COFIDIS

Cyrille Guimard managed Cofidis in 1997, the team's inaugural season. Its early strategy, built around signing international stars such as Lance Armstrong, Maurizio Fondriest, Tony Rominger, Francesco Casagrande and Frank Vandenbroucke, failed to produce the expected Tour de France success. The American Bobby Julich (who would later admit to doping) finished third overall in 1998, but it was not until 2000 that the team truly made its mark, when the Scottish prodigy David Millar claimed the Yellow Jersey on his Tour de France debut after winning the opening time trial at Futuroscope, putting the northern French credit company in the spotlight.

Another David came to embody Cofidis' enduring commitment to cycling: David Moncoutié. The gifted climber experienced both the highs and lows of the team's history and claimed two Tour de France stage victories across eleven participations. His first triumph came in Figeac, making him one of the select few riders to have won a Tour stage in their home department.

Cofidis gradually faded from the forefront after voluntarily dropping to the second division in 2009 and losing key riders such as Sylvain Chavanel. In 2018, Christophe Laporte came agonisingly close to victory in Pau, finishing behind Arnaud Démare in the first French one-two in a Tour bunch sprint since Jacques Esclassan and Yvon Bertin, forty years earlier. After an underwhelming 2019 campaign, the team—now managed by Cédric Vasseur—strengthened its climbing ambitions by recruiting Guillaume Martin. Third overall after the Pyrenean stages before crashing, he still finished eleventh overall and as the highest-ranked French rider in the 2020 Tour before going on to win the mountains classification at that year's Vuelta a España. He improved again in 2021, finishing eighth in the Tour and ninth in La Vuelta. A specialist in long-range attacks over rolling terrain, Martin became known for his roller-coaster performances: second overall behind Tadej Pogačar after stage 14 in 2021, he lost contact with the favourites on a descent the very next day.

Even so, Martin established himself as one of the peloton's most consistent riders. A positive COVID-19 test forced him out of the 2022 Tour, leaving Simon Geschke to animate the race while wearing the polka-dot jersey for several days. Benjamin Thomas also came heartbreakingly close to victory in Carcassonne, only to be swallowed up by the peloton within the final 500 metres. Martin returned to finish tenth overall—and second-best French rider—in 2023, but the real story was Cofidis finally ending its fifteen-year wait for a stage victory. Victor Lafay stunned the peloton—and Wout van Aert in particular—with a daring attack inside the final kilometre of stage 2 into San Sebastián. As if one breakthrough were not enough, Ion Izagirre added a second victory for the team a few days later in Belleville-en-Beaujolais. In 2024, Cofidis returned to more modest fortunes. Guillaume Martin remained its most reliable performer, finishing twelfth overall and once again as the leading French rider before moving to Groupama–FDJ, while Bryan Coquard's seventh place in Nîmes stood as the sprint team's best result.

The 2025 Tour de France proved largely disappointing for Cofidis. Team leader Emanuel Buchmann finished only thirtieth overall, while Bryan Coquard (seventh in Châteauroux) and Dylan Teuns (tenth in Paris) delivered the team's only top-ten stage finishes. Its greatest media exposure came when Benjamin Thomas and fellow escapee Mattéo Vercher crashed together on Mont Cassel while contesting the first polka-dot jersey of the race.