Yoann Offredo is hoping a change of teams, from FDJ to Wanty-Groupe Gobert, can help the 30-year-old Frenchman fulfil his "potential" with an eye on the Flemish classics. Offredo steps down to the Pro-Continental level from 2017 with the Belgian team having ridden with FDJ since 2008.
Wanty-Groupe Gobert recently had its first team meeting where Offredo shared his thoughts on the move and outlined some of his season goals.
"I signed my first contract with the FDJ in August 2007. I rode ten years in the same team where I learned a lot. Unfortunately I settled into a routine," Offredo said. "According to me the essence of high-level sport is risk-taking. I am 29 years old [sic]. It is time for me to show my potential. Wanty-Groupe Gobert is a familial team where the collective and individual performances are more prominent.
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"My experience makes me able. I am a man of the beginning of the season. I'm looking forward to these races, otherwise I will not have come here. It is not money that motivates me but the challenge."
Offredo has won his one race in his career so far, stage 4 of the 2009 Tour De Picardie, explaining that despite a lack of personal results he was a key rider in FDJ's recent success which gave him great satisfaction.
"Unlike a pro-continental team the World Tour teams are only concentrated on two riders," he said. "During the 2010-2011 season I almost finished all the time in the first ten of the big classics. Subsequently I totally devoted myself to my team while staying in the first fifteen in the Spring classics. The individual victories of a professional rider does not necessarily reflect his potential. I had many collective victories with Nacer Bouhanni, Arnaud Démare, Thibaut Pinot and it is as glorious for me as an individual achievement. When you have a rider in your team whose has higher qualities than you, you just put yourself at his service."
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