FDJ-SUEZ

FDJ-SUEZ is the only French squad in the WorldTour. The Poitiers-based team is competing in its 20th season in the peloton. It all started as a family affair. To give his daughter Emmanuelle Merlot, the 2002 French junior champion, the chance to continue her elite cycling career, business owner Gatien Merlot and Serge Gautreau rallied the Vienne department and Futuroscope theme park to finance the creation of a team of the best French female cyclists, as no such structure existed at the time. The team was formed in 2006 and quickly made a name for itself with Marina Jaunâtre (7th in the 2007 World Championships) and Carina Gauthard (2006 French junior time trial champion).  

In 2014, the arrival of the Poitou-Charentes region (later to become Nouvelle-Aquitaine after the merger of the regions) enabled the team to double its budget. Still, the central turning point came in 2017 with the support of FDJ, the long-standing sponsor of Marc Madiot's men's team. It continued to grow with the arrival of Suez in 2022. It recruited talent from abroad, such as Denmark's Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (winner in Epernay in the first edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift), Italy's Marta Cavalli (winner of the 2022 Amstel Gold Race and Flèche Wallonne) and Australia's Grace Brown, who last year won the team's first classic (Liège-Bastogne-Liège) and won Olympic and world time trial titles. Another watershed moment came this past winter with the recruitment of French champion Juliette Labous and, above all, Demi Vollering, winner of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. FDJ-Suez is now one of the top teams in the world, while maintaining its family atmosphere. Stephen Delcourt, Emmanuelle Merlot's husband, has served as the team manager since 2008.