FDJ wins TDF in 5 years. Why wait?

 

Madiot. Speed it up, buddy.

 

Twisted Spoke keeps coming back to FDJ boss Marc Madiot’s silly comment the other day. He figures that at last the playing field is even and his French stars can finally win the French grand tour in maybe five years.

In his words: “The Tour has been unreachable for years, for reasons you know as well as I do. But now we have the potential. This can be done in the next four to five years, if we continue to progress and if fate is in our favor.”

Are we just impatient and unrealistic Americans here at Twisted Spoke? Are we just always in a ridiculous hurry when a more sensible approach is better? Because when we heard five years, our first thought was why not now? Why wait to win Le Grand Shindig? Why ease into things, why wait to get warmed up, why not light the fire now?

Would Bjarne Riis and Alberto Contador ever work off a five year plan? Would Johan Bruyneel and Lance Armstrong? Would David Brailsford over at Sky?

Well, yeah, actually, they had a five year plan but that was a brand new team starting from scratch. In three years they had a Tour winner with Wiggins and a year later they had another with Froome.

Would they get lazy and philosophical like Madiot and talk about fate playing a role? Screw fate. What kind of dumbass variable is that? Madiot needs to put down the glass of Bordeaux and the wedge of camembert and take off his scarf and put away the cigarettes and stop reading Gide and Malraux and Breton and get to work.

Five years? What kind of message does that send to his riders at FDJ — especially Tour third place Tibault Pinot? “Hey fellas, you just relax for a few more years and then we’ll get serious.”

Madiot is being just a little too French for his own good. Set the bar high, set some acceptability, build the squad around Pinot and start talking big.

You think Tinkoff-Saxo owner Oleg Tinkof is moving at half speed? He wants Sagan to win a classic now and Contador to win the Giro AND the Tour. Is Brailsford telling Froome, “Hey, don’t worry if you don’t win the Tour this year, we’ll take our time and get one later.”

Now fact is, we get a huge kick out of Madiot. He’s a character and a walking quote machine. That said, crack the whip, Marc. Kick some ass. Point fingers, insist on 100%, put the one year plan in action Five year plans are for loser.