the secrets of Decathlon-AG2R’s success by its aptron Dominique Serieys

The boss of the French team for the 2024 cycling season speaks for the RMC cycling podcast.

The French team Décathlon-AG2R la Mondiale has just experienced an exceptional season, with 30 successes, 70 podiums, 4 national titles and a 6th place in the UCI ranking, i.e. 16 ranks better than in 2023. The Savoyard team quite simply had the best season in its history. It must be said that for a little over a year, there have been quite a few changes in the team founded in 1992 by Vincent Lavenu, who in 2022, after 30 years of management, chose to sell his structure before 'be thanked at the end of the summer.

The arrival also of a sponsor, strong Maousse, Décathlon, the favorite brand of the French, we are told, which allowed the team to have a budget which now allows it to play in the big leagues . Finally, there is the new boss, Dominique Serieys, former co-driver of Rallye-Raid, winner of the Dakar, then boss of Mitsubishi with whom he won everything before taking charge of Paris la Défense Arena and even Racing 92 which he directed for a few months. Dominique Serieys, a jack of all trades genius when it comes to sport, has therefore decided to change gear. No more engine but full of ideas and ambition for the French team. He wants, he says, to win the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix, no less, by 2028.

Dominique Serieys was the guest of Grand Plateau, the RMC Sport cycling podcast, with Christophe Cessieux, Jérôme Pineau and Pierre Koetschet, and he detailed for almost an hour his ambitions for his team, what he had already changed and what he wanted to change to achieve these lofty goals. It talks about marginal gains, the specificities of cycling compared to other sports, English and French lessons, and the famous Van Rysel bicycles.