Cycling. Madiot: "They are all in the presidential campaign, but not a single one is talking about sports"

Cocardier, ardent defender of the French language in world cycling, leader of many fights, decorated with the Legion of Honor, Marc Madiot rubbed shoulders with presidents of all stripes in forty-five years of profession, from Jacques Chirac to François Hollande via Nicolas Sarkozy. He also crossed paths with several sports ministers, retaining only the names of Buffet, Lamour and Braillard.

Rider, he was nicknamed "Krasu", in reference to Henri Krasucki, French trade unionist, general secretary of the General Confederation of Labor from 1982 to 1992, for his big mouth and defender of the rights of cyclists.

As the presidential campaign gains momentum, he gently enrages in Calpe, Spain, where his riders are in pre-season training. Because once again, according to him, sport is absent from the debates.

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Do you follow the presidential election?

Yes. And sport does not seem to be at the heart of the concerns of our presidential candidates. Certainly there is the pandemic and all the stuff, but sport, it seems to me, is an economic activity. They are all on the campaign trail but despite everything, whoever the candidate is, not a single one is talking about sport. Today, I don't know who to vote for.

Because you will vote for a candidate based on how he tells you about sport?

When you put your ballot in the ballot box, you are reacting to your own concerns. Today, the difference between left and right is not obvious. What will decide me will be the proposals that seem interesting to me on my future or my sector of activity. So sports.

Why did sport disappear from the debate in your opinion?

Because we are not a real sports country. I think so. Maybe I'm wrong, but when you see the budget dedicated to sport in a government, it is quite limited. We are a little interested in it at the time of the Olympic Games, the Football World Cup. If a Frenchman won the Tour de France, it would be great. But out of that...

France lacks a sports culture.

The proof is that politicians address French society by only talking about nuclear power, ecology, the economy, the reindustrialization of France. None talk about sports. It's been a bunch of presidential elections that I've followed and voted for, and I see that it's still not a real subject. We don't even have a sports minister anymore, we have a secretary of state. Of course, the period is particular, but still.

"A few years ago, pre-season preparation was in the South of France"

You were talking about sport as an important economic sector.

An example: here we are in Spain (during winter training), in a 4* hotel. The small seaside resort of Calpe has become in a few years the world center of cycling for the preparation of the seasons. World center that was once the South of France, the Côte d'Azur. But it's a saving! Hundreds and hundreds of professional cyclists, staff, cycle tourists and amateurs come here three or even four months a year. This economy has totally moved from our place in France, or from the Italian Riviera, to come here. It's a real topic. We lost everything. We have lost everything!

Young runner, where were you going?

When I was a young rider, with Guimard, I spent five weeks in the South of France, in Opio, in the Alpes-Maritimes, the place where Coluche was killed on a motorcycle on June 19, 1986. He there was a hotel there called the Tour d'Opio. All the teams were there. An economy worked in this region, hotels, bistros, racing every three days, training in between, full board in family establishments. Today there is nothing. And here we are in Spain. We are good here, we feel calm, that is not the point. But when you see the standing of the hotel and the level of involvement of the boss here and in all the other establishments twenty kilometers around, we should perhaps ask ourselves questions, right? It's a sports thing that wouldn't require much to restart in France, why not with the support of certain regions.

The pandemic still revealed priorities, right?

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Yes, and we must also counterbalance: the State has rather played its role by coming to the support of the sports world. You don't have to say anything. The job has been done. Same with partners. The French economic model has come into full play. But that's once every fifty years! So I think policies should look at the economics of sport in general. Perhaps say to companies, for example: “The more you invest in sport, the more you are exempted”? There would be plenty of levers to activate.

"We are on a declining continuity of the model put in place by de Gaulle"

You no longer believe in federations, you.

I'm going to make you scream, but in fact I believe less and less in federal and club sport. I find that French sport as a whole needs to regain competitiveness. We are on the continuity of the model put in place by de Gaulle in the 1960s because France had not been good at the Olympic Games.

A declining continuity.

Yes, because other countries have made progress during this time and have not given up. Let's take a look back at the French Cycling Federation election. I'll take you my only personal example. I've been fired for forty-five years. In forty-five years, I have never had a ballot to put in a ballot box for the elections. Never. There is a problem, right? And when I had the misfortune to take a stand for Guimard, I was pissed off. Which I don't regret. But there is a problem, right?

So you are asking for a reform of the global federal system?

Yes, whatever the discipline. All the organizational systems of our federations in France are based on something that needs to be reformed. We all dream of performing at the 2024 Paris Games. We expect athletes to bring back medals, but what do we do to get them? The system is too heavy. The “club” system is aging. We do not encourage people to invest in clubs. At the slightest shit, the organizers find themselves in court. There is no support in individual investment in sport. Nothing. It is on a voluntary basis. You are part of a club, you want to organize a bike race in your village: it's a mess without a name, an incredible specification. We kill the urge to do.

"International competition is there, fierce"

Is it the policies that have the key?

I'm waiting for them to show up. Coming from the world of sport, I feel legitimate to question them. I don't go any further than that.

Have you always voted?

Rather yes.

So sometimes not.

Blows, yes, I didn't vote, mostly for logistical reasons. But I have the right to vote and I prefer to use it. It is important. In all of this, there is one thing that we must never lose sight of: the others do not expect us. We are confronted with it every day at Groupama-FDJ, in our international structure. The competition is there, the competition is fierce. Paradoxically, we have rather good structures, but we are still constrained to administrative obligations that other countries do not know. For example, the organization of working time.

An example?

Two years ago, we wanted to take part in the Frankfurt Grand Prix. Nice race, in Germany, supported by ASO. I had runners who wanted to go there. And we didn't go. For what ? Because I had no staff to go there. Work time, recuperation, thing, thing. This is a typical example of a situation where French sport shoots itself in the foot all by itself. We are not operational. Foreigners laugh. When you tell that to the Belgians, they tell you: “Ah yes, but you French people…”.

What are they saying?

That we are ossified in our model. Which is still unbearable when you want to do well and perform.

A few days ago, you held your high mass at the start of the season in front of the riders and the staff, your general policy speech, so to speak. What did you say ?

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I took the example of the last Formula 1 GP of the season, the concentration of guys in the pits. I quoted Louis XIV to them. And then I will give you the conclusion of my speech. I took them to the landing beaches. I told them a story. The story of these guys who, on June 5, 1944, late at night, got on a boat with a gun, not speaking French, not being French. Guys who were told: “The barge is going to open, you are going to go up there. You may be staying there for some. I told my runners, “Even in death, they stayed aligned. When you go to the American Cemetery, no matter where you stand, all the crosses line up. So you're going to do the same, you're going to get on the barge, and when it opens, it won't be the German guns in front, but cobblestones, curbs and Alpe d'Huez. Gentlemen, now have a good trip. Stock. I no longer want to hear "Yes, but you understand". No, no, the guys in 1944, they got into the tub. Full stop... (long silence)... The runners listened carefully. Flies were flying. We were in a large room, the chairs were lined up neatly. When we came out, they were still lined up (laughs).

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