At 31, Guillaume Martin is preparing to begin his tenth professional season. After four years with the Belgians Wanty, then five more with Cofidis, the Norman arrived at Groupama-FDJ, escorted by his qualities of reliability on the big Tours (12 participations, nine times in the Top 15). A meeting, or rather a reunion, which seemed inevitable, ten years after an aborted start to the adventure. Still an amateur at CC Étupes, Martin had been a trainee with Marc Madiot’s FDJ team… who did not keep him. “I am very happy that he is arriving, because we missed each other ten years ago, largely my fault,” the Mayenne manager admitted on Wednesday in Paris, during the presentation of his team . We made a choice, we were wrong. There was something to purge between us, we’re going to make up for lost time. »
Here you are at Groupama-FDJ, did you no longer want to stay at Cofidis?
I needed a change of scenery, indeed…
What did you come here looking for?
Clean air! I was looking for change, in every way. In supporting performance, on my program, on how to approach races. I am also looking for an ability to work in the long term, in trust with the different trades and in particular the team management.
Do you think you still have room for improvement?
I have never been in a team that worked in this way, nor been supported in this way. I don’t know what percentage this will save me, but even if my margin for physical progress is probably no longer very great, I am convinced that it will allow me to progress on a lot of things: position on the bike , the quality of the material, the nutrition, the mental preparation, the overall serenity. A bunch of small axes which are finely worked here.
You are very durable but sometimes lack explosiveness: is this your area of work?
Yes, this is what we have already started to work on this winter: the lactic, the changes of rhythm. These are points that we have identified. However, I am not going to deny myself. Endurance remains my main quality, but if we can add a little punch to it, it can turn places of honor into victories.
Will you have less weight on your shoulders, in a team that has more leaders than Cofidis?
-Yes and no. I am joining a team where there are high demands. We are expected at a high level, we are there to compete with the very best, perhaps more than where I was before… In any case, I am used to handling pressure.
It has been a long road to arrive at Groupama-FDJ. Did you still have Marc Madiot’s refusal in your throat?
Yes, a little. I’m not Breton, but I’m still Norman and stubborn. I didn’t really understand at the time. I was a little distracted by that. It was therefore necessary to have an exchange with Marc to settle the accounts. In ten years, the team has changed a lot, and probably me too. But the simple fact that he called me was almost enough to make me put water in my wine.
You will have to live with David Gaudu…
I really don’t see it as a constraint. On the contrary, it is an opportunity. In current cycling, it is no longer riders against each other, but teams against each other. And what teams! When we see the concentrations of talent at Visma or UAE, there won’t be too many of us, or even a little more, to hope to exist.
How do we manage to exist in this cycling where a handful of riders crush almost all the races?
It’s both super interesting to live through this incredible era and sometimes frustrating. But the moment when we manage to exist (or even win) is all the more beautiful. When Romain Bardet wins the first stage of the Tour, it’s magnificent.
Gaudu will discover the Giro
David Gaudu is pawing impatiently. At 28 years old, the Breton, who is coming out of a contrasting season (a catastrophic Tour de France, a sixth place in the Tour of Spain) has finally obtained permission to participate in the Tour of Italy, which he had dreamed of for several seasons. “I’m going to go there with ambition, telling myself that a podium is possible… depending on the field. Obviously, if Roglic, Vingegaard, Pogacar and Evenepoel are there, I will perhaps review my objectives, but I am very excited at the idea of discovering this race which Thibaut (Pinot) and Romain (Bardet) told me a lot about. GOOD. » Gaudu will begin his season at the Tour of Oman in February and will continue with the Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico before the Tour of Italy. A brand new program which will not prevent him from returning to the Tour, a priori in the role of stage chaser, while Guillaume Martin will concentrate on the general.
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