A team treading water: Groupama-FDJ 2025 verdict

In 2024, Groupama-FDJ finished 10th in the UCI rankings, scoring 15 victories. Among those victories, 7 were won by riders who would not be with the team for 2025, Laurence Pithie, Lenny Martinez and Samuel Watson, leaving the French team with a puzzle to solve.

For 2025, the team brought in experience in the shape of Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet, Johan Jacobs, and Rémi Cavagna. Alongside them came Tom Donnenwirth, who had impressed at Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale’s development team in 2024, and Clément Braz Afonso, who had been a strong rider on the French circuit. Finally, Brieuc Rolland and Lewis Bower were promoted from the development team.

Wins: 15
UCI Ranking: 18th
The Verdict: 4.5/10

In 2025, Groupama-FDJ once again reached a total of 15 victories, matching their 2024 tally, though most came in smaller French races, bringing them to 18th place in the UCI ranking. Romain Grégoire led the way with six wins, while new signings Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet and Tom Donnenwirth tasted success on home soil.

Thibaud Gruel and Lewis Askey added multiple victories, and David Gaudu delivered on the WorldTour stage with a win at the Tour of Oman and a memorable triumph on stage 3 of the Vuelta a España.

Stefan Küng impressed with top-10 finishes at the E3 Saxo Classic (6th), Dwars door Vlaanderen (9th) and the Tour of Flanders (7th), while Grégoire and Valentin Madouas were also prominent throughout the Classics campaign.

Romain Grégoire confirmed his status as one of cycling’s brightest young talents in 2025, finishing as Groupama-FDJ’s top points scorer with six victories. His season began with a win at the Faun-Ardèche Classic, followed by strong GC results at the Volta ao Algarve (4th), Tirreno-Adriatico (15th) and Itzulia Basque Country (9th).

In the Ardennes, Grégoire impressed again with top-10 finishes at Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne. He then took a memorable stage win at a rain-soaked Tour de Suisse, briefly wearing yellow before finishing 17th overall and 2nd at the French Championships.

At the Tour de France, the 22-year-old shone among the world’s best, finishing 4th and 5th on stages 2 and 4 and adding another top-five on stage 20. He continued his form with solid rides at San Sebastián and Bretagne, then claimed overall victory at the Tour of Britain after outpunching Julian Alaphilippe on stage 4.

Grégoire ended his season strongly, winning two stages at the Skoda Tour de Luxembourg and finishing 10th at the European Championships before rounding out his campaign in the Italian Autumn Classics.

Groupama-FDJ showed plenty of heart and character at this year’s Vuelta a España. After the setback of losing Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet to a crash on stage 2, it could have been very easy for the French team to go missing. However, David Gaudu struck gold just one day later, taking his first Grand Tour stage win since 2020. 

While no more stage victories came at the Vuelta, the team would have left with their heads held high for multiple reasons. Firstly, for managing to get Gaudu into the race leader’s red jersey after gaining bonus seconds over Jonas Vingegaard at an intermediate sprint on stage 4. 

Additionally, the team’s younger and less experienced riders enjoyed breakthrough races, particularly Brieuc Rolland and Clément Braz Afonso. Rolland finished third on two stages, while Braz Afonso ended fifth on a stage, which he was up the road with eventual winner Egan Bernal and Mikel Landa before an untimely mechanical. 

Rudy Molard, Stefan Küng and Remi Cavagna also featured in breaks alongside their younger teammates, while Thibaud Gruel scored two top 10 stage finishes.

In his debut season with the team, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet ended as the third highest Groupama-FDJ rider in the UCI season rankings. 

The philosophical climber spent the first part of his season racing on home soil, before landing back-to-back wins at the Classic Grand Besançon Doubs and the Tour de Jura. He was on the cusp of the top 10 at Paris-Nice and Itzulia Basque Country, before ending 10th at the Critérium du Dauphiné. Then, for the 6th year in a row, the 32-year-old finished inside the top 20 at the Tour de France, this time in 16th and featured in some breakaways in the second week. 

Martin-Guyonnet suffered an unfortunate crash on the second stage of the Vuelta a España, which left him with significant injuries, including two fractured vertebrae. It was a rare moment for the Frenchman, who hadn’t failed to finish a race since the French national championships in June 2023. In his absence, fellow 2025 signings Clément Braz Afonso and Brieuc Rolland stepped up massively with combative performances and earned multiple high-stage positions, a very positive sign for the future.

Martin-Guyonnet recovered quickly to return to racing for the end-of-season Italian Classics and will continue his recovery to top health towards the 2026 season.

Lorenzo Germani and Rémy Rochas raced 80 times for Groupama-FDJ this year, with both completing the Giro d'Italia in May.

• Alpecin-Deceuninck
• Arkea B&B Hotels
• Bahrain Victorious
• Cofidis
• Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
• EF Education-EasyPost
• Ineos Grenadiers
• Intermarché-Wanty
• Lidl-Trek
• Movistar
• Picnic-PostNL
• Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe
• Soudal Quick-Step
• XDS-Astana