Paris (AFP)
The two leaders of Groupama-FDJ, the climber Thibaut Pinot and the sprinter Arnaud Démare, have extended until 2023 the contract which binds them to the French team, it announced on its website Thursday.
"The team will be able to count for the next three seasons (2021, 2022 and 2023) on four of its emblematic riders, who were reaching the end of the contract: Arnaud Démare, David Gaudu, Stefan Küng and Thibaut Pinot", is it specified .
"The years go by but the desire remains the same. I haven't finished writing my story with Groupama-FDJ: 2021 - 2022 - 2023", reacted Pinot, great animator of the Tour de France last summer before to be forced to retire during the 19th stage.
Winner in 2018 of the Tour of Lombardy, one of the five "monuments" of cycling, Pinot has for several years been the leader of the French team, the only one he has known, in stage races.
But he hasn't raced much since his fall at the Tour de France, his start to the season having been interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which put the peloton in forced rest in mid-March.
A pure FDJ product also, Arnaud Démare is more focused on day racing and stage victories on the Grands Tours.
The International Cycling Union (UCI) published in early May a new calendar for the 2020 season. The World Tour (first division of world cycling) is expected to open in Italy, with the Strade Bianche, on August 1.
© 2020 AFP