Marc Madiot does what he does best; training riders, meanwhile hoping that some of the talents won’t go to the financial stronger foreign teams. Eisel, Cooke, Rebellin, McGee, Lövkvist, Guidi and Berzin were all part of Madiot’s team once. Only the last mentioned went to the French gambling-team at an older age.


The interesting thing for young riders is the possibility to ride in relative calm and freedom to grow. The latest gem in Madiot’s crown is Philippe Gilbert. Now that the Belgian has taken another step in maturity and power, ‘Flip’ is slowly getting to the world’s elite.


The confidence that Gilbert has gotten for years was tested this winter when Marichal and Detilloux were not given a new contract. Madiot found them to be too old and of too little value for the team, while Gilbert saw perfect lieutenants in them with some Belgian roots in the French team. But the team manager solved the problem by adding a new can of Belgians to the squad. Gilbert will have to agree that the injection of young riders like Stubbe, Vanendert (Chocolade Jacques) and Meersman (Discovery Channel) is far from bad.


And Madiot didn’t stop there. Top talents like Offredo, Coppel, Hutarovich, Roux and Levarlet are all great signings for the team. Although they all still need to show what they can do at the highest level, they were very successful at the espoirs-level.


On the other side of the scale, the team lost Lövkvist and McGee, to name the most important ones. The growth of the Swede seemed to have stopped and McGee also needed to find more motivation in a new environment after years of injuries. The loss of riders like Auger, Lindgren (retired), McLeod (Team MTN) and Patanchon (Caisse d’Epargne) will probably not be felt so much.


The future of the team looks bright with all these talents, also because Di gregorio, Delage, Gerard and the little older Chavanel are not without talent either. But that also reveals the problem of the team. Except for Gilbert and the charismatic Hutarovich the team lacks leaders. Therefore Madiot will be singing the same song as he did these last few years. Waiting and waiting until the talents become captains.


In
Jérôme Coppel, Yauheni Hutarovich, Yohann Offredo, Anthony Roux (neo), Yohann Le Boulanger (Bouygues Telecom), Guillaume Levarlet (Auber 93), Gianni Meersman (Discovery Channel), Tom Stubbe, Jelle Vanendert (Chocholade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen)


Out
Ludovic Auger, Carlos Dacruz, Christophe Detilloux, Johan Lindgren, Thierry Marichal (retired), Thomas Lövkvist (High Road), Ian McLeod (Team MTN), Bradley McGee (Team CSC), Fabien Patanchon (Caisse d'Epargne)