Ag2r-La Mondiale is the first team to almost finalize their roster for the Tour de France after they have announced the names of 8 of the 9 riders that will line up in Leeds in a few weeks time. As expected the team is set to be led by Jean-Christophe Peraud and Romain Bardet while Carlos Betancur is missing from the list due to illness.

All year Ag2r-La Mondiale have been planning to line up at the Tour de France with three riders for the GC. Jean-Christophe Peraud, Romain Bardet and Carlos Betancur have all had La Grande Boucle as their big season target and initially all were aiming for a high overall result.

Today the team have announced the names of 8 of the 9 riders that will make up the roster and as it had already been revealed, they are now down to 2 riders for the overall standings. After he had failed to return to Europe as planned, it was revealed that Carlos Betancur is suffering from cytomegalovirus and he won't make his debut at the Tour as originally planned.

Instead, it will be up to Bardet and Peraud to lead the charge and both line up at the race on the back of highly successful season. Bardet made his debut 12 months ago, finishing 15th as best Frenchman, and this year he has continued his progress by taking 4th in the Volta a Catalunya and 5th in the Criterium du Dauphiné.

For Peraud, it will be time to take revenge after he crashed out of last year's race at a time where he seemed poised for his second top 10 finish in the world's biggest race. This year he has been better than ever before, finishing 4th in Tirreno-Adriatico, 3rd in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and winning the Criterium International overall.

It had already been announced that the pair will be joined by Christophe Riblon who won last year's stage to Alpe d'huez and will again be in search of stage wins. The Frenchman is showing great form in the Tour de Suisse where he leads the team after Domenico Pozzovivo's withdrawal.

Five additional riders have been selected today. Samuel Dumoulin will try to use his punchy sprinting skills to take his second stage victory in the race while climber Mikael Cherel has been selected on the back of a strong Dauphiné showing.

Sebastien Minard has a strong reputation as a domestique for the flat stages and has made the roster together with attacker Blel Kadri. Finally, Ben Gastauer will make his debut at the race after showing some really good climbing legs in the Dauphiné.

The final rider will be annonced after the French road race championships less than a week before the start of the Tour.

Ag2r for the Tour de France

Jean-Christophe Peraud, Romain Bardet, Chirstophe Riblon, Blel Kadri, Sebastien Minard, Samuel Dumoulin, Ben Gastauer and Mikael Cherel