It’s almost the end of a story that began in 1997. But it will be sweet. Marc Madiot, the historic boss of the Groupama-FDJ team, is slowly getting closer to the exit. In 2026, he will become president of the team and will officially hand over his position as general manager to Thierry Cornec, his deputy since last year. Madiot confirmed this smooth change in an interview given in Spain this week to AFP and l’Équipe.
“There is a day when I will leave, like everyone else. On a pure sporting level, I have looked into the question. When I look at what is happening around us, we see that it is not simple, it could stop suddenly. I still have ambition and my ambition is for the team to survive me. We have to look to the future and I am no longer the future in the medium or long term. We need to find other points of support while retaining the DNA of the house,” the 66-year-old explained to l’Équipe.
This is not an earthquake within the French team as Marc Madiot, 70 years old, has long wanted to take a step back. The example of his colleague Vincent Lavenu, the former founder of the AG2R team, which has now become Décathlon – CMA CGM, necessarily gave him food for thought: Lavenu had not been able to prepare his succession and had been unceremoniously removed from his team in 2024.
A supervisory role
Madiot will continue to supervise the operation of the team and will remain its moral guarantor. “If we had to compare the team to a car, we explain within Groupama -FDJ, we can say that the steering wheel will be in the hands of Thierry Cornec. But that Marc will be responsible for technical inspection.”
Madiot seems relieved by this decision he made on his own. Aware that at his age, he would not necessarily have been given several years to choose his exit.
