With a 21st place and excellent support work at the Tour de France, Ben Gastauer had a breakthrough season in 2014. The Luxembourger hopes to continue his progress in 2015.

From February until October, Ben Gastauer (Ag2R) participated in 27 UCI reaces with a total of 80 days of racing - and he didn't abandon a single race. But that is not the only reason for the positive assessment of his season that the Luxembourger draws in an interview with radsport-news.com: "For me it was a very good season."

Gastauer did not only impress by his consistency and resistance, he also achieve impressive results. While working as a domestique for Romain Bardet, he finished 12th in the Bayern Rundfahrt and with another strong performance in the Critérium du Dauphiné, the 27-year-old was selected for Ag2r roster for the Tour de France for the first time.

"To be at the Tour was my big objective for the season," said Gastauer who not only delivered excellent support work for his captains Jean-Christophe Péraud (second overall in Paris) and Romain Bardet (sixth).

The 2012 Luxembourg time trial champion even finished a fantastic 21st and so made a huge contribution to Ag2r's convincing win in the team classification.

That meant that Gastauer who finished 13th in the Eneco Tour in August and was second at the Luxembourg road race championships, could easily accept the fact that he didn't take a win. "I really had no disappointments this year. I have progressed well and been shown a pretty constant form," he said.

In 2015 which weill be Gastauer's sixth year at Ag2r, the Luxembourger will not only try to build on its achievements from this season. "I hope that my progress continues," said the all-rounder whose big aim is again Tour de France participation.