On the heights of Besançon, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet experienced the taste of victory again this Friday, while the Groupama-FDJ kept its title. At the top of the steep climb of La Malate, the French climber dominated the Classic Grand Besançon Doubs, taking the win solo after attacking more than two kilometres from the finish. This is his first victory with his new colours, and the third victory of the season for the team. A good omen for the weekend.
A year after achieving the hat-trick in the “Franche-Comté’s triptych”, a lot was obviously expected from Groupama-FDJ as from Friday, especially since they lined up Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet, in growing form as seen during the Tour of the Basque Country last week. Everything was therefore focused on the French climber, who initially had a quiet first part of the day behind a harmless breakaway of four riders. The race actually got intense for the first time with about sixty kilometres to go, approaching and tackling the first ascent of La Malate (3 km at 9%), where Tom Donnenwirth made an acceleration. “We wanted to make the race hard from that point so that the final would be more favourable to Guillaume,” explained Thierry Bricaud. The bunch lost a few units, then at the summit, a group of five riders broke away from the peloton. “When we saw that there were attacks all over the place, we decided to take on the chase and have complete trust in Guillaume,” added the squad’s sports director. “We never panicked. We knew we had the squad to control right up to the bottom of the final climb.”
“That’s exactly where I had planned to attack”, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet
In this sequence, Tom Donnenwirth mainly set the pace of the chase, making sure the peloton never lost more than thirty seconds. Everything finally came back together with fifteen kilometres to go, shortly before the full-speed descent to Besançon, where Rudy Molard, Brieuc Rolland, and Clément Braz Afonso tried to keep their leader in a good position. A peloton of around fifty riders then faced the first slopes of the final ascent of La Malate. “I wasn’t super confident all day because my legs were a bit sore from the neutral start, I struggled a little bit with breathing, but I realized after the first climb that my legs weren’t that bad,” Guillaume explained. “It was in my best interest to make a fast climb from the bottom, and that’s what happened, thanks in particular to Clément.” “Everything went perfectly,” said Clément Braz Afonso. “Coming out the third turn corner of the climb, I saw there was a split and I told Guillaume that it was time to go! I wasn’t capable of it, but he was. He made his attack, and that allowed him to get a head start on some guys who were behind.” “Clément encouraged me to make the effort, but to be honest, in the perfect scenario, that’s exactly where I had planned to attack,” Guillaume added.
The Frenchman did so, immediately broke away from a group of six riders, and eventually took off nearly 2,500 metres from the summit. “It was the scenario we had in mind, but we still needed for the stars to align,” Thierry said. “It was a bit of a textbook final because the legs responded well, then it went on as it should.” In his characteristic style, almost constantly standing on the pedals, the Groupama-FDJ rider quickly took a gap of around fifteen seconds, which he managed to maintain at the flamme rouge despite counterattacks behind him. “Given the way he was riding, we knew it was going to be difficult to catch him,” Thierry added. “It was only about resistance until the top, but I felt I had a little bit left in the tank to do the last kilometre,” Guillaume said. After a final effort until the last bend, the Frenchman was able to celebrate the winning conclusion of a proper display. “I still had to push until the end,” he smiled. “I just enjoyed the last 200 metres. I have to thank all my teammates who worked hard today. I think we had a tactically perfect day.”
“Everyone did their part”, Clément Braz Afonso
On Friday, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet was able to give a boost both to his personal victory tally and that of the team, which now has three wins in 2025. “It always feels good to win, especially for him, because it’s been a long time since he’s raised his arms,” said Thierry. “To grab one like he did today is good for him, for the team, for everyone! It’s a great day. We saw a great team effort, and it’ll boost everyone going forward.” “As always, I love it when we end up winning,” smiled Clément, who finished eighth in the event. “But above all, everyone did their part at some point. I’m super happy. Guillaume proved that he’s in great shape and that we could trust him today.” While the title was retained on the Classic Grand Besançon Doubs this Friday, the Tour du Jura and Tour du Doubs’ ones will be fiercely contested this weekend. “The goal was to win one of the three races, preferably the first to take a weight off everyone’s mind,” Thierry added. “This is done. We’ll now approach tomorrow like today, with the desire to win.” “I’d like to go for the double,” Guillaume assured. “It’s definitely a good way to kick off the weekend. The bar was set quite high last year, but for now, we’re on schedule.”
