2022 Season Summary
FDJ-SUEZ moved up a level in the 2022 season. Traditionally they’ve had 1 or 2 star riders scoring points whereas in 2022, it was definitely a trident with the inclusion of Grace Brown. The team as a whole also managed to spread out the wins with 8 different riders knowing that top-step feeling last season. They closed the gap on SD Worx and Trek Segafredo in the rankings as a result.
The team’s consistency played a big role in that rankings push. It took until April for their first non-top 10 finish and that was a pair of 11th places for Guilman and Grossetête. It was only the Simac Ladies Tour and RideLondon Classique that saw the team finish outside of that top-11 in 2022 races. Compared to Canyon SRAM’s consistency, however, they also finished higher up in the standings. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig won 3 WWT races, including a Tour de France Femmes stage and the GC at the Tour of Scandinavia. Marta Cavalli won 2 big WWT races at Amstel Gold and Flèche Wallonne, matched by Grace Brown at the Women’s Tour and Ceratizit Challenge. Brown should’ve won the GC at the Women’s Tour, only for an unbelievable sprint from Elisa Longo Borghini in Oxford. The team’s final WWT victory was claimed by Clara Copponi on Stage 1 of the Women’s Tour.
Evita Muzic, Vittoria Guazzini, Marie Le Net and Brodie Chapman all took wins too, showing the strength in depth of the team. Being able to claim regular 1.1/2/1/1.2 wins really helps push the ranking points along. The team has nothing to worry about when it comes to the WWT battle after such a strong season. There could’ve been even more success in 2022 if not for the crash that took out Marta Cavalli for a couple of months at the Tour de France Femmes.
2022 World Ranking: 4th
2022 WorldTour Ranking: 4th
2023 Transfers In
- Loes Adegeest
- Gladys Verhulst
2023 Transfers Out
Star Riders
Riders to Watch in 2023
Cecille Uttrup Ludwig has been the team’s go-to star for a number of years and they’ve both developed with each other. I fully expect though that 2023 is the year that FDJ-SUEZ becomes Marta Cavalli’s team. The Italian is becoming an all-round threat that someone like Van Vleuten is and at times looked like the only rider who could go with the best rider of 2023. That doesn’t mean Uttrup Ludwig is going to be ignored, just maybe the focus will be more on Cavalli. Uttrup Ludwig will still have a big role to play, especially on those short steep uphill finishes and she’s sneakily got a bit of a sprint these days too.
The final prong of the trident is Grace Brown who is a different threat entirely to CUL and Cavalli. She’s an amazing lieutenant when a support role is needed on all terrain but as we’ve seen before, she’s dangerous on the break. There aren’t many riders that can hold off a chasing pack at De Panne and her win against Kasia and Longo Borghini into Welshpool at the Women’s Tour was a classic Brown win. Clara Copponi will have a delayed start to the year but when fit, she’s the team’s best sprint option and a great one-day race threat. Evita Muzic is hoping to make the lead trio a foursome. She flashed with some great results in 2022 and is always ready to pick up the slack when she’s the team leader.
I’m expecting 2023 to be the year that Vittoria Guazzini really breaks out. She was a serial top-10 finisher in 2022 and won the Bretagne Ladies Tour GC too. Her ability to TT well and have a bit of a finishing kick makes her ideal for some of the smaller stage races in the women’s calendar. It’s going to be a similar story for Marie Le Net who won La Picto-Charentaise in 2022. Maybe not quite as high-profile as Guazzini she’s going to get some results. Finally, Gladys Verhulst is going to be an interesting wildcard having worked her way up to the premier French team. I’m expecting her to reel in the results in the Coupe de France races.
Transfer Thoughts
It’s been a fairly quiet transfer season for FDJ-SUEZ so there isn’t too much to comment on! The team has just kept things ticking over for the main part, re-signing their stars to longer contracts. Loes Adegeest has been fun to watch with her attacking style and will also be a useful powerhouse for bringing things back for sprints. Gladys Verhulst is developing into a very nice one-day racer and had a good 2022 at Le Col-Wahoo. She won in the rain at Veenendaal-Veenendaal in a 2 rider break with Karlijn Swinkels. She’s on the cusp of a super strong WWT result, with 5th at Classic Lorient Agglomération and close to the podium last season again after finishing 2nd there in 2021.
The only bum note really is losing Brodie Chapman to Trek Segafredo. Chapman had a career year in 2022 and was particularly impressive throughout the classics season, so she reputedly was very disappointed to miss out on a Tour de France Femmes spot. Loes Adegeest is potentially a replacement for the role Chapman had but it’s not guaranteed that Adegeest will have the same individual success.
2023 Full Roster
- Loes Adegeest
- Stine Borgli
- Grace Brown
- Marta Cavalli
- Clara Copponi
- Eugénie Duval
- Emilia Fahlin
- Maëlle Grossetête
- Vittoria Guazzini
- Victorie Guilman
- Marie Le Net
- Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig
- Evita Muzic
- Gladys Verhulst
- Jade Wiel
