The lottery backed FDJ squad looks set for a big year in which its young stars will remind the cycling world that the French are in fact a major cycling nation. In Oman the French national champion Nacer Bouhanni won a fast sprint for his first win of the year. At Paris-Nice he went one better by winning the opening stage in the first European World Tour race of 2013. He crashed out on the next stage while wearing the leaders jersey but he is one of many bright starts who look set to shine brightly in 2013 and has already set the scene for FDJ this season. At last year’s Tour de France the youngest rider in the peloton had a magnificent debut ride. Thibaut Pinot won a maiden stage and finished 10th in the final classification showing his potential as a grand tour top ten regular. In recent years the French have been largely absent from the pointy end, there have been some impressive performances, namely those of the Europcar duo Thomas Voeckler and Pierre Rolland. Voeckler always animates the Tour and his past two appearances have netted an extended stint in yellow, a fourth placing overall, winning the mountain classification and a couple of stage wins. His teammate Rolland has also won stages, an impressive win over Contador et al up Alpe d’Huez no less, finished inside the top ten twice and was crowned the best young rider in 2011. These two are symbolic of the resurgence in French riders posting top results but FDJ look more than likely to share in the spoils with Europcar and see French riders return to winner’s podium everywhere.
Bouhanni is one of the team’s sprint weapons and at just 22 with national title already under his belt he exemplifies the new generation of French riders. Although he is not the only top end sprinter the team possess with 2011 U/23 road race world champion Arnaud Démare also on board. His biggest achievement so far was his win at the 2012 Vattenfall Cyclassics over German gorilla Andre Greipel where should just how good his top end speed can be. These two aren’t quite at the level of Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb of Argos-Shimano but they are certainly sprinting forces to watch in 2013 and will be a deadly duo in years to come.
With Démare and Bouhanni set to bring home a few sprint wins in the season the team also have several other avenues to victory in 2013. Partly why FDJ look likely to excel this season is their balance of youth and experience as older heads such as four time Tour stage winner Pierrick Fédrigo and three time Tour stage winner Sandy Casar can guide the younger riders throughout the season using their experience in the peloton for younger riders benefit. These two can always be counted to chip in with some odd wins but is the spread of young talent in the team which looks like competing in grand tours, one week stage races, classics and one day races.
At the Tour Down Under in January Démare was the first FDJ rider to step onto a podium as he finished second in the sprint to gorilla but was rewarded with the best young rider jersey. The next podium visit was at the Tour of Oman where pocket rocket Kenny Elissonde won his first ever classification. Elissonde weighs a mere 52kg’s and is a true mountain goat. He looks to follow the path of Arthur Vichot and Pinot at FDJ who have both proven themselves to be top class climbers. However at 21 he is still a versatile rider and at a junior level showed he can mix it in one day races. 2013 will probably be a year when he predominately races at Europe Tour level as he one of the youngest riders on the team. Elissonde can cut his teeth and learn from Pinot and Vichot as it sometimes happens the young rider who gets to spend time watching and learning the older riders outstrips them completely.
Besides the aforementioned names the rich talent at FDJ is also quite young. The riders who are 26 and younger read like a list of future stars French of the sport with Anthony Roux, Johan Le Bon, Yoann Offredo and Arnaud Courteille complementing Démare, Bouhanni, Pinot and Elissonde. These riders are all a mixture of talent and speciality and by investing in young French talent FDJ is hopefully facilitating a renaissance of French cycling.
There are only three non-French riders on FDJ in 2013 which suggests the team has faith in its national riders and can build a platform for success. It’s been a while since Bernard Hinualt won the last of his five Tours’ and it would be more than welcomed to see a French rider on top of the podium after three weeks riding around France. The nucleus is there at FDJ but how they manage the riders and give them the opportunity to race and contest for the big wins will be the test for the men in white. It will certainly help having some healthy completion from the likes of Rolland and Voeckler in the peloton as it seems there is some fire in the bellies of theses riders.
The French refer their youth sporting teams as espoir, the hope, a fitting description for the new generation. The riders of the 90s and the 00s were riding in a cloud of doping and cheating and the repercussions of those choices are being felt severely today as the big stars of the past slowly take their turn to offer a pallid mea culpa. In response to these confessions and muck raking the fans and riders alike are calling for is a returned focus to the sport. This new generation grew up watching Pantani, Ulrich, Virenque, Armstrong and Boogerd et al but they have seen their false idols fall and the dangers of idolatry in cycling. So now these young men are the hope of not just French cycling but cycling as a whole and if they continue their careers as they have started, many of those with a bang, it would be no gamble to back French cycling’s return to the top step of the podium.
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