The general manager of the team draws up an initial assessment
Present in 18 races from mid-February to the end of April, a third of the 2022 season is already behind the FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope team, so it’s time to take stock.
Stephen Delcourt, team manager, looks back on this first part of the season:
“Since the start of the season, we have been omnipresent and this from the first race on the Valencia stage race, where during the first arrival at the top, we finished in 2, 3 and 4th position behind Annemiek Van Vleuten (MOV We had seen from the first training courses that there was a very good team cohesion and that we were in good shape and that was reflected from the first race. from the strade bianche, with a very good fifth place, we were always in front, we accumulated the TOP 10 but without winning. We continued to persevere, continued to run forward with always a very offensive tactic. really saw it from our second objective of the season which was the Tour of Flanders, where Brodie really excelled by running right in front and even if the result is a sixth, seventh and ninth place, in the way, we have really tried to weigh in on the race. The following weekend, first victory on a monument of our sport with Marta on the Amstel Gold Race, with manner, with an attack 1.5km from the line and a solo finish. Then a fifth place on Paris-Roubaix. We then achieved a historic double with the victory of Marta Cavalli on the Flèche Wallonne and our second Ardennes, where Marta knew how to tame the wall of Huy and Annemiek Van Vleuten (MOV) once again, with style. And Sunday, Liège Bastogne Liège, which is collectively and tactically the most successful race, of course there is no victory, but there is a second place for Grace, a sixth place for Marta, and a very high race level for our French champion Evita Muzic. Obviously, this is a historic start to the season, and unheard of for the team, it is in the continuity of the 2020 and 2021 seasons, where the team collectively has gained strength. We see it today, regardless of the race in which we line up, regardless of the squad, our 14 riders have an international level and we are able to play on all fronts. We are going to start a second part of the season, with in particular, a big month of May with the start of the stage races (Tour of Britain, Tour of the Basque Country, Tour of Burgos, etc.). We are going to go there with the desire to win stages, to have fun, … to really have fun on the bike, with the desire also to try to create automatisms, to prepare for our two big goals for the month of July, the Giro and the Tour de France Women with Zwift. We want to be able to play for the win on these big laps. And when we say playing the win, that is to say, as long as possible, being able to play the pink jersey and the yellow jersey with a real desire to leave a mark in our sport this summer 2022. And finally , we also have as objectives, before this month of July, the national championships with in particular the French championships, but also a desire to look for national jerseys, in the respective countries of our runners, such as Italy, such as Norway, like Sweden, or even Denmark.”