After the announcement of the withdrawal of Domenico Pozzovivo from the Vuelta a Espana with a broken right tibia sustained while training, Ag2r La Mondiale is left without a leader to fight for the general classification. Romain Bardet and Jean-Christophe Péraud will not be there and Carlos Betancur is not in the best physical and mental condition to fight for the red jersey:

"He is a real question mark, he is not in great shape but not catastrophic shape either. We should not count on him for the overall. Why not aim for a stage in the difficult final week of the Vuelta?,”Julie Jurdie, AG2R sporting director, told L’Equipe at the Tour de l'Ain.

Hubert Dupont and Maxime Bouet have a carte blanche in the Vuelta: "There are more formal leaders, Hubert Dupont and Maxime Bouet will fight for the general, but not at the same level as Pozzovivo. The goal for them is to approach the top 15 and we will replace Pozzovivo, a climber by Hutarovich, a sprinter (recent winner of the first stage of the Tour of Poland). This Vuelta offers between five and eight stages for the sprinters. Some riders like Damien Gaudin, Sébastien Turgot and Patrick Gretsch will work for him."