How the top talents performed in 2023: Gregoire raises the hopes of the French
Sebastian Lindner
· 12.11.2023
Every Frenchman probably knows what happened that July. Bernard Hinault was the last to win the Tour de France. Roman Gregoire was not even a thought back then. And yet his sporting fate also seems to be linked to the old Hinault - especially after his 2023 season.
The French are good at loading potential Tour winners with the burden of the Grand Nation at a young age - and then watching them fail. Christophe Moreau, Thomas Voeckler, Thibaut Pinot. Entire generations of French climbers have failed in this endeavour. And with each one that fails, the pressure on the next one grows.
Romain Gregoire celebrates two Tour victories in his debut season
And Romain Gregoire gave reason to proclaim him a future Tour winner in 2023. At the age of 20, the man from Besancon in the east of France rode his first season as a professional. At Groupama-FDJ, where he had also previously ridden for a year in the continental team, he was given his freedom and knew how to use it.
Still early in the season at the Strade Bianche he rode to a strong eighth place as a noble helper for Valentin Madouas, who finished second. He had already achieved single-digit results in the 1.Pro races Faun-Ardeche Classic and Trofeo Laigueglia, which he was able to improve to second place in the Grand Prix du Morbihan.
Gregoire rode three tours between May and August. He won two of them. He won the 4 Jours de Dunkerque (2.Pro) with a stage victory in the uphill sprint ahead of Ethan Vernon, Benoit Cosnefroy and Peter Sagan. He also performed well on the cobbles and finished the stage from Roubaix in second place.
After finishing 15th in the Tour de Suisse, Gregoire won the Tour de Limousin on the back of two stage victories - both small mountain finishes. Cosnefroy, winner of the Grand Prix Quebec (1st UWT), again lost out. And his team-mate Michael Storer, multiple Vuelta stage winner and winner of the mountain jersey, was also unable to keep up.
Conclusion: Gregoire has a great future ahead of him
This success also brought Gregoire his first Grand Tour - the Vuelta. And it didn't take much for him to take home a stage win. At the mountain arrival at the Laguna Negra only Jesus Herrada was slightly better after a long escape.
In his first year as a professional, Gregoire has already impressively demonstrated that he is a force to be reckoned with. On the climbs, he has shown that he can keep up with the better climbers on a good day - just like his 20-year-old compatriot and team-mate Lenny Martinez. As with Martinez, who temporarily wore the red jersey at the Vuelta, the complete tour rider is still lacking a bit in the battle against the clock.
And then it remains to be seen how Romain Gregoire will deal with the pressure, because with every further victory, the Tour victory is supposedly one step closer. Perhaps it's a good thing that he can share this burden with Martinez. And perhaps the French public will also learn from their mistakes and take a somewhat calmer approach to the endeavour.
