AG2R La Mondiale has finalized a roster of 30 riders, the maximum allowed in the WorldTour, with the latest addition of Jesse Sergent (Trek Factory Racing). Vincent Lavenu's team seems to be focused on continuity.

 

Romain Bardet whp targets to a top 5 in the next Tour de France, Jean-Christophe Péraud who will do the Giro d'Italia in his final year, and Domenico Pozzovivo whose plans have not been unveiled, are the three stage race leaders, with Jan Bakelants, noticeable in the second half of 2015, and Alexis Vuillermoz, stage winner in the Tour de France, playing the role as jokers.

 

The team have just made three signings, Sergent, Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and U23 rider Francois Bidard. The former reinforces the classics block that is led by Damien Gaudin, Johan Vansummeren, Sebastien Turgot and Gediminas Bagdonas.

 

The future is secured for Lavenu's team as 2015 the a breakthrough for Alexis Gougeard (1993) and Pierre-Roger Latour (1994). The former had a big 2015 with a stage win in the Vuelta and the overall victory in the Tour de l'Eurometropole. He is a complete and aggressive rider. Latour, meanwhile, is a climber who finished third behind Contador and Quintana in the Route du Sud. He was third and fifth in the mountainous races Tour l'Ain and Vuelta a Burgos respectively, and he was seventh in the Tour of Austria.

 

Experience will be provided by riders like Samuel Dumoulin, Christophe Riblon, Hubert Dupont, Blel Kadri, Guillaume Bonnafond, Sebastien Minard, Matteo Montaguti Montaguti and Patrick Gretsch.

 

The only riders to leave the team are veteran Rinaldo Nocentini - after nine years in the French team - Lloyd Mondory who tested positive earlier this year and Carlos Betancur who has signed a contract with Movistar.

 

In 2015, AG2R La Mondiale had 24 victories, five in the WorldTour: two stages in the Tour de France (Bardet and Vuillermoz), a stage in the Vuelta a Espana (Gougeard), a stage in the Dauphiné (Bardet) and a stage in the Volta a Catalunya (Pozzovivo).

 

Roster

Returning riders: Gediminas Bagdonas, Jan Bakelants, Romain Bardet, Julien Berard, Guillaume Bonnafond, Mikael Cherel, Maxime Daniel, Nico Denz, Axel Domont, Samuel Dumoulin, Hubert Dupont, Ben Gastauer, Damien Gaudin, Alexis Gougeard, Patrick Gretsch, Hugo Houle Quentin Jauregui, Blel Kadri, Pierre Latour, Sébastien Minard, Matteo Montaguti, Jean-Christophe Péraud, Domenico Pozzovivo, Christophe Riblon, Sébastien Turgot, Johan Vansummeren and Alexis Vuillermoz

 

New signings: François Bidard, Cyril Gautier and Jesse Sergent