 season has enabled the Groupama-FDJ cycling Team to establish the
legitimacy of its ambitions for 2023 as presented by Marc Madiot and the riders.

The first major objective of the 2023 season will undoubtedly be the Flanders and
Ardennes Classics campaign. Relying on a young team that proved itself last season, the duo Stefan Küng and Valentin Madouas have expressed their desire to repeat their performances of 2022 and this time to go for the victory that was missing last season in one of these events.

Valentin Madouas: “For this new 2023 season, I am looking forward to the Classics
campaign with a clear objective for the team and myself: to win. Last year, we came very close to victory with numerous podiums, notably in Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders. This year, the desire to raise our arms on a Monument is naturally all the greater. Personally, I hope to perform as well as I did in 2022 and even go one step further, continuing to progress and win for the team. We have a very good team, which will improve even further with the aim of reproducing the very good performances made last year.”

Stefan Küng: “The Classics campaign will be decisive to launch the season. The whole team wants to perform well in these races, and I think that is fundamental. The first race will be Omloop Het Nieuwsblad; we will have to be competitive right from the start, before the major events and especially the Monuments”.

Vice world champion of the discipline and international reference in time trial, Stefan Küng will also make this time trial his season objective, one year before the Olympic Games in Paris. Still 100% involved with the Performance Centre and the technical partners in the development of the material, Stefan will try to reach a new milestone, this time to reach the grail: the World Champion title that he touched in 2022.

La Conti, the exclusive and quality reservoir of the WorldTour team
The recruitment of the WorldTour entirely within the Groupama-FDJ Continental cycling Team, the best training team in the world, is a world first. The arrival of a new generation of talent from La Conti will allow the creation of a new offensive and attacking team, capable of standing out in the format of the most beautiful French events of the FDJ French Cup (Coupe de France FDJ).

Yvon Madiot: “The Coupe de France FDJ brings together French reference events, a
compulsory passage for our young recruits who are approaching cycling at its highest
level. The events on the 2023 circuit correspond to the uninhibited profile of the new
generation; they are offensive races that reward panache. We have some great cards to play.”

Tour de France : Objective podium
By finishing 4th in the overall classification in 2022, thanks to a close-knit team that outdid itself, David Gaudu and his team-mates showed that the Tour de France should count on the Groupama-FDJ cycling Team in the race for the final podium.

Marc Madiot: “The Tour de France is the high point of the season and we have shown that we can play a leading role. David Gaudu and the team around him will be focused on the number one objective, the one we were aiming for in 2022, the podium”.

David Gaudu: “As in 2022, my season will be centred around the Tour de France, and I will be responsible for achieving the team’s objective of a podium finish in the Tour de France. I had a complicated season in 2022 and despite that, thanks to a close and dedicated team, I managed to get closer to the podium of the Tour. I tell myself that with an optimal preparation and all the small progresses that each rider and the team in general will have been able to make in one year, that should allow me to achieve this objective”.

Arnaud Démare will have victory in mind whenever the opportunity arises. The French
sprinter, who has been a world reference for the past 10 years, will be entering his
eleventh season with a tally of 91 wins. His objective is to reach the symbolic 100 victory mark. He would be the only active Frenchman to pass this symbolic mark. With 9 victories or more, it would certainly be the sign of a prolific and successful season.

Arnaud Démare: “Reaching this symbolic 100 wins mark would mean above all that I
would have won a lot and that is the main objective of a sprinter. I have been a
professional for 10 years now, I have won 8 more times in 2022, I still have a thirst for
victory and this goal gives me an extra motivation. I have shown during my career that I have been able to evolve with my sport and it is always gratifying to pass symbolic bars and to contribute to write a bit of cycling history”.

Thibaut Pinot will have the opportunity to return to the Giro d’Italia, which holds a special place in his career. Stage winner and 4th in the 2017 edition, he had not returned to the Giro since 2018. Thibaut is a climber who knows how to win, and he returns to the Giro d’Italia with a clear ambition: to win stages.
Thibaut Pinot: “I’ve only ridden the Giro twice and yet it’s a race that makes me dream. I love what cycling in Italy has to offer. I already won a magnificent stage in 2017, I saw myself on the podium in 2018 before I had to give up and I haven’t been back since. I am extremely motivated; I want to win there. I will also be racing a lot in France. I’m reallylooking forward to the season starting…”

At last, the young riders will be present at the Tour of Spain! Marc Madiot concluded this “2023 Ambitions” sequence by announcing the presence of the new generation at La Vuelta, with, in particular, the great hope of the climbers Lenny Martinez and the puncher Romain Grégoire.

Marc Madiot: “Cycling is changing and the riders are getting younger and younger. There are now many examples. We are lucky to have some very talented riders among this new generation and we wanted to offer them a place to express themselves and learn. The Tour of Spain is a reference, and we are going to line up a fairly young team. We will not go there to learn but to shine. With the desire they have, the talent they have and the work they will have done we will go there to play the first roles”.

A new generation of 100% Groupama-FDJ talent
For the 2023 season, the WorldTour team has chosen to rely on the young people trained within the Continental team, by recruiting only “internally” a strong symbol of the success of its training system and a bet on youth unseen in the History of cycling teams. Eight recruits have joined the WorldTour squad: Lorenzo Germani, Romain Grégoire, Lenny Martinez, Enzo Paleni, Laurence Pith-ie, Paul Penhoët (joining the WorldTour in August 2022), Reuben Thompson and Samuel Watson. Between them, they account for 20 of La Conti’s 29 victories for 2022. A new generation with the highest hopes, who will be able to count on the experience of the team’s road captains and em-blematic leaders. Joining the Groupama-FDJ cycling Team is often the beginning of a long adven-ture, as Matthieu Ladagnous, present alongside Marc Madiot, proved. Having joined the team in 2006, the road captain from ‘Béarn’ announced today with emotion that 2023 would be his last cycling season, after an 18th season of loyalty to Groupama-FDJ. A model of longevity and pugnacity that we can only hope the eight new recruits will emulate.

This unique recruitment is simply the concretisation of the ambitions set out by Marc
Madiot in 2019, at the creation of La Conti: to become in three years the best continental team in the world, capable of training and polishing diamonds in the rough for the WorldTour training. These ambi-tions are solidified by the Juniors programme, supervised by Benoît Vaugrenard and which allows some very young talents to be accompanied by the Groupama-FDJ Continental cycling Team, while continuing their career within their clubs. Lenny Martinez was one of the very first beneficiaries of the programme in 2021.

In 2022, La Conti showed more than ever that the model works: for the second year in a row, it occupied 1st place among the continental U23 teams. In 2023, the Groupama-FDJ Continental cy-cling Team will of course be keen to continue its training mission and to maintain its position as the best continental team in the peloton.

Romain Grégoire: “I think it’s great that the team has put its trust in us, and that eight
young riders from La Conti are joining the WorldTour team. We didn’t expect it at the
beginning of the season, and it could have created some rivalry between us. But in the end, having results early in the season got us all on a positive momentum and everyone got their chance and their wins at some point in the year. It’s great that the team is rewarding us in the best way. The new generation is looking forward to discovering the highest level, to be in the game as soon as possible and to support the experienced leaders like Thibaut, Stefan, Arnaud or David”.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
• The Groupama-FDJ cycling Team is starting the 2023 season in new colours. A new tunic that retains the team’s strong marker: the reference to the blue-white-red. The riders contributed to the design of this new jersey and are determined to make it shine.
• The campaign of the Flanders and Ardennes Classics will be a decisive moment for the team. Stefan Küng and Valentin Madouas will be keen to repeat their performances of 2022 and go for victory this time.
• Stefan Küng came close to the world title in 2022; this time he will try to reach the grail: the World Champion title.
• This year, the team wants to develop an “FDJ Coupe de France group”, an offensive and attacking team with talented young riders such as Paul Penhoët and Laurence Pithie.
• David Gaudu has a clear ambition for the Tour de France: to be in the race for the final podium.
• Thibaut Pinot will be back on the roads of the Giro d’Italia, with a clear objective: to win stages.
• A benchmark in world sprinting for a decade now, the symbolic mark of 100 victories will be an important objective for Arnaud Démare.
• The new generation will be lining up on the roads of the La Vuelta, a group that includes two great hopes, Lenny Martinez and Romain Grégoire.
• The Groupama-FDJ cycling Team has chosen to trust its Continental team, recruiting
100% “in-house”, eight promotions to the WorldTour team.
• La Conti has become a world reference, winning 29 times this year. The class of 2023 will try to maintain its position as the best training team.

WORLDTOUR 2023 ROSTER
Bruno ARMIRAIL (France)
Lewis ASKEY (United-Kingdom)
Clément DAVY (France)
Arnaud DÉMARE (France)
David GAUDU (France)
Kevin GENIETS (Luxemburg)
Lorenzo GERMANI (Italy)
Romain GRÉGOIRE (France)
Ignatas KONOVALOVAS (Lithuania)
Stefan KÜNG (Switzerland)
Matthieu LADAGNOUS (France)
Olivier LE GAC (France)
Fabian LIENHARD (Switzerland)
Lenny MARTINEZ (France)
Valentin MADOUAS (France)
Rudy MOLARD (France)
Enzo PALENI (France)
Quentin PACHER (France)
Paul PENHOËT (France)
Thibaut PINOT (France)
Laurence PITHIE (New Zealand)
Miles SCOTSON (Australia)
Jake STEWART (United-Kingdom)
Michael STORER (Australia)
Reuben THOMPSON (New Zealand)
Lars VAN DEN BERG (The Netherlands)
Samuel WATSON (United-Kingdom)
Bram WELTEN (The Netherlands)

LA CONTI 2023 ROSTER
Ben ASKEY (United Kingdom)
Ronan AUGÉ (France)
Lewis BOWER (New Zealand)
Trym BRENNSÆTER (Norway)
Dylan GEORGE (Australia)
Joshua GOLLIKER (United Kingdom)
Thibaud GRUEL (France)
Noah HOBBS (United Kingdom)
Eddy LE HUITOUZE (France)
Brieuc ROLLAND (France)
Colin SAVIOZ (France)

JUNIORS PROGRAMME 2023 ROSTER
Eliott BOULET (France) – Cyclo Club Plancoët
Titouan FONTAINE (France) – Vélo Club Villefranche Beaujolais
Matteo MONCOUTIÉ (France) – Vélo Club Villefranche Beaujolais
Aurélien KAYSER (France) – Union Cycliste Haguenau

Press kit 2023 available here.