"WE DON'T HAVE THE VICTORY WE CAME FOR"

On June 29, for the first time in its history, the Tour de France started in Firenze, Italy. Right from the beginning of the race, the Groupama-FDJ cycling team secured third place in Bologna on the second stage with Quentin Pacher, who was part of the breakaway. It was one of the only stages of this 2024 edition in which the attackers have been in contention for victory. Our riders, determined to push forward as soon as the course allowed, never stopped being offensive, but never managed to find an opening. "We don’t have the victory we came for, said Benoît Vaugrenard, their sporting director. The riders’ commitment and motivation were there, we rode aggressively, but we sometimes saw that we lacked a bit of physical strength to win. On certain stages, it seemed really doable, but it was also strategic at some point and required a bit of luck. There were very few stages for us, we had to target them well."

AN UNQUESTIONABLY COMBATIVE ATTITUDE
 

Right up until the very last day in Nice, the team showed its full commitment. "I am satisfied with the guys, who gave their all, said Benoît Vaugrenard. But I am disappointed because we came to win, not just to ride aggressively. There were opportunities, but we had to be as precise and smart as possible. This is what we missed." Among the eight members of the Groupama-FDJ cycling team, one man who was making his first appearance in the race stood out for his determination at the front of the race, to the point where he was named as one of the contenders for the title of Super Combative: 21-year-old Romain Grégoire, who has escaped from the peloton on four occasions and has made a name for himself in this competition. David Gaudu summed up the mood of the group after the final stage: "I hope we come back stronger." "We will learn from our mistakes, analyse all that and work again for next year", confirmed Benoît Vaugrenard. See you in eleven months!

A week after the end of the Tour de France, Paris events kicked off with the individual time trial taking place on the first Sunday. Stefan Küng finished eighth in this race, representing his Swiss national colours. On the following Saturday, the road race was held in an indescribable atmosphere, with a passionate Parisian public present in the streets of the capital, particularly those of the Montmartre area. On this remarkable circuit, Valentin Madouas achieved the feat of winning a silver medal, just behind Remco Evenepoel, who won the time-trial/road race double. For the Breton, it was the dream of a lifetime come true: he is one of the purveyors of French medals in a home edition that will go down in history!

 

The FDJ Group is proud to be an Official Partner of Paris 2024, the world's greatest sporting competition. It supports the French Olympic and Paralympic team and, in particular, the thirty-two athletes from the "FDJ Sport Factory" who have qualified.
 
FDJ wanted its partnership with Paris 2024 to leave a concrete mark, to encourage the practice of sport by as many people as possible, particularly women. As a partner of the Maison de la Performance and the Maison des Fiertés in Paris, FDJ has also launched the "Gagner du Terrain" programme, in association with the ANS and the COJO. This scheme provides funding for free, open-access sports facilities in some fifty towns and cities throughout France, to encourage people to get involved in the practice of sport.

 FDJ has also contributed to the creation of a support programme for women's sports, as part of the "Impact 2024" call for projects, with twenty-seven associations with which the Group has been working for three years. In the perspective of major international events such as Paris 2024, FDJ also rewards federations with projects to improve women's high performance through the "Performance pour Elles" call for projects.

Since the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, FDJ has contributed to the popular excitement by marketing a range of games dedicated to these international competitions and in support of the French delegation. This commitment also materialised in 2016 with the creation of the "Vibrez pour Paris 2024" ticket, to encourage Paris' bid as host city. On 1 July 2024, FDJ unveiled its new game dedicated to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, "Objectif Or", an ephemeral ticket available in its twenty-nine thousand partner stores and on fdj.fr. On 26 July, the day of the opening ceremony, an exceptional Grand Loto also made it possible to unite the French around this event.
 
To help make Paris 2024 a great celebration for the people, FDJ is mobilising its distribution network, made up of twenty-nine thousand partner stores in eleven thousand towns and cities. At the same time, events for the general public are being organised in Paris and the regions to bring the Games to life throughout the country. The FDJ Group will be present at Club France and Club 24 in Lille and Marseille, and activities focusing on soft mobility will be offered on the parvis of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris. The programme is rounded off by a summer tour called "La grande fête des jeux" in thirteen seaside resorts.

FDJ also enables over five hundred people from disadvantaged backgrounds, supported by eleven partner associations of the Fondation FDJ including Secours populaire français, Arès, Sport dans la ville, Fête le mur and Les apprentis d'Auteuil, to attend Olympic and Paralympic Games events.

 

In the pursuit of performance, hardware optimisation is key, and so is the use of high-tech tools. The Ansys solutions have played a crucial role in the Performance Department's development work, and optimisation has been stepped up significantly in recent months with a new collaboration with Amazon Web Service (AWS). Victor Simonin, R&D engineer with the Groupama-FDJ cycling team, explains everything.

Victor, how long has the team been working with Ansys and what does it involve?

This collaboration was launched in 2021 at the initiative of Frédéric Grappe. This has enabled us to internally handle CFD, i.e. computational fluid dynamics, which until now had been managed externally. In the wind tunnel, we can only analyse what we call 'drag' - the force that resists movement. Thanks to CFD, which recreates a virtual wind tunnel, we can add the pressure zones on the athlete and the bike, as well as all the air flows, so as to obtain additional results that allow us to go even further in terms of performance. The CFD confirms or refutes the wind tunnel results and vice versa. Ansys is a highly sophisticated software package that can do all this: it's the benchmark in digital modelling software. Anyone can use it for 3D simulation, but you have to be meticulous in the way you create your mesh and work on your model, and know how to make your calculations. That's what I've been trained to do.

What is your academic background?

I studied engineering at Polytech Annecy-Chambéry. I'm now an R&D engineer in the team, working with Jeremy Roy in the Technical Department. I work on optimising equipment, in collaboration with the various technical partners and Jeremy, who is in charge of relations with them. I also work with Anthony Bouillod on bike position questions, particularly on time trial extenders. My job is to maximise performance through research and development. Working with Ansys software, for example, played a role in the development of the brand new Julbo helmet and the Wilier Triestina Supersonica SLR.

Does CFD take a lot of time?

Despite having a suitable computer, a single simulation can take up to 26 hours to calculate for a very fine, very realistic mesh. This inevitably limited the possibilities. Since this year, that has changed, because we are now working with Amazon Web Service (AWS), which provides a whole new level of computing power via the cloud: from 26 hours, we are now down to 90 minutes. So we can now run a much larger number of different simulations, with different prototypes, conditions and degrees of wind direction. This computing power opens up some very, very interesting horizons.

After a period full of sporting events, it's time for the final part of the season! The Vuelta a Burgos, which began on Monday, is in full swing, and precedes a big WorldTour schedule, with the Clasica San Sebastian, the Tour de Pologne and the Renewi Tour. On August 18, the Vuelta a España will get underway, with a Grand Depart from Portugal. Several riders from the Tour de France team will be doubling up with this Vuelta, including David Gaudu, winner of two stages in the 2020 edition. In France, the Polynormande, the Tour du Limousin and the Tour du Poitou-Charentes will serve as a build-up to the Bretagne Classic, where Valentin Madouas is the defending champion.

La Conti will also be contesting the Grand Prix de Plouay, the amateur version of the Bretagne Classic. The team will previously be taking part in the GP Poggiana and a race it has never competed in before: the Tour of Romania!

Play for your chance to win a pair of Continental GP500 tubeless tyres! To do so, find the right answer to six questions about the last part of the season, and you'll be eligible to be drawn!