With Romain Bardet returning to form and a stage win already in the books, Ag2r manager Vincent Lavenu is optimistic for the third week of the Tour de France.

"We finished the Pyrenees without much success," he said. "We lost our hopes for the GC. We got injured, sick. We also lost Ben Gastauer and Johan Vansummeren. Despite this, the team has never given up. We always knew how to motivate our riders. Theyhave played the game, we found the colors and we participated in the breaks with beautiful results (3rd in stages 12, 13 and 14). The end of the second wwek was complicated with Jean-Christophe Péraud's crash. He was almost forced to retire during stage 15 which was very difficult for him. He showed great courage and stayed in the race. We will benefit from the rest day and will end on a high note and a positive spiral. The results are there, Romain Bardet is 12th overall.

"The 3rd place of Romain at Plateau de Beille was the best moment. That day, Christophe Riblon was present in an earlier breakaway and then Mikael Cherel did a great job. Now the Tour arrives in the Alps, an area AG2R La Mondiale knows by heart. 

"We finished the second week well. We will start full of hope and full of energy. There are lots of beautiful things to do. In addition to a second stage victory, we also hope to see Jean-Christophe Péraud recover from his crash and to lead Roman to a ninth or eighth place overall. A top 3 in the teams classification would also be a very good thing, it would reflect our current level."