“They have stepped into a vacuum”

Brother of Thibaut, coach at FDJ.fr, Julien Pinot is ideally placed to evaluate France’s cycling renaissance “I think that you have to look at the generation that came before these guys and how they were essentially sacrificed or lost. They perhaps weren’t competitive initially because of what was happening in cycling, then later because they’d lost confidence. Anyway, it meant that three or four years ago there was a vacuum in French teams for young guys to step into and get opportunities very quickly. In our team, for example, Arnaud Démare and Nacer Bouhanni got their chance straight away because the team didn’t really have any sprinters. I think the same thing happened at Europcar. The young riders who came in also deserve credit for being so ambitious and grabbing their chances.

Another factor is that this generation all knew how to train and plan scientifically before they arrived in the pro ranks. Ten years ago, French U23 riders basically just raced at weekends and recovered in the week, then got a big shock when they turned pro and suddenly had to be much more systematic. Guys like my brother have trained in a structured, scientific way for years before they turned pro so the step up is no longer such a big deal for them.

It is strange that all of these youngsters have come along at a time when far fewer people are racing bikes in France than was the case 20 years ago. These days, it’s quite rare to find young pros who don’t come from cycling families. Barguil, Le Bon, Coquard, Démare, Bardet, even Thibaut and I – we all had cycling in our blood, so to speak. Of the current generation, I can only think of Nacer Bouhanni who ‘discovered’ bike racing on his own. Quantity matters much less than quality, though. As Johan and Arnaud say, there’s a healthy level of competition between these young riders and they’ve all lifted each other with their success.”