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There are some things you can set your watch to in professional cycling, and Groupama-FDJ is one such bastion of consistency. With the French team, you can typically rely on a few things: doomed GC bids in the Tour de France, a kit that is the visual representation of La Marseillaise, and, as an equipment sponsor, Lapierre bikes being ridden to a place close to the podium (but crucially, not close enough). But this week that all fell apart with the announcement that the team and their bike sponsor were parting ways after a staggering 22 years, ending the longest-running current collaboration in professional cycling.
This cosmic rupture will take place on December 31, with an as-yet unannounced bike sponsor (rumours suggest Wilier) swooping in to take over. The women’s team FDJ Suez – which shares a naming-rights sponsor, but no other management ties – will continue with their current Lapierre sponsorship.
According to a statement reported by CyclingNews, it was Lapierre that pulled the pin, with the French brand deciding to “take a different road next year”. Lapierre, which is part of the Accell Group, reportedly chipped in €1.5m to the team’s coffers in addition to the bikes, meaning that Groupama-FDJ will either be chasing the same or facing a shortfall in 2024.
Despite being jilted by the French bike brand that has been such an indelible part of the Groupama-FDJ legacy, the team seems fairly philosophical about it. “This is the end of a historic partnership of more than twenty years and we will always remember our great performances on Lapierre bikes,” team manager Marc Madiot reflected. “During these two decades we have co-developed some of the most efficient bikes in the world and it has been a wonderful adventure, full of success.
“We respect Lapierre’s choice to end the partnership. Like every company, Lapierre must make strategic choices. The end of this collaboration is an illustration of this and we are respectful of this decision. Lapierre is and will remain a great bicycle brand.”
Over the 22 years that Lapierre has supplied Groupama-FDJ, bike tech has come a long way. So has the sport itself, in fact. When Lapierre first stepped up to the big leagues, it was midway through the Armstrong era. Carbon fibre wasn’t yet the dominant frame production material, although it was on its way there. Road disc brakes were more than a decade away. Gears were shifted with cables; tyres were skinny and pumped up extremely hard.
At one level it’s a bit sad to see Lapierre leave the mens’ WorldTour (or maybe they’ll end up with another team? Who knows?). But it’s also an interesting opportunity to assess the evolution of the bikes the company created, an avatar for the transition in the sport itself. In a sport currently dominated by bigger brands – Specialized, Trek, Cervelo, Pinarello, Colnago – Lapierre was often a bit more of a plucky underdog, with limited international distribution. Founded in 1948, the company has been a solid-enough performer without a huge marketing budget or cachet. People didn’t buy Lapierres by accident or by default; it’s a brand you have to seek out, a purchase you have to really mean. It’s been many years since I’ve ridden one, but I liked their vibe then and I like their vibe now, and the removal of their swoopy forms in Groupama-FDJ’s change in bike sponsor will make the peloton a slightly more homogenous place. That deeply French, underdog vibe was as perfect a match between team and supplier as you’re likely to find, and something will feel slightly off in 2024 as a result.
Here are some of the key moments in Groupama-FDJ’s long, occasionally prosperous partnership.
Australia’s Bradley McGee at the 2003 Tour de France, on a scandium-framed Lapierre that had no model name besides ‘Lapierre FDJeux.com Scandium’. Evocative.The same year, Baden Cooke was locked in a tight battle for the sprinters classification with fellow Aussie Robbie McEwen. Cooke pipped McEwen on stage 20, securing himself the right to wear green into Paris the next day and finally taking the title. FDJeux.com had a strong Australian contingent through the early 2000s. Here’s national champion Matthew Wilson at the 2004 Tour Down Under, again on a scandium framed bike.McGee wearing the leaders jersey of the 2004 Tour de Romandie. The New South Welshmen was a star of the era, wearing leaders jerseys and winning stages of both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France.By 2006, Lapierre were moving towards carbon fibre, although still used aluminium in some races. They also had a plucky young Belgian called Philippe Gilbert on the books, pictured here on the way to the win in Omloop Het Volk. He was with the team for seven seasons (a complete mystery to me until today) before going on to World Championships, monuments and many many more wins at a number of other teams. By 2007, Lapierre had settled on the carbon fibre Xlite platform, ridden by Philippe Gilbert at Omploop Het Volk in 2007. By 2010, cables were no longer dangling out the front of shifters, and were even – gasp – electronic. Sandy Casar rode Lapierre’s Xelius to a stage win at the 2010 Tour de France – his third and final for the team, over a 13 year career. At around the same time, a charismatic Frenchman called Thibaut Pinot was rising through the ranks, joining FdJ in 2010. By 2012, he’d catapulted to the big time with his debut Tour de France stage win, earned through a daring breakaway as the youngest rider in the race. Not all FdJ riders were as universally beloved. Nacer Bouhanni spent four seasons with the team, including a stint as national champion in this gloriously sponsor-free kit. Here he is winning the opening stage of the 2013 Paris-Nice. Later that season, Kenny Elissonde picked up a memorable stage-win on the brutally tough Angliru summit finish at the Vuelta a España.Pinot’s greatest GC result in the Tour de France came at the 2014 Tour de France, where the rising French star picked up third on GC and the best young rider classification. In polka dots is Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo Bank); Vincenzo Nibali won the yellow jersey, and Peter Sagan was in peak green jersey larrikin mode. The team snagged its second monument (and first on Lapierre) at Milan-San Remo in 2016. Arnaud Démare recovered from a crash late in the piece to unleash an impressive sprint, although not without some controversy – he was accused by a couple of riders of hitching a tow from a team car on his way back to the front. He was riding a wind-cheating Lapierre Aircode.
Bonus points: who was the FdJ team’s first winner of a Monument, and what brand bike were they riding? In 2018, Thibaut Pinot scored the win at the late-season monument, Il Lombardia, riding Lapierre’s exceptionally swoopy triple-triangled Xelius SL frame. He has called it the “most beautiful win of my career”. That said – speaking as someone who was there – there was something pretty damn beautiful about his stage 14 win on the Tourmalet at the 2019 Tour.Groupama-FDJ, as the team were now known, were seldom much of a force for the cobbled Classics. Swiss powerhouse Stefan Küng has been an exception to that, although in horrendous conditions, 2021 was not his year. A year later he would return to pick up third, rounding out the podium behind Wout van Aert and Dylan Van Baarle (not pictured).Meanwhile, David Gaudu was on the rise. At Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2021, the young Frenchman picked up third behind Tadej Pogačar and Julian Alaphilippe. Thibaut Pinot isn’t a renowned time-trialist, but he was better against the clock than he perhaps gets credit for. He was the national ITT champion in 2016, and rode a scorcher of a time trial to close out his 2023 Giro d’Italia. Here he is in fast-boi mode in 2022 at Tirreno Adriatico.Gaudu pipped a celebrating Wout van Aert at the 2022 Critérium du Dauphine …… with an absolutely phenomenal throw of his Lapierre Xelius SL3.Groupama-FDJ’s last win on a Lapierre would come in September at the Bretagne Classic, courtesy of reigning French champ Valentin Madouas. Everyone’s favourite off-brand Julian Alaphilippe (Mathieu Burgaudeau, TotalEnergies) was disappointed with his second place, but at least he’ll always have his own themesong to keep him warm at night [To the tune of ‘Uptown Funk’: Mathieu Burgaudeau/Mathieu Burgaudeau/Everybody now!]. But the curtain really closed on the collaboration between Lapierre and Groupama–FDJ at the 2023 Il Lombardia. The team’s talisman, Thibaut Pinot, said goodbye to the sport, having spent an entire 14-season long career riding just their bikes. A few weeks later, Lapierre said goodbye to Groupama-FDJ. Coincidence?
