Carlos Betancur of Ag2r-La Mondiale suffered through his first race of the 2014 year while being over 6 kg overweight, as he finished 111th overall at the Tour de San Luis, but the second appearance of the explosive Colombian this season was quite a different story as he narrowly missed the top ten in the general classification of the Tour Mediterraneen after a strong performance at the mountaintop finish on Mont Faron. Now Betancur will aims to improve on those past two results, after he was appointed a leader of the Tour du Haut Var, to be held between 22 and 23 February.

The winner of the Giro d’Italia 2013 maglia blanca turned out to be a huge support to his leader Jean-Christophe Peraud, helping him to launch his victorious attack on the Mont Faron climb, and was profusely praised by whole Ag2r team on a performance which brought him up from 21 to 11th position in the general classification.

Also a relatively strong showing in the individual time trial may suggest that the condition of the punchy 24-year old Colombian is improving significantly.

Now, Betancur certainly will hope to make a further improvement on past two results achieved this season, as for the first time this year he was appointed the Ag2r leader for the coming Tour du Haut Var, to be held in Provence from 22 to 23 February.

The complete Ag2r roster for Haut Var consists of:

Carlos Betancur (Colombia), Maxime Bouet (France), Mikael Cherel (France), Samuel Dumoulin (France), Hubert Dupont (France), Lloyd Mondory (France), Rinaldo Nocentini (Italy) and Alexis Vuillermoz (France)