Groupama – FDJ 2024 Preview | Lanterne Rouge Cycling Podcast

In this episode Patrick Broe and Benji Naesen preview Groupama – FDJ.

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Al Al tibo Pino Bean Vu to the lantern Rouge cycling podcast for the group arm ftj I mean Benji you know he said I do a French intro because this is the this is the the blue and white French team they got some red on the Jersey K fdj 2024

Preview a year of a year of change a year of uh turnover some turmoil as well in term and two of their sort of heads of state Riders departing tiopo and ano deara how was their how was their season Benji CU from my perspective it was pretty

Lackluster first of all I do need to say you didn’t put your heart in that intro no French national anthem nothing like that so I guess we’re going to have to do it with that but if we talk about Bo that’s I only know the first two

Lines of national anthem the master and then I’m done that is the heart I was talking about okay s anyway I’m now ready to be to be in the team car you’re already being called by m at the moment French panes yes anyway talking about P I do drink

Beer sometimes as well so it’s no problem Jesus Christ what I do facts Pino 15 GC at jro godu n9th and Pino 11th at the TOA FR in GC Martinez wearing red at the velta is it me or have they not accomplished much more than that in gr

Tours this year because when it comes to actual stage wins Pino lost from Rubio and the other dude Pino lost from himself on stage towards the end of the tour oh yeah oh you forgot the Zana one as well but that was where he was kind

Of cementing his GC position so that one was actually he just wrote that was that’s and then there was the uh I mean I think there might be something wrong with me Benji you know and I often think you think yeah I think cuz like with the Pino stuff this year I can

Understand why everyone’s like behind it I understand the Romanticism I understand people being like what a way I send off all I’m doing and this is kind of indicative of how I view a lot of his career all I was doing was thinking man you could have won

That stage if you just and it kind of actually was emblematic to me of a lot of his career CU I don’t think and still now like people don’t realize how good Pino was physically in 2023 he unbelievable level Rider he to five the jro without trying he obviously came in good level

But I mean like he backed a it of course but top five grand tour without like it being and and won the climbers Jersey then the tour to France third week bang strongest in the Breakaway by far could have won it and all I was thinking was

Man I wish he just I wish he just calmed down and sat with that group cuz there’s you know what’s you know it’s more romantic than being solo through that crowd Benji winning winning the stage well maybe it’s not maybe it’s not I don’t know but maybe maybe I’m wrong

Maybe I’m a a coldhearted person who can’t see the the joy in life but yeah I think to actually is underrated is that possible oo I think people treat him like people treat him like he’s a puppy not as good as he was yeah I agree it’s like

Like throughout Pino’s career he’s built this phenomenon of he’s a solid Rider but he’s Never As Good As like the others he’s competing against he’s always the underdog in a situation in a race he wasn’t preo he climbing data is better than everyone that’s a thing he was so good

In 2023 he just chose for showing himself off to the audience which I don’t hate instead of ultimately trying to get that stage win that extra stage win that might also I think he was trying to win the stage though I think he was trying

To win the stage I think he just wanted to go first through the through the segment with his fans to be honest I don’t think he thought he could win the stage or maybe he fought it but it was an epic moment for the fans

So I won’t take it yeah he can is yeah yeah he can do what he likes it makes no difference to me but that’s just what I think I think actually I think sometimes the narrative is that Pino was yeah like you said the underdog or whatever but actually he Pino was and

Still was still is an incredible Rider and he’s not old either he’s a young man like you know he’s 33 years old uh but pressure and we’ll talk about that with Martinez and Greg like I’m not surprised he is retiring I’m not criticizing his reti I’m just saying physically he’s

Still good Rider uh but I’m not surprised he is retiring because huge amount of pressure on him for the last decade and um he he leaves and he was in fact their highest point scorer this year which 2,000 UCI points the man was performing godu underperformed outset of

Pines like G being for at second at pares those are good results for davod but at the to France getting nine that’s a result he’s basically gu Mar without philosophy in that race so I reckon they deserve they they expect more from godou that race and they also lose dear as a consequence

Of the relationship between goodu and dear is how I feel about it so goodu has even more pressure on his head because of that Fallout with dear no I reckon that that’s the case at least yeah I think so and ultimately s just having a a bite of food um

Ultimately they sold out Tamar for kuo there wasn’t really any they didn’t really make any public statements about it but they clearly picked a side it was David gdo because dear didn’t go to the tour so they they picked a side it didn’t work out Pino kind of Saved their tour or did

Save their tour at least image wise like yeah he was still good and and there was some sponsor value particularly in that elsass stage so but G only came ninth because cous crashed cous was in ninth so he was behind a domestique uh and yeah he just wasn’t competitive and

It’s also like there’s nin and then there’s nin like he was where was he 23 minutes back yeah sorry but you finished 23 minutes back then probably you guys could have taken Mar scotson and dear I’m not sure it would have made too much difference uh so ultimately

That was the wrong decision clearly uh and that was evident before the Tour of France and obviously evident on the scoreboard now and also culturally I don’t think they handled it too well and I think the way de you know dear’s one a lot is he the the won the most races for

The team ever I reckon it’s probably the case like he’s won quite a lot of races for this team and he was there already when bhani started leaving so I reckon he’s won the most races for this team but it’s also like it’s yeah they have their performance at

Ground tours they have those onee results like P know getting fifth at Romany in addition to the ones we mentioned already Kung winning at TT at Swiss only two wter victories of 19 races one of which is that TT with Kung and the other one is madas winning PL as

A one day race madas getting second at St next to that Kung fifth at Ru Mell fifth at lbl K sixth at rvv I think the main light point for this team is their youngsters guu winning two races Martinez winning a race plus wearing red at of wela for a

Portion of the race then those are those are the future of the team but what their situation like when it comes to UCI points if you take a look at L as a team how worried should they be should they be racking up okay then that’s not necessary they’ve got time

To FR circuit brother yeah they’ve got time to focus on their youngsters right yeah they not they got double the points of AR and they’re they’re in seventh so they’re they’re actually above J and Bor and alberon Phoenix like Alon to kerik which is kind of yeah kind of comical uh to be

Honest but abon also scored zero GC points every year so it’s also not that surprising uh but yeah in terms of points as well like uh K was their second Rider madell is their third they were also over 2,000 UCI points goodu was their fourth best Rider on

1500 greguar already their fifth best in terms of points on uh 1100 and Martinez their sixth best so the young guys already performing somewhat the Neo Pros that’s a very good return godu and the team are serious about godo’s GC bid and are actively keeping sprinters out of

Their gr tour team for godu then he should be first UCI Point scorer on the team he should be an actual Podium candidate before you think of getting a sprinter outside of your team and the fact that the management didn’t see that shows me a lack of I don’t know how to say

Competence no a lack of taking emotions out of the decisions well just not evaluating the team you have and the best way to actually win a stage which I would say is pretty important for any team winning a t of France stage so um but mwell was

Certainly very good in one day races he and Kung are a very good onew punch the problem is they don’t have uh they don’t have a guy that can Sprint uh maybe py can become that guy I would hope uh my antipa and colleague but they’re missing a finisher because even

When Kung does get in a group with pson with even dag and col or whoever uh they they they can’t Sprint so it’s tough to win it’s really really tough to win and and that’s what the really big thing is the points are fine two World

Tour wins is not uh good enough One World Tour sort of nont win even 19 wins is probably not good enough you compare that to bar 12 I know they say they have a low budget and and I’m sure they do uh they also do have advantages in terms of

Uh stability and structure and uh French Riders to pick from like greguar and Pino and and guu and dear who are all very very talented lot of talented French Riders so uh but still they’re not the biggest budget in the world but neither is Bahrain and Bahrain won 12

World Tour races this year and and in all three grand Tours so yeah it’s uh something to be improved on but also when you look at their incomings from uh last year it’s not a surprise I guess because every single rider was from the dev team uh from the

Incomings uh is there anything else to say about the Year this year that we missed not really just the the focus on the fact that the youngsters are going to be a big part of their future and that’s also a bit shining true in their 2024 transfers the outgoing transfers obviously the

Margo including that Miles scotson lead out you know and L are retiring BR armir is going to Deaton a which armir was a solid rider was solid Dom save that money let him go I’m I’m okay with them him going but I do like Anar I will say

That no no good Rider good rer Jake stward leaving he was talented but it never really came out as in he was stagnating a little in my head and then we see Bram Welton the the so-called lead out for dear also going although I didn’t really see the the greatest lead

Out eater we’ll need Luke scouting report on him yeah we need Luke Scouting Report Z or bran Welton who’s better he’ll let us know in the chat dut Dutch lead up boys zot he says immediately all right Michael store going to shter and I feel like store that’s the

Strange one no it was always like a a m transfer from the start in my head I never really saw that he was good for them I guess um I was watching to liaz where he and gregar I guess it’s kind of a bit like BR well it’s nice race man like

He I feel like he was a domestique role for go doing ground tours and he performed that in certain ground tours in some ground tours he just wasn’t necessarily in the form that he that he was in at DSM but I expected more from store I expected him more at the for

Front because at the he was good yeah in the Welter in 21 he was literally got in the break every day and and stomped everybody like didn’t even just six ago Bo see you like Road away from COV and and hag who came third in the Welter from like serious R just so

You’re right it’s like I’m like yeah he did some nice lead outs in Twi liaz medium Mountain but like maybe they were expecting him to although I think they did sign him after his to L GC win before those wter stages uh but yeah he

Goes uh maybe on more money to chuda who obviously probably do have decently Deep Pockets and that’s yeah so there is the Demar and Pino outgoing money that’s got to be 3 mil minimum yeah minimum 3 mil combined like actually they’re worth more but maybe but I don’t know

Exactly yeah um I reckon it’s roughly probably a bit more but it’s also like you look at these outgoing transfers and I’m like I can live without most of them leaving the team except Pino and except Demar can they not get Pino back for one

Last run come on like a few years like not even one last run just get him for another seven years sign a seven-year contract with Pino I’m down but anyway like incoming transfers Mark SLE he’s back the goat the putu sh on goat is

Back so a bit of a sprinty type but not like a DC Sprinter is how I classify him mat walls I’d classify him as a dtech sprinter too at the moment cuz he had better Sprint he’s reping steart I think I think so too um bisham coming for an

He’s a solid Rider solid domestique but I don’t see him moving the needle necessarily rosha this I like Ry Rosa I think he’s a solid domestique but I also feel like’s just a French ciruit man as R is a good transfer for the French Shen

In my head yeah yeah yeah I like in those little Jura those jur races yeah yeah yeah okayo and litos and then I think about this entire coming transfers and I think where’s the world two wins brother where’s anyone like nothing’s going to change they’re just get worse I presume

The goal is to win more yeah yeah it’s as if they just want to add more Riders surrounding their young Talent they already have which they’re betting on yeah and I think that the plan is to is to be around greguar Martinez and godu the difference is this

Uh they don’t have him well first of all he’s not French and second of all he’s not been as good as those three immediately yeah mean maybe um the difference to last year’s transfers is that last year they signed only guys from their Cony development team and I actually was really high I

Thought it was a great I was like what a system they got the dev team they got these absolute studs coming in and already they performed that was fantastic CL so this year it is a little bit they’re kind of getting the musical chairs of guys from other French teams

Or even frankophone teams if I can sneak bom in there uh they got walls who I don’t mind because they’re buying low and there is he was good in 21 like he was good in 2021 so I don’t mind walls especially he’s going to be cheaper than

Stuart I would think so I think that’s not too bad uh but yeah it’s like where’s the money they’re saving on dear and Pino going is it going to an extension exensions maybe so are they using they’re building a kitty next year so they can afford to keep greguar and

Martinez I I would I would expect that but it’s also like there’s also Riders on the Cal barf sorry but it’s not a world tour Rider yeah it is like not every French Rider with one leg can get a witer contract at this point like wouldn’t you rather gabre

Gabir is just a dedicated pay 80 grand and he’ll just r as a domestic for goodu no questions asked all year but his name is not GI Zab otherwise he would be in this steam like he would add value I don’t know what he’s doing so um he’s not in

Wter anymore reck I mean if they don’t have the money they don’t have the money but also there’s there’s other guys for the same money if you if you look around who are better than These Guys these a lot of these guys are like ah get him

Back and you know whatever uh so yeah um what do we think for next year Benji the Cobble Classics oo so K madas Watson Jett are the names that come in my head piy maybe yeah piffy maybe mat w for like AA and so forth those type of

Races Hill Classics I’m thinking M ggar yet sener and so forth maybe go do for lbl as well but M top five lbl go Greg flers I’d like to see him try the maybe opening weekend first nah it’s not really fitting uh bra shoot in my head as something he can win

Yeah is hard I don’t see it yet fair enough where where are you at on your boy Paul penway Sprinter I don’t see a I don’t know like maybe the the lasz of the of the world together with the French one. one Classics combined with maybe maybe he’s

The one that goes to these Kus held the prices instead of instead of a matchu WS for example like oh I I’ll be sending Watson and py before him Olivier leg gak’s good actually as well the dis disrespected him lagak is good in the classics I quite like him

But like what what are realistic results in the Classics for this team oh aski as well ask aski sorry I’ve jum again yeah agree realistic realistic results uh it would be good to Podium three of the seven class Cobble Classics as a stretch goal that’s tough

But y I reckon you should try that but it’s it’s going to be a hard Podium two is tough M’s goal is trying to win one yeah so he’s likely to end up on the podium instead like he Podium he should Target DW’s du DW D like fully Target

That I think and St I think yeah depends on who’s there next to him though I don’t remember who’s got to Strada yep combination of those two I reckon that’s really good then the ground tours for a second I would expect godu and M are going to the T front but

Who the hell is going to the J and the VTA then I’d say godu goes Tova but Jesus Christ man where marz going and GG latinus K yeah I reckon yep why not yep send Martinez to two and greguar I’ll send gregar to the jro H to

I’ll send sorry goo to the jro goo to the jir no don’t see it happening why because they chose him over Demar so now they’re going to go all bunkers on go do to try and make it happen what what is it called when you when you when

You’re losing out on something yes sunos fallacy it might still like he might still top seven at Twitter France it’s a Twitter France with limited TT kilometers I reckon yeah you’re right you’re right you’re right go do TT for me uh Kung has to the J right isn’t he

Got to do van AR schedule I think yes and he’s going to try to do the Olympics and and world’s TT so yeah Kung will I think Kung should do the jro then with the TTS uh honestly they can send a good team to the jro like they can win a stage like

If you send paser uh L venburg who’s actually quite good uh greguar jenet type guys to the jro or sen bom and you target the right stages I’m convinced they were they are capable of winning a stage they are good Riders who are good on those in breakaways I’m somewhat feeling greguar

To the France Vibes so greguar Martinez goodu to the France yeah M he’s the leader brother M as well yeah yeah I’m do that poor bastard I’m seeing it cuz like do they let mest have a go on the gravel stage depends on the state of the no the

Race Sur they will like let him or k or whoever go for the gravel stage come on but when it comes to jir I’m also think like piffy and Thompson for example yeah because they they won’t have a chance to go to the tour at this team in the near

Future so J was the the thing you would think of get with a sprinter in the in the name of walls or something with maybe Watson as well in there like Enzo pany he’s French but his name’s Italian Gman is going to the J he’s Italian so yeah that’s why they got

Him I know they got some good young arst I’m sure they can couble together a decent enough jro team to actually C together yeah they’re not is that a new verb two couble together yeah that’s a verb it is is that’s very uh I’m proud of that as a Belgian Classics still be

There there about yeah they might not get the big win and then we might sit here a year from now and say oh what a shitty year they had but then we look at their points and they scored a lot of points and it’s cuz they were

Competitive in a lot of the classics so that’s probably not showing up on the scoreboard all the time T France yep they’ll be going top I’m sorry but top 10’s not good enough top five is the goal with goodu you can’t be you can’t say our top 10 he already came fourth no

So uh yeah he already came forth I agree the was the this year apparently but I think that’ll be the goal again um I think he’s not he’s not good enough for Podium he’s simply not good enough evidently not is the potential best um yeah the and then Welter to be honest if

Welter suits him really well I’d love for him to also do the hill Classics and skip the tour and do the Welter but that probably won’t happen I don’t comination he’d be good in the uh the World Championships parkour I would like to see a lot of these

French Riders targeting that nire world champion I’d hope to see it yeah I’d love to see it the all right well two wins Benji for this team it’s got to be more this is not a deep team is it I mean let let me read out some names

To you and say is it realistic they can win a world tour race and now that I’m going to do this exercise for sure one will win one but c b Clon Davi no Lorenzo German Kos Eddie L Fabian lard uh Rudy Mard peny even leg gak frankly s

Russo penway peny already said him like penway is good for this team for the future I I like penway is a rider his results are not bad I’m just saying there’s a lot of these Riders are like yeah can’t really do much um in World toour competition uh they have a deep they

Have a big calendar so they need they need Riders to ride the French circuit obviously but yeah um so I think yeah Welter wins Welter wins they had two Welter wins in 202 three they will have no no dear no Pino well who won five five of their six

World Tour wins in 2022 how many World Tour wins were Pino and dear in 2023 my friend zero yeah true I’m going forar didn’t get sent to them I’m going for four witer wins no five wter wins go for two again no I can’t got to

I have to score more right because I’m short on numbers I’ll go I’ll go four I’ll go four uh the reason I go five is I believe greguar is going to win a stage yeah I think greguar win some Martinez could win a world tour race y gregar

Could even win two that’s what I’m betting on for sure you s the right B country finishes Romany Catalonia bass country they probably won’t because let’s be honest about it grou and scheduling the riders for the for the correct race hasn’t been the Godlike thing in the last couple of

Years I believe it’s not impossible for King to win a Welter race whether it’s a stage a TT or or it could even be a classic he needs the right group dynamic to make it happen but it’s not impossible yeah not impossible and I’m betting on godu

Realizing that GC in a certain race isn’t happening so going in the break and winning the SED Maybe something like that I think it’s possible five is good yeah you got five I got four uh I think do you think they this is the big question this is almost more important

Than their wins this year do you think I’ll read out the writers that are out of contract this is we’re already thinking of next year’s podcast lenberg piy Watson Martinez jenet penu Greg and the big two martinz and Greg you think they retain you think they retain both of

Them yes I think they’ll retain pen as well and outside of those I mean H2 gave all the the puncher money to benoa I think Watson’s leaving I think Biffy might stay because like he hasn’t really broken true yet in in any way not around here partner so he he’ll

Require not around here he’ll require a breakthrough to be able to have some more interest because let be honest about it if he was French he’d easily find other teams because he’s not he’s not French so la P sounds pretty French if you if he like pretends he’s French

He ran like a he ran like a 16 35k the other day have no clue what that means man I don’t run he ran 5 km is fast jet is probably staying long time team member is retiring Mar is probably staying oh no I mean the good ones I

Mean the good ones yeah like that’s my view on the transfers you don’t think age 12 toal will come I guess that these guys are unlucky that Al Philip hitting the Mark at the same time as them yeah linard goes to tutor by the way that’s

My head oh Swiss true uh yeah but they got I mean and that’s probably if you look at these transfers this year and like where is where’s all the money from Pino and dearon it would make sense that they are building a pot of money to keep

These guys when their NE a pro contract expires at the end of 2023 uh maybe they don’t send them to the tour Benji they do a tactical we don’t want you to win a Tour stage room maybe they if you want to go to the tour you got to sign this extension

First that sort of stuff also happens all the time um as well all right uh do we have any hot takes I think we do M was also will win a world race so I’m also betting on that by the way but okay I am saying oh it’s difficult to hone down

Which Races they will win I know just hot takes like does Mario Martinez wins the queen stage with the T FR brother that boy hits two 2500 K he can’t turn the [Laughter] cracks that’s why they’re hot he needs to improve for it yeah true it’s a hot take is he okay I

Granted imagine he’s about to win then the vineard guard just flies past him the last 50 m oh drama Roman greguar wins the first stage of T fron and takes yellow what’s the first stage it’s in it’s in uh it is oh never mind I was

Looking at a 2023 parkour again was it it’s Monaco it’s a pcho one it’s in Italy it’s REM yeah I don’t see it to be honest it’s I don’t know well how’s this flat Sprint that’s my issue with it I don’t know it’s flat Sprint I don’t know

I don’t really it he’s doing it it’s happening like there’s no question about it he’s beating p in a one to1 Sprint I think they lose three of the four of py Watson and Martinez greguar I don’t think they keep both greguar and Martinez and I think they keep Martinez

Is one going or something they see him as a GC guy I mean you don’t you don’t have to be a genius to think Gregoire is good yeah I agree like I’m sure chuda would like to have him I’m sure Q3 65 would like to have him or Bora many other teams who

Like ag2 are have deaon as a sponsor total enery might not want to pay for 30-year-old Al FIP and want to get the younger version isn’t there like a bit of a meh relationship between AER and him as in he was on the a youth team then dipped out to the the groupama

Youth team instead of staying in their structure is that not ggar I don’t know maybe I’m just inventing drama but no Luke says yes so yeah but now it’s always he coming back it’s all good if you pay me two mil happy families so I but yeah I think that’s going to

Be it’s going to be tough for them even with the money saved because there’s so many there’s two other French teams straight off the top of my head that have money total and Asia 2R and then there’s also other Challenger teams like Israel like chuda like q36 and then

There’s the other big bad World Tour teams as well who um will be looking at those guys all out of contract so yeah uh we’ll see we’ll see uh maybe cidus comes in and replaces Lefay with Greg who knows uh I’m not sure that was really hot take I don’t really have any

Others Benji because I was I going to say oh yeah I’ll go on I’ll go on I’ll go on uh Lawrence py wins ker broser and and Ruben Thompson top 10’s romendy is it is it like coincidential that both these Riders are from the oceanic region in this are also in the same

Uh season as me perhaps L venberg he will top 10 amst gold race as well little fun fact for you Lars Vandenberg I’ll leave you with that one while Benji pumps him in the PCS that was the group arm fdj preview let us know what you think was it too too tough

It was probably a difficult season for them are there reasons to be hopeful for the future how many races do you think they’ll win next year who will be their best r Rider probably old Stefan Kung once again I would say uh who will finish second in both the Olympics and

World’s time trial so until uh is that this our last preview this is not our last preview not our last men’s one no no no no no we’ve got St and F to record my friend the they goat teams EF Al righty fair enough uh but until until those marvelous previews uh

As well as some women’s ones coming up as well we’ll see you then ciao