As expected, the FDJ team for the Tour de France will be fully built around Thibaut Pinot. The Frenchman will be supported by Steve Morabito and Sebastien Reichenbach in the mountains as he tries to return to the podium after his third place in 2013.

In the last two years, FDJ have had a two-pronged attack at the Tour de France as they have gone for GC with Thibaut Pinot and the sprints with Arnaud Demare. However, this year it has always been the plan to focus only on Pinot in their home race and instead Demare has been focusing on the Giro where he got close to a stage win before he was forced to abandon with illness.

Today the team confirmed their plans as they announced a Tour de France line-up that is fully built around Pinot who hopes to continue the great progress he has shown during the year. He has won Criterium International overall and finished fourth in th Vuelta al Pais Vasco and second in the Tour de Romandie where he also won the time trial.

Pinot aims to improve on his past performances. In 2014, he finished third overall and last year he won the queen stage after having bounced back from a disappointing start to the year, and he can rely on a strong team to support his ambitions.

Most notably, FDJ will be stronger in the mountains where Pinot will count on Steve Morabito and Sebastien Reichenbach who has improved massively since joining the French team at the start of the year. Jeremy Roy and Anthony Roux will be on hand for the medium mountains as will Arthur Vichot who may also take his personal chance in some of the classics stages.

Pinot's weakness has always been the flat stages but he will be well-protected by Cedric Pineau, Matthieu Ladagnous and William Bonnet who returns to the race after last year's dramatic crash. Those three riders will try to bring him safely through the flat stages in the first week and make sure that he gets to the mountains without having suffered an initial setback.

The race starts on July 2.

FDJ for the Tour de France

Thibaut Pinot, Steve Morabito, Sebastien Reichenbach, Cedric Pineau, William Bonnet, Matthieu Ladagnous, Arthur Vichot, Anthony Roux and Jeremy Roy