Cycling Profile: Team AG2R - La Mondiale
Team AG2R was founded by a former French cyclist Vincent Lavenu in 1992 right after his retirement from professional cycling. Chazal was the first sponsor of the team and continued its support for three years, from 1992 to1995 while in 2007 a chain of coffee
shops, Petit Casino sponsored the team.
In 2000 the sponsorship of the team was taken over by an insurance company Ag2r as team participated in the UCI Pro Tour 2006 under the new sponsorship and had a successful Tour de France 2006 as Sylvain Calzati had a stage win while Cyril Dessel wore the
yellow jersey for one day.
Team is led by the 27-year-old Nicolas Roche who has won the national championship twice and has been in the leading ten cyclists in many Grand Tours. The Irishman had a pretty rough 2011 season because of the crashes and the most crucial one was at the
Criterium du Dauphine. He was leading his team in the Tour de France 2011 and managed to survive the first few weeks of the Tour and saved the overall 10th position for himself by the end of stage 12. However, Roche could not improve the position
as he lost further time to his rivals and finished 18th overall.
With all the teams busy in signing the new cyclists for the coming seasons French team AG2R La Mondiale who came up with seven new riders in the current year has made an announcement that the team has signed in the French rider Jimmy Casper for 2012.
Jimmy Casper shared his thoughts with the media after he has signed the contract as he said, “I’m excited to come back to a World Tour team in 2012 after having spent several seasons in the Pro Continental ranks.” He further added that, “I’m eager to prove
my worth and hope to build on this season’s end to score victories for AG2R in 2012.”
AG2R La Mondiale is the only French UCI World Tour registered team and has also retained Ben Gastauer for another two years as the contract for the 23-year-old has been renewed.
Maxime Bouet, Sebastien Minard and Sebastien Hinault were included in the team for the mega Tour de France 2011 as Vincent mentioned that the team is looking forward to go the mega Tour with the best possible riders and is hopeful to come out with flying
colours as he said, “Maxime Bouet has shown today in the French Championships that he is at his best now and is capable of doing great things on the Tour. Sebastien Minard will be a super-domestique while the experienced Sebastien Hinault will be the team
road captain.”
Team finished third in the final general classification of Tour de France 2011 while Jean-Christophe Peraud had the best position for the team as he finished 10th in the final general classifications of the Tour de France 2011.
Roche is leading the team of 9 cyclists to the forthcoming Vuelta a Espana starting on August 20th. There are eight French cyclists in the team including Guillaume Bonnafond, Dimitri Champion, Cyril Dessel, Steve Houanard, David Le Lay, Lloyd
Mondory, Mathieu Perget, Nicolas Roche while Matteo Montaguti is the only Italian and a non French cyclist in the AG2R squad for Vuelta a Espana 2011.
Team is hopeful for the upcoming season and it will be fascinating to watch how the team performs in the coming event this month.
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