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Competition Profile: FRANÇAISE DES JEUX 2006




Description
Written by Wicky (2005-03-10 00:00)
Translated by DZI (2006-01-10 16:50)

Française des Jeux won’t look back to the year 2005 with fond memories. At the end, they found themselves back in 20th place in the UCI ProTour charts. Nothing to be proud of, but this team still had, and still has a good riders’ selection. Somehow the pieces of the puzzle didn’t fall into place and teammanager Marc Madiot must have scratched his head many times on what to do.
So much potential, but when you realise


Cooke, a major force in sprinting, didn’t get a win for 1.5 years in Europe, it does make you wonder...


Clearly Cooke wasn’t having a good time anymore and left to the bookies of Unibet.com. He did get his win in the end (Poland) but the damage was already done. His younger teammate Bernard Eisel (two wins 2005), will have sole rights to the sprints now and this could well be his real breakthrough year. Fortunately Aussie Brad McGee remained with the team. A strong time triallist in his own right and a strong finisher (2nd to Vinokourov in final TDF 2005 stage) should give Française des Jeux a few wins this coming year.


Like fellow French team Cofidis, this team is looking to the future now. They have already signed Swedish talent Johan Lindgren who’ll join the professional ranks in 2007.


He will then be able to ride in support of another Swedish youngster, Thomas Lövkvist, who in his turn rode a remarcable Tour of Poland 2005. Strong in the mountains and in the mountain time trial, he’s certain to get even better. They also have young Philippe Gilbert in the team. This French speaking Belgian fits beautifully in the team’s plans. He could be very strong in the (semi-)classics and has a descent sprint to his name. Apart from that, he just might be the man to watch, since he’s also strong in the tourraces. So already a complete cyclist at a young age.


In addition to these riders Larsson (Fassa Bortolo) has to be named. He also can be a fierce competitor in time trials and, being Swedish as well, won’t have any problems with communicating with his teammates. At the Italian Fassa team he had to support the many big names, so never at the footlights. Over at Française des Jeux, they might let him take his chances in a leading role. We’ll have to wait and see.


Additions to the team:
Joly, Leblacher, Larsson, Ladagnous, Patanchon


Left the team:
Cooke, Wilson, Renshaw, Sanchez

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