WorldTour Ranking: 14th (up from 16th in 2014)
Win Count: 16 (down from 28)
Top Riders: Thibaut Pinot (10th in the final WorldTour ranking), Alexandre Geniez (85th), Arnaud DéMare (97th)
One doesn’t have to look far for an expert analysis of the French WorldTour team’s 2015 season. FDJ team managaer Marc Madiot characterised the year as “average” in public statements earlier this month. But even that assessment may be generous.
FDJ’s win tally this season dropped from 28 in 2014 to 16, just more than half of what the team accomplished the year before. As Madiot pointed out, the team’s saving grace was the performance of Thibaut Pinot, who brought home high-profile stages wins at Tour de Romandie, Tour de Suisse and the Tour de France.
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"The team misfired for a long time. It wasn't stoked up like it should have been," Madiot told Cyclingpro.net. "We lost the guiding principles that we had before. It seemed to me that some of the riders weren't hungry, that they'd had enough."
Just how much the team’s success depended on Pinot is revealed in the roster’s WorldTour rankings, where Pinot is 10th and the next closest rider, Alexandre Geniez, is ranked 85th. The only other FDJ rider in the top 100 is sprinter Arnaud Démare, whose miserly two wins this season lifted him to 97th.
Démare’s win tally dropped from 15 the year before, and his performance reflects the team’s general malaise. But Madiot said Démare’s power numbers were actually improved this year, and instead the manager blamed his sprinter’s attitude and, again, the team’s morale.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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