Twenty years after its founding, that small French development team isn’t so small anymore.
Gruber Images, Cor Vos
When the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was announced, there were few teams as singularly focused on the new and improved version of the women’s Tour de France as FDJ United-Suez. For a French team, the yellow jersey would mean everything, but despite a strong performance in the inaugural edition, it took them five years to finally secure the overall prize.
FDJ United-Suez’s dream to be one of the best teams in women’s cycling didn’t start with the announcement about the Tour; however, it started 20 years earlier. In 2006, Vienne Futuroscope was born, a French team with primarily French riders; they were a relatively small organisation to begin with.
Twenty years later, they are not only the winners of the Tour de France Femmes, but they are also without question the best team in women’s cycling. From the depth of their roster to their emphasis on rider wellbeing, they are a team that is setting a high bar other teams can only hope to reach some day.
Much of the team’s ethos is down to one man: Stephen Delcourt. Delcourt started with the team in a minor role in 2008, but eventually took over as the team’s general manager and was a key reason Suez came on as a sponsor. Since taking control of the team, Delcourt has brought in talents like Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, who won the team their first Tour stage in 2022, Grace Brown, Olympic and world time trial champion in 2024, Marta Cavalli, winner of the Amstel Gold Race and La Fléche Wallonne in 2022, and, of course, Demi Vollering, the only woman to win the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift twice.
“After twenty years, it’s a lot of work, a lot of dedication, a lot of people who have worked for [the Tour win],” Delcourt said on Sunday evening, after Vollering secured the team their first Tour title.
This post is for paying subscribers only
Subscribe now
Already have an account? Sign in
Did we do a good job with this story?
👍Yep
👎Nope