The Groupama-FDJ cycling team will not keep unforgettable memories from the 2025 Tour du Limousin – Périgord – Nouvelle Aquitaine. After suffering a series of abandons, the French team was unable to achieve the results it came for.
Groupama-FDJ had only one stage left if they didn’t want to leave the Tour du Limousin – Périgord – Nouvelle Aquitaine empty-handed, but with only three riders at the start of the fourth stage on Friday, its options were surely limited. “We had decided to keep Lewis for a possible sprint,” explained Benoît Vaugrenard. “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. Olivier still managed to enter an early move, but it was the second one that went clear.” After a fight of nearly fifty kilometres, seven riders managed to break away while enjoying a five-minute lead. “We then focused on the final of the stage,” added Benoît. “Unfortunately, as has been the case since the beginning of the week, Lewis didn’t have the legs to compete with the best.”
In Limoges, the “early” breakaway was eventually caught barely 500 meters from the finish, and Andrea Vendrame won in a peloton of thirty-five riders that included Olivier Le Gac. Ewen Costiou won the French event, which proved tricky from start to finish for the Groupama-FDJ men. “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,” concluded Benoît Vaugrenard. “Everyone fought as much as they could, but when you lose so many riders, it’s really not easy. 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.”
