A difficult week in Limousin

# A Challenging Week for Groupama-FDJ at the 2025 Tour du Limousin

The 2025 Tour du Limousin – Périgord – Nouvelle Aquitaine proved to be a tough event for the Groupama-FDJ cycling team, which faced a string of withdrawals that marred their campaign. As the competition progressed, the French team struggled to secure meaningful results, leaving them with little to show for their efforts.

With just one stage remaining, Groupama-FDJ found themselves in a precarious position, lining up with only three riders for the fourth stage on Friday. Team directeur sport, Benoît Vaugrenard, noted, “We had decided to keep Lewis for a possible sprint. Olivier and Rémy were supposed to give it a go with the breakaway, but with only two riders, it quickly gets complicated when there’s a fierce battle.” Despite the odds, Olivier Le Gac made an early bid for a breakaway, but ultimately, success eluded them as the second group of riders broke clear.

After a grueling battle of nearly fifty kilometers, seven riders created a significant gap, extending their lead to five minutes. “We then focused on the final of the stage,” Vaugrenard went on to say. “Unfortunately, as has been the case since the beginning of the week, Lewis didn’t have the legs to compete with the best.”

In an exciting finish in Limoges, the initial breakaway was caught with just 500 meters left, allowing Andrea Vendrame to clinch victory among a peloton of thirty-five riders, which included Le Gac. Ewen Costiou emerged as the prominent French cyclist in a race that consistently challenged the Groupama-FDJ team. Reflecting on the tough week, Vaugrenard lamented, “We lost our best cards for the GC and the stages one after the other, so it was obviously difficult to make a difference from then on. Everyone fought as much as they could, but when you lose so many riders, it’s really not easy.”

Despite the setbacks, Vaugrenard held onto a note of optimism: “It’s a tough week, but it will still be useful for those who finished it. We hope to have better days soon. We need to get back on track, and we know that sometimes it doesn’t take much to get it going.” As the team looks ahead, they aim to regroup and refocus for upcoming challenges.