The winter break is now over, and the impatience it had stirred has finally been satisfied. This Tuesday, on the other side of the globe, the 2026 cycling season officially got underway with the Tour Down Under. On Australian soil, the Groupama-FDJ United cycling team opened the thirtieth chapter of its history with an intense 3.6-kilometre prologue through the streets of Adelaide. The rest of the week will offer plenty of opportunities for Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet and his teammates.
As is customary, the road cycling season resumed this Tuesday on the other side of the world. However, and contrary to tradition, the riders were immediately thrown into the thick of the action, without the usual pre–Tour Down Under criterium. As a result, the Groupama-FDJ United cycling team benefited from a full week of acclimatisation. “We arrived last Tuesday,” explained Jussi Veikkanen, sports director for the team in Australia. “The guys were able to adapt gradually to the local climate, especially since we experienced very little extreme heat. The week was a mix of training rides and course recons, given that five of our riders had never been here before. We checked four of the six stages, including the two key ones.” The prologue circuit, located just 500 metres from the team hotel, was also thoroughly examined. On Tuesday, this very specific effort served as a first taste of racing. “The first part of the course was very fast, the second a bit more technical, before finishing in the city park where the old Formula 1 circuit used to be,” Jussi added. “It was a good course for rouleurs.”
“It was time to get down to business”, Jussi Veikkanen
The rouleurs/sprinters, in particular, benefited from this opening day of racing, with victory going to Sam Watson, who set a time of four minutes and sixteen seconds over the 3.6 kilometres. The Groupama-FDJ United riders lost around twenty seconds to the Briton (twenty-eight for Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet, editor’s note). “Our main goal was for Guillaume to not lose too much time compared to the general classification contenders,” Jussi explained. “We also hoped for a strong performance from Rémi, Kevin, or even Titouan. As for Tom, he went a little wide in the technical section. Fortunately, he didn’t crash, but he dropped his chain and had to stop pedalling for a few seconds to get it back on. Overall, the result isn’t what we were hoping for, but there’s no point dwelling on it. Above all, it was time to get down to business. We’ll have a goal every day this week, starting tomorrow, when the stage should finish in a sprint, even though we know the area and are aware it can be very windy.”
