Rémy Di Gregorio is to leave the FDJ team, where he has spent his entire professional career, after signing a one-year contract with the Astana team for 2011. The 25-year-old climber from Marseille, France is joining the Kazakh-sponsored team to support its team leaders in the mountains.
Di Gregorio has been with FDJ (formerly Française des Jeux) since 2005, winning a stage of the Tour de l’Avenir in 2006 and the mountains jersey of the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré in 2007. Such early promise led to a great deal of expectation from a French public starved of success in major races; he was given the somewhat dual-edged title of “the new Virenque”, after seven-time Tour de France mountains jersey winner Richard Virenque.
Sadly, Di Gregorio’s results have not met with previous expectation, and despite some sometimes-aggressive riding the major victories have eluded him. His best result of 2010 was fifth in his very first race, the GP d’Ouverture la Marseillaise, but he has finished 25th in the Tour de Romandie, 19th in the Critérium du Dauphiné.
He finished 78th in the Tour de France and is currently in 44th place in the Vuelta a España.