If love lasts seven years, then Valentin Madouas has passed the most difficult stage of his career. In 2025, the year he turns 29, the Breton will enter his eighth professional season. The eighth with Groupama-FDJ. A longevity that has become extremely rare in modern cycling, where contracts are broken more and more easily and where loyalty is only important for those who still believe in it.
Madouas, he extended in July 2023, in the middle of the Tour de France, while the requests were flying in squadrons. But he readily admits, to stop this routine which always threatens to set in, “either you change teams, or you try to find a new dynamic by working differently”.
Linked to Marc Madiot’s training until 2026, he therefore took the second route this winter. Frustrated by his “lack of success” in the last classics campaign, in the spring, then with his head in the stars after his unforgettable Olympic medal at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, in August, the Finistère went through tons of emotions in 2024. And inevitably, the head ended up almost as tired as the legs. “I needed to cut longer than usual to regenerate because the season was intense. And that shifted my preparation a bit,” he admits.
New coach, new program
We finally found him on Wednesday in Paris, having just returned from a few days in the Canary Islands, where he spent time under the Spanish sun. His face already dry and the word “new” in his mouth. Because if the change of team is not for now, it is because the Brestois has changed things in recent weeks. Or rather, as there was no question of cleaning up, he made “different choices in [sa] preparation, while remaining in continuity with the last few years” to seek out every last drop of performance and make the most of your best years.
This first happened with a change of coach. At the request of the Breton, the young Anthony Bouillod (33 years old) took the place of David Han. Less volume, more intensities, just to “energize” the season, they decided to look for “different exercises” in training.
-By a renewal of its calendar, too. Excluding certain courses at altitude, his start to the season will be lighter in order to keep freshness for the spring classics, once again the guideline of his season with the Tour de France. His route could even include a second grand tour later in the year.
Win back in 2025
Because if he is aware of having fallen against a generation of riders “who win almost everything”, Valentin Madouas, weaned from victory in 2024, also knows that one day, it will perhaps be for him. “I expect him to win races and take us to the Olympics two or three times a year,” thundered his boss Marc Madiot on Wednesday.
And if the Tour of Flanders were to be refused to him, he would still have Sunday May 11th. That day, he will line up for the first time with Tro Bro Leon. At home in Finistère. Yet another novelty. But we’ve been waiting for this one for a really long time.
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