Having endured a horrible start to his 2014, where Thomas Voeckler broke his collarbone before racing even began at the tor Down Under, it is no surprise he has chosen to ride the Tour de San Luis in Argentina to kick start his 2015 year.

"I’ve always liked to start racing early because it’s true that I’m not a big fan of training," Voeckler told Cyclingnews in La Punta. "And what’s more, when you have a family, it’s difficult to justify going away for anything less than a race. My job is to race but going away for training camps is more difficult for me. What I love in cycling is competition and even if I’m not 100 per cent – and I’m not even close to it right now – I’d prefer to have a race than a training camp at this point of the year."

But the start of the season won’t be relaxed for Europcar and Voeckler. The team is no longer a WorldTour team and needs to perform well to show organisers they deserve to be at their events. Voeckler himself said that there isn’t too much of a problem with the team not being in the WorldTour.

"Maybe it’s a little problematic for team in the long-term because for a sponsor the WorldTour is certainly more attractive. But we have limited means and maybe it’s our place to be in the second division, targeting specific WorldTour races."

He also says that he doesn’t think the French squad’s omission from the WorldTour will make it harder to secure a sponsor for 2016, after Europcar announced they were ending their time with the team at the end of this year.

"Not really, because when you’re in the WorldTour, the budget required is that bit bigger," he said. "Ok, Jean-René has one argument less up his sleeve when he’s talking to sponsors, because he can’t say we’re a WorldTour team but at the same time, the amount of money he needs from a potential sponsor would be a bit less too. And we’ve certainly got a team that allows us to expect decent wildcard invitations all year long, whether it’s Tirreno or the Tour de France."

The team managed by Jean-Rene Bernaudeau faced a similar situation in 2010 after Bouygues Telecom stopped sponsoring them. Europcar stepped in on the grounds that Voeckler remained with the team, meaning he stopped his contact with rival French team Cofidis. But this time he knows he isn’t going to be the sole reason to save the team due to his age and dwindling results and he will need him from his teammates to get the results to save the team.

"But I need to be honest – probably maybe I don’t have the same stature or the same level of results that I had five years ago, so I’m maybe a bit less indispensable for a sponsor than I was back then," he said. "This time, I alone won’t be sufficient, and we’ll probably need a sponsor to come forward a lot earlier if we’re going to keep the riders. But my desire is clearly to stay with the team next year, and I haven’t set any deadline with Jean-René for a new sponsor or anything like that."

He says the team will do their best to attract a sponsor but he iterated that it is crucial the team doesn’t change their style of racing in the process.

"We’re not the strongest team and we don’t have the best riders but we have to show our team spirit and our typical racing style, which is to go on the attack," he said. "That’s our trademark, and if we still exist this time next year, it will be because of that, I think."