“If we take the yellow jersey from Plumelec, we will be ready to keep it,” assures the FDJ-Suez team that aims for the final victory

Stéphane Delcourt, the manager of the French team, hopes to win the race with half a vollering, his start -up star of the offseason, already titled in 2023.

Will a French team win the Tour de France women 2025? In any case, the favorite for the final victory has the colors of the FDJ-Suez training. Half Vollering will be at the center of eyes from the big departure of Vannes, Saturday July 26. The Dutchman, winner of the 2023 edition and beaten for only four seconds in 2024, will be supported by the two French runners with the most references on the test. Evita Muzic, 4th last year, and Juliette Labous, 4th in 2022, will be put at her service.

“We are not going to lie. Even if the competition is very strong. We are going to win. We will put everything in place to bring the yellow jersey”announced Stephen Delcourt in mid-February during a great mass in front of the press. The manager of the Poitevine team persists and signs to Franceinfo: Sport, while returning to the course of this 2025 season which saw FDJ-Suez cross a CAP.

Franceinfo: Sport: How did the team digest its new status within the peloton?

Stephen Delcourt : I think we digest well. Before, it was only at the French championships where all the pressure was on our shoulders. This year, we have had it from Het Nieuwsblad (early March). Everyone is waiting for you to take control or react when a breakaway is formed. We learned very quickly. The Tour de Valence and the Strade Bianche were two very important victories in the construction of our season. We took the “lead” quickly.

We impressed our opponents both by our collective force and the sacrifice of our leaders. Juliette (Labous) and Evita (Muzic) put themselves at the service of half (vollering). On other races, Demi has tried things to give others an opportunity. All this means that today the pressure has really dropped. We accept (this new status), it's part of the game. And it's transcribed in the world classification. For four weeks in a row, we have been the world number one team. This pressure is always more acceptable than waiting for the faults of our opponents.

Have you felt a change in look and consideration from other peloton teams?

Yes, on the part of other teams, other cyclists, female or male, and journalists. We were fourth, fifth and sixth in the world in the past three years. We were one of the beautiful teams but we picked up the crumbs of trek and sd-world. We won when the others missed or when they did not align their best team. The recruitment of Juliette (labood), everyone found it normal. “Ah, they will cross a course by putting the two best French women together”. The recruitment of half showed that we were not just a French team. French male cycling had experienced big recruitments with Peter Sagan (Totalenergies) or Joseba Beloki (in Brioches la Boulangère), but they were already on the decline.

We crossed a milestone. The marketing cell has created the buzz. There was the signature of Specialized, which is the number 1 bike in the world, that of Nike … This winter, we planted the decor. From there, I saw a lot of curiosity on the part of adversaries but also male cycling. At the presentation of the Tour de France, I was asked: “But how do you do with such a small budget to create all this? How can a French team do everything in English?”. We had put the beginnings and after, when we win, it marks respect. Now the hardest part remains to be done.

How did the integration of half a vollering go? Unlike a Juliette Labous who is not completely disoriented, it was a big step for her …

I feel her fulfilled. I feel it an integral part of the team. The questions she could ask herself before signing her contract, I think they no longer exist. We knew how to win it very quickly and create a collective around it. Never a leader, man or woman, had changed her team like that. Beyond her status, she came without a teammate and without staff. We had long conversations on this subject. The team was already ready to welcome him. Afterwards, we have improved things thanks to her, on great recommendations. We can always do better.

Are you satisfied with this 2025 season, in terms of results as well as tactically?

The balance sheet is excellent. We ran very well when we moved a third of the workforce, like everyone else in the peloton. Mayonnaise has taken much faster than elsewhere. Before the season, when comparing our points after recruitment, we were third in the world. SD-World and Canyon // Sram, with their recruitment, were better than we were taking the results of their runners in 2025. SD-World was in front of us without even counting the return of Anna Van der Breggen, because it was zero point in 2024. Today, we are number 1 in the world and SD-World is just behind.

There are also things that we have not managed to do. We ran well on the Ardennes. We make 2nd of the Walloon arrow, 4th of the Amstel Gold Race, 3rd of Liège-Bastogne-Liège … It was not perfect tactically. We corrected it the day after Liège. We talked to Juliette, Evita and a half, mentioned what we should have done and what we did wrong. Everything had worked so well in Valence and on the Strade, that we had remained on this ambition to control everything, but our opponents changed their tactics a little. We adapted and we won all the Spanish races, and in June we held things back, with risk -taking. On the Tour de France, we will have to reinvent ourselves tactically because our opponents will also do it.

Who will play the role of the last relay in the mountains, Evita Muzic or Juliette Labous?

Both. It depends both on their state of form at the moment T. There is no hierarchy. These are two different profiles.

You assume your desire to win this Tour de France. Is the team capable of taking the yellow jersey very early and defending it over several days?

If tomorrow, the team takes the yellow jersey in Plumelec, on a stage that suits us, but also to other teams, we will be the happiest. We will be ready to keep it. And if we find ourselves in the skin of outsiders, we will be in wolf mode to get it.