Cycling: “Don’t ban anything”… Team FDJ-Suez wants to establish itself as the best team in the women’s peloton

Growing more ambitious every season, the French team announced the color at the start of the season and kept their word Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday.

A perfectly controlled, unrestrained sprint. Grace Brown won Liège-Bastogne-Liège ahead of the elite peloton on Sunday 21 April. Still on top despite a long layoff, the Australian rider of French team FDJ-Suez surprised everyone as victory appeared to be promised to the mighty SD Worx-Protime. The “Dean of the Classics” is not a monument to women’s cycling, but it is one of the most popular races on the calendar. By adding to the list of its achievements, FDJ-Suez confirms its new status.

As of 2022, the team is among the top five in the world and is aiming even further. During the traditional press conference at the beginning of the season, organized at the top of the Suez Tower in La Défense on February 19, general manager Stephen Delcourt warned that he does not intend to slow down his ambitions. The latter revealed that he had developed a five-year plan for his team to win the nine most important races: Strade Bianche, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, La Flèche wallonne, Amstel Gold Race, Tour of France, Giro, Vuelta and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which is therefore already in the bag.

Budget of 4 million euros

“Our goal is to break SD Worx’s cycle of dominance and become the team that dominates the sport”, ventured Stephen Delcourt with a microphone in hand next to six of his runners and in front of the press. Although extremely ambitious, his speech was backed up by Flavien Soenen, one of the two performance directors, when asked about the team’s ambitions for the next Tour de France. “We don’t deny ourselves anything. We have to dream of the most beautiful thing in our sport. The podium at the Tour de France is, I think, an excellent result, but when we aim for the podium, it means that we can also achieve victory”the former coach of Nair Quintana and Warren Barguil in Arkea-Samsic decided.

FDJ-Suez is no longer a team that sneaked into the World Tour (the highest international level) in 2020. It marked 17 victories in 2022 and 19 in 2023, unprecedented figures for a team whose record was three until 2021. The arrival of the Suez group as co-title sponsor just before the first edition of the women’s Tour de France, two years ago, provided a major financial boost. “In four years we have increased our budget by four, I said that we will finally be professional with a budget of 1 million euros, and I will tell you that it is not enough”assumes Stephen Delcourt, a central figure for more than 16 years and described internally as a hard worker.

In 2024, FDJ-Suez will have several international leaders of the women’s peloton in its workforce, starting with Cecilia Ludwig Uttrup. Arriving in 2020 as the first high-profile international recruit, the Danish batsman brought home 10 victories, including a stage of the Tour de France. Grace Brown followed her a year later. The Australian with a big engine is a two-time world runner-up in the time trial. The Italian Marta Cavalli is also part of this group. She has not yet had the chance to reach her full potential due to particularly painful crashes, but her successes in La Flèche wallonne and Amstel Gold Race 2022 have left their mark.

Towards the arrival of Demi Vollering in 2025?

Evita Muzic is the leader of the French team and this year she will be one of the two best French chances for the overall classification at the Tour de France, at the same time as Juliette Labous (DSM-Firmenich). And if La Gazzetta dello sport is to be believed, FDJ-Suez should be further strengthened next season with the arrival of Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime), winner of the last Tour de France. Just that.

In any case, the rumors have not been denied by the French team and even seem credible if we rely on Stephen Delcourt’s speech. Even before the first media noise about the possible arrival of the Dutch woman, the head of FDJ-Suez made a clue in mid-February by answering the question of what strategy to use to shake the hegemony of SD Worx: “ONHe doesn’t believe in fate. We want to play. The contracts with them are expiring, things will be sorted out.”. After all, recruiting an enemy leader is an effective technique. In addition, a place in the team could be freed up as Cecilie Ludwig Uttrup’s contract expires at the end of the season.

The team is attractive. In the off-season, she hired a second performance director by bringing in Lieselot Decroix to trial with Jumbo-Vism, one of the top teams in the peloton. The Belgian, a former professional runner, came to provide her expertise, particularly on the high-altitude courses the team has added in its preparations for 2024. “I went further and looked for details”summarizes the one who works in duo with Flavien Soenen.

“We can count on 40 employees. We are lucky to have a full-time nutritionist, a doctor who is increasingly involved with us. We have one of the most beautiful buses in the world, covered with photovoltaic panels and autonomous for 27 hours, welcomes Stephen Delcourt, also involved in the sustainable development aspect. Lithium batteries on the back allow us to be autonomous for refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners… We collect all the rainwater to wash our cars.” In the peloton, where some teams cannot afford to rely on paid staff, the contrast is even more striking.

All these parameters affect the success of FDJ-Suez, which will be especially observed during the Tour de France this summer (from August 12 to 18). With just under four months to go before then, the French team has plenty of other races to compete in, starting with the Tour of Spain which starts on Sunday. The presenters, Evita Mužić and Marta Cavalli, will be especially expected there.