Training Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale organized its official presentation for the 2025 season this Monday in Lille. During this full-scale meeting at the Decathlon Arena, with all the managers, riders and staff, the new jersey and the new bike Van Rysel were revealed, as was the entire squad for 2025. Among them, Cyclism’Actu was able to speak with Aurélien Paret-Painter. Winner of a stage of Tour of the Alps5th de Liège-Bastogne-Liège…the eldest of the Paret-Peintre siblings had a great 2024 season, like his team. In 2025, ambitions will still be very high for the native of Annemasse… who, on the other hand, lost her brother Valentinleft for Soudal Quick-Step.
Video – Aurélien Paret-Peintre at the microphone of Cyclism'Actu
After this excellent 2024 season, we are looking forward to 2025… do we need to do better?
Yeah, exactly, we know that it will necessarily be difficult to do better because the season was excellent, but here we are, we will continue to work in this direction to have a very good season. We will have well-defined objectives with the team. And then we are already looking ahead to 2025 in terms of preparation.
What will be the objectives for 2025?
There will be several important points. Obviously, we can already talk a little bit about the Tour de France, with the Grand Départ in Lille which will be important for us, our partners, Decathlon and Van Rysel. Doing a better Tour de France than last year will be one of the points to really improve for this season. And in 2025, I want to return to the Tour.
When we made 2024 four like that, do we put a little pressure on ourselves?
Obviously, afterward, we know that the seasons are not necessarily the same. So we try to get back into it, take what worked and see what we can improve. We're starting a bit from scratch, but obviously we always want to do better. So, it's always difficult, but we are diligent in getting back to the right basics and making adjustments, to have a program that is perhaps a little better optimized…
You've already been in the team for eight years, you're one of the old hands…
I am one of the oldest. There are a lot of young people arriving. It's both exciting to be able to find very good young runners alongside us and it's also challenging. We want to be able to help them, guide them so that they can perform. That's the strength of the group, having promising young people and experienced riders, to make a somewhat homogeneous group.
A lot has changed since you arrived, did you expect all that?
Of course, a lot has changed. I don't know if I expected it or not, it was a need. It is a necessity, currently, in Cycling, to really properly restructure the teams, to professionalize, to internationalize. So here we are, we are going to say that we evolve with our times, our sport, which evolves every year. So, I'm pretty happy with how the team is going.
And you let your little brother go…
It wasn't me who let him go (smile). My brother's departure this year is a change, it's a little weird. But now, in the way I cycle, train and run on a daily basis, it's not going to change anything. It's quite a challenge for him. It's definitely a challenge, so I think he'll enjoy it too.
If there was one thing to check off in 2025 for you, what would it be?
It would be the Tour de France. I think that will be one of the main objectives for me and especially for the team.
Then, the race program is not yet perfectly defined.
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