Groupama FDJ - Official Thread

[DNP-Old]

Seems some of these French guys speak English a lot better than the general assumption, or that they show in public.
Makes sense, really. A guy like Gaudu might speak English well enough for a team briefing - where he can ask for clarification if he doesn't quite understand - but not feel confident enough to speak English in a live-interview.

English speaking classes have become quite common among French (WorldTour) teams. FDJ does it, and AG2R has all their devo and junior riders come to online classes every Monday evening. Do not know whether it works vice versa with foreign riders having to learn French, though.

It isn't yet on the level where an individual can eloquently explain the Pythagorean theorem, but Bisiaux and others are quite comfortable doing interviews in English.

 

[RedheadDane]

English speaking classes have become quite common among French (WorldTour) teams. FDJ does it, and AG2R has all their devo and junior riders come to online classes every Monday evening. Do not know whether it works vice versa with foreign riders having to learn French, though.

I think Warbasse took French when he first joined Ag2R.
Though, I don't know if it was required, or he just thought it would be kinda useful.

 

[SafeBet]

English speaking classes have become quite common among French (WorldTour) teams. FDJ does it, and AG2R has all their devo and junior riders come to online classes every Monday evening. Do not know whether it works vice versa with foreign riders having to learn French, though.

I'm pretty sure foreign riders joining their devo team are given the opportunity to learn French with online classes. I remember Lorenzo Germani talk about it.
Not sure it's the same for the WT team.

 

[RedheadDane]

Random question; how many time have one of their riders held the leader's jersey in a WT stage race in the last 10 years?

2024 PN - Laurence Pithie
2023 Vuelta - Lenny Martinez
2023 Giro - Bruno Armirail
2022 Vuelta - Rudy Molard
2021 Benelux - Stefan Küng
2021 Suisse - Stefan Küng
2021 Giro - Attila Valter
2018 Vuelta - Rudy Molard
2018 PN - Arnaud Demare
2017 PN - Arnaud Demare
2015 Suisse - Thibaut Pinot
2014 PN - Nacer Bouhanni

Notice something? Only once - in the 2015 TdS - has it been one of their main GC guys.

 

[RedheadDane]

What do you do when your organisation has a WorldTeam, a Conti-Team, and a Junior team, and each of those will be doing basically different editions of the same race?
This is what you do.

(Yeah, I couldn't really figure out where else to post it.)

 

[Samu Cuenca]

What do you do when your organisation has a WorldTeam, a Conti-Team, and a Junior team, and each of those will be doing basically different editions of the same race?
This is what you do.

(Yeah, I couldn't really figure out where else to post it.)

What is the message here? That all their teams riding the same race will result in the end of the world?

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Apparently we are now meant to call then Groupama FDJ United

An interesting challenge to the commentators: French pronunciation of the letter names, then 'United' as an English word?
Or some strangled French-styled garbling of united?
Or relieved anglophone commentators feeling vindicated in saying Eff Dee Jay?

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Happy to see Gruel at the start of the Vuelta. Hopefully he can go in a break in one of the non hockey stick stages.

 

[RedheadDane]

Random question; how many time have one of their riders held the leader's jersey in a WT stage race in the last 10 years?

(Text above)

Notice something? Only once - in the 2015 TdS - has it been one of their main GC guys.

And then they actually managed to get their GC guy in the leader's jersey in a GT.

 

[Cycling111]

OMG

https://twitter.com/x/status/1999166322735726668

View: https://x.com/i/status/1999166322735726668

 

[Squire]

Gregoire on the cobbles. Not sure I'm loving that. Might be biting over a bit too much.

https://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme-sur-route/Article/Romain-gregoire-a-la-decouverte-des-classiques-flandriennes-en-2026-ces-courses-me-font-rever-depuis-pas-mal-de-temps/1632221

 

[Dazed and Confused]

I think he will be fine. Great bikehandler, should be able to get some good placements.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Gregoire on the cobbles. Not sure I'm loving that. Might be biting over a bit too much.

https://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme-sur-route/Article/Romain-gregoire-a-la-decouverte-des-classiques-flandriennes-en-2026-ces-courses-me-font-rever-depuis-pas-mal-de-temps/1632221

I gotta say that I love it, and I think he should be able to do fine. But he does have a ridiculously hard schedule with 12 hard one-day races within two months, so I agree that my worry is whether he still has enough left in the tank for what should be his biggest goal, the Ardennes.

 

[hayneplane]

I gotta say that I love it, and I think he should be able to do fine. But he does have a ridiculously hard schedule with 12 hard one-day races within two months, so I agree that my worry is whether he still has enough left in the tank for what should be his biggest goal, the Ardennes.

It’s a good schedule. I think they saw with the way Tour de Suisse went that GC isn’t going to be his bag as recovery isn’t his forte.

Will be fascinating to see how his puncheur skills translate to the cobbles and if the pumped up E3 parcours will allow him to flourish.

 

[Squire]

I gotta say that I love it, and I think he should be able to do fine. But he does have a ridiculously hard schedule with 12 hard one-day races within two months, so I agree that my worry is whether he still has enough left in the tank for what should be his biggest goal, the Ardennes.

He's becoming elite in his specialty, so I would have preferred if he went all-in on the Ardennes.