Today Ag2r-La Mondiale selected 8 of the 9 riders that will line up at the 2014 Tour de France and as expected Carlos Betancur was not on the list. Team manager Vincent Lavenu claims that it was a unilateral decision by the Colombian not to do the race and that he can expect some kind of sanction.

All year it has been the plan for Carlos Betancur to make his debut at the Tour de France this summer and the Colombian has repeatedly made it clear that his big goal was to win the white jersey. Last week, however, it was announced that he won't be at the start in Leeds and that he will instead focus on the Vuelta and the world championships.

Having trained in his native Colombia, Betancur failed to return to Europe as planned and having had little contact with their star, his Ag2r team were surprised to learn that he wouldn't ride the Tour de Suisse as originally planned. It has later been revealed that he is suffering from cytomegalovirus and that he doesn't feel in a condition to do the hardest race in the world.

Ag2r manager Vincent Lavenu has publicly lamented the lack of communication with Betancur and has claimed that it has been a perennial problem for the team to contact him when he is at home. In an interview with L'Equipe, Lavenu reiterates that stance and makes it clear that the team has not been involved in the decision to skip the Tour.

"He announced unilaterally that he will not do the Tour without complying to the agreements with the team and the sponsors," he said. "I have asked him to return to Savoy where he must rneew his residence permit before July 15-20. "Of course we will sanction him but it won't be financially - the law prohibits that. A procedure is in place and it could be a reprimand, a warning, a break from competition.

"We don't want to sack him as we don't want to separate us from him. But we would like to get more involved and him to respect his race programme which he decided at the beginning of the year with his coach (Michele Bartoli)."

It is still unclear when Betancur will make his return to competition.