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 The 25-year-old, third overall in the 2014 Tour and winner of the
prestigious Alpe d'Huez stage last year, beat specialists Tom
Dumoulin and Chris Froome in last week's individual time trial at
the Tour de Romandie, in which he finished second overall behind
Nairo Quintana.
"We did not have the culture of time trialing in France," FDJ head
of performance Frederic Grappe told Reuters on Tuesday.
While Germany or Switzerland have a time-trialing culture, France
has won only one world title, with Laurent Jalabert back in 1997.
"We've had a big problem with that for decades now, and it starts
with the young riders," Grappe added. "Some under-18 riders arrive
at the world championships having never ridden the distance. Time
trialing is a matter of culture, muscles and material."
 FDJ has changed the way its teams work with their suppliers.
"What teams used to do is take the material they were provided and
just shut up," he explained. "Now we start from scratch (with French
bike maker Lapierre) and both ask ourselves how we can do better."
FDJ have hired the services of consultants who helped them develop a
state-of-the-art TT bike, the Aerostorm DRS (Drag Reduction System).
"It's the result of one year and a half of development with (leader)
Thibaut Pinot, Lapierre as well as the performance team with
(material tester) Sebastien Joly," said Grappe.
"We are the only elite team to develop the bikes in direct contact
with our partner. We got the green light from Shimano to create our
own home-made handlebars. They are shaped like plane wings."
So who better than an Airbus engineer to work on that?
"This guy who is an engineer with Airbus, who helped design the
Airbus A320 wing and is a cycling fan, called me once to offer his
services," said Grappe, who would not name the engineer because of a
confidentiality agreement.
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"We also hired an expert on composite materials. The carbon we use
inside the frame is very special," he said, again giving no further
details.
With the new bike, FDJ's results have dramatically improved this
season, and they won their first team time trial in 21 years in the
Mediterraneenne race in February.
"My riders would laugh at them when we'd see them on their TT bikes
in pre-season training camps," a French sports director who declined
to be named told Reuters.
"But we now see the results they got."
While he may not be ready to dominate the race in the mountains just
yet, Pinot can now trust his time trialing abilities, meaning he may
be able to take time off Quintana, who will likely be his main rival
in the coming years.
"We have switched the mental process. (Pinot) can see that he can be
better than the others (in time trials), and a good time trialist
forces his rivals' respect more than any other rider," said Grappe.
"We (French) used to be pathetic. This has changed."
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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