French outfit Cofidis will start the Tour de France for the twentieth time. They were supposed to back top sprinter Nacer Bouhanni but their main rider was forced to withdraw from the start list following a quarrel on Saturday night at the hotel ahead of the national championship. A hand injury led to an operation on Tuesday.

“We had prepared a train to lead him out, so we had to reshuffle the lineup and our ambitions”, said team manager Yvon Sanquer who called Nicolas Edet, the King of the Mountains of the 2013 Vuelta a España, to make a trio of climbers with Dani Navarro and Arnold Jeannesson.

“I hope to do better than 14th in 2011”, the latter said. “In recent years I've raced as a domestique for Thibaut Pinot and Arthur Vichot at FDJ but now I have the opportunity to ride for GC.”

Christophe Laporte has become the team's sprinter.

“I don't put any limit to my ambition”, said the fast man from south of France. “It won't be easy against the likes of Greipel and Kittel but I can try and get some good results.”