When Thibaut Pinot spoke, in his retirement interview, of rejecting the offer of a smart-watch and selling his home trainer as soon as possible, it wasn't hard to imagine Marc Madiot reading on with a nodding smile of approval. But while Pinot appears to pine for the cycling of Madiot's racing era, the Groupama-FDJ boss himself is moving with the times.
It was Madiot, after all, who gave the green light for all his riders to be kitted out with the watches that would monitor their every step and every heartbeat. Previously disdainful of Team Sky and suspicious of sports science's sweeping takeover of professional cycling, the Frenchman has learned - reluctantly perhaps - to embrace the modern methods that now govern the sport.
That's why, in an interview published on his own team's website, he didn't come across particularly misty-eyed at the news that his team's greatest ever rider will retire at the end of 2023. The press official conducting the interview was even moved to ask at one point: "Isn't there a touch of emotion?"
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That will come at the end of the season, he responded, but it still seemed telling that it didn't come now.
"It’s the end of an era... but it’s not death. It’s just time passing and life going on. You can look back on it all with some nostalgia and stop for a moment, but you can’t stand still," Madiot said.
"The team must continue to move forward, to develop, to innovate, and to strengthen in all areas to remain very competitive. If you stop and lose time to look at your record, you’re dead. That’s the team’s life. We honour the people who leave us, we escort them, but the house’s hard core must continue to strengthen."
Madiot has modernised the team and its methods in recent years, not only embracing the more scientific aspects of the sport but laying the foundations for the future with junior and U23 development teams that are already feeding quality riders into his WorldTour squad.
David Gaudu has already emerged as Pinot's successor, while the highly-rated Lenny Martinez and Romain Gregoire graduate this year. And it's not just home hopes; the development team has an international feel with a particular focus on mining the post-Wiggins wave of British talent - something few would have predicted several years ago.
"The transition is already taking place. For a long time, especially in the Tour, we were dependent on Pinot. But since 2021, that is no longer true. The team has already prepared itself for the post-Pinot era," Madiot said.
"There is [Arnaud] Démare in the sprints, [Valentin] Madouas, Gaudu, [Stefan] Küng, then Grégoire, Martinez and all the young riders who are coming up. We are already thinking about tomorrow. The team didn’t wait, and couldn’t wait, for Thibaut to retire to prepare for the next stage. That doesn’t take anything away from the respect, admiration, and recognition that we can have for Thibaut, but the role of a team, and in particular of its manager, is to not stop. You look, you greet, you honour, but you can’t stop."
Madiot acknowledged that it was Pinot who'd dragged the team out of the sluggish decade that followed the 1998 Festina affair, referring to the idea of an 'industrial revolution'. However, that has since made way for what he dubbed an 'ecological revolution'.
"Thibaut has seen that cycling has changed between the beginning of his career and today. We are no longer on the same pattern, and that is not his thing, he experienced something else. I totally understand that."
'Thibaut represents romantic cycling'
Madiot revealed that Pinot had informed him of his decision at a team training camp in December, and that it came as no real surprise. He described how Pinot had spoke of packing it in after his heartbreak at the 2019 Tour de France and the subsequent hammer blows of his crash at the 2020 Tour and resulting back injury.
He carried on and has since come back towards the top of the sport, but has continued to feel the pull of "real life" and was unable to look beyond the expiry of his current contract at the end of 2023.
"Somehow the stars were aligned. I knew it was time, that’s all," Madiot said. "I know the guy, I could feel that it was going to happen.
"I think he will have a great season," he addd, with Pinot set to target the Giro d'Italia and ride a final Tour before rounding out at Il Lombardia.
"The feeling I get is that saying 'it’s over' frees him up and paradoxically opens certain perspectives. This is not a farewell tour, and I know that he doesn’t think like that either. I know him well enough to know that he is not 'retired' mentally. This is his last season, and I think he wants to savour it, to enjoy it to the fullest."
Asked how he thought the public would react to the news, Madiot said: "With a certain nostalgia, of course. For many people, Thibaut represents romantic cycling, with emotions, with victories and setbacks.
"We must also recognise that on a global point of view, cycling has now become very controlled, stereotyped, conditioned, regulated. With Thibaut Pinot, it was something else. That’s why people will have the feeling that a page is being turned, but maybe other romantics will come along."
Madiot described Pinot as "a rider of paradoxes", referring to the highs and lows that have formed his rollercoaster career trajectory. Stage wins in all three Grand Tours, a Tour de France podium, plus an Il Lombardia title all make for a great palmarès, but Pinot's time has been equally marked by extreme anguish, such as his hospitalisation towards the end of the 2018 Giro and the still-mysterious injury that robbed him of the chance to win the 2019 Tour.
"He is seen as someone who is fragile, who has anxieties, fears, but when you scratch deep enough, he is actually one of the riders who goes the furthest into suffering," Madiot said.
"There is a kind of misunderstanding for many people. You might think he's crumbly, but he's actually rock solid. That’s probably also why there is so much passion around him. He shared a lot of his emotions.
"I don’t know what the reactions will be, but there will definitely be love. You can feel it as soon as you talk about Thibaut. There is no need to tell the public to go on the road to see him one last time, they will be there anyway."
