The 2018 season wasn't without its hurdles for Cedric Vasseur and his Cofidis team but the Frenchman can be content with a number of highlights as he looks to solidify the French team's foundations ahead of the 2019 campaign.
The team's year-on-year win tally was improved upon significantly, while the fractious relationship between the management and Nacer Bouhanni was sutured just enough to ensure that the sprinter turned his year around with a Vuelta a Espana stage win.
The continued emergence of Christophe Laporte and the fact that several high paid riders were shipped out and replaced with fresher talent means that Vasseur can count his maiden season in charge as a success. However, the former Tour de France yellow jersey is well aware that there is no time to rest on his laurels, and with his first full winter in charge, he has set about improving Cofidis. Clouds are still on the horizon: Bouhanni has one year left on his contract and the situation must be handled delicately; the team were unable to land another proven leader, and many of the new recruits can be described as gambles.
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"What I've tried to do this year is increase the level of the team and I've kept Laporte, who was out of contract. That was the first deal of the year. We've signed him for the next three years and then we've also built in different ways," Vasseur tells Cyclingnews, before pointing out that when he arrived at the team in November 2017 all but one of the spaces on the 2018 roster had been filled.
Can you build around Bouhanni?
Cofidis' 2018 campaign as a whole could be described as a season of transition. For the last few years the French outfit had relied too heavily on Bouhanni, and despite his clear talent, the Frenchman was inconsistent at best. This season, however, Laporte won six races, while the team in total won 21 times through 10 different riders. The shift of burden from Bouhanni's shoulders may have caused ruptures during the opening months of the year - including a bust-up with Roberto Damiani - but Vasseur believes that his most successful sprinter has learned from the experience.
"The plan is simple. We want Nacer to have a better season than he did in 2018. The season wasn't a mess because he won six races and a Vuelta stage. It's also true that the relations weren't always perfect. He took a bit more time than I expected to understand the new team strategy," Vasseur explains.
Scouting the market for bargains
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/cofidis-the-house-that-vasseur-rebuilt
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