Well they may have the most boring jersey in the peleton, but their style of cycling is anything but.
AG2R La Mondiale has been in the UCI ProTour since 2006 and has lit up the ProTour ever since then. With 4 wonderful, coveted wins in La Grande Boucle, and 6 marvelous days in Gold with Rinaldo Nocentini. Along with this come and a fistful of other ProTour wins such as an overall in the Criterium de Dauphine and 6 different national champion.
Yet possibly the greatest race for the team has been the emotional 2011 Giro d'Italia in which John Gadret took a fabulous stage win and ended on the podium after the disqualification of Alberto Contador.
The team has had some truly brilliant riders in their ranks over the year, from right at the beginning with a young Alexander Vinokourov, through the years with men like Simon Gerrans, Tanel Kangert and Nicholas Roche. Yet whilst all these have moved on to greatness, the team still has plenty of greatness in its ranks.
Tour Down Under GP La Marseillaise* GP di Lugano* Strade Bianche* Paris-Nice Tirreno-Adriatico Milan-San Remo Volta a Catalunya E3 Harelbeke Criterium International* Gent-Wevelgem
Key: * yet to be determined
underlined: goals for the section
Goals
Easy - Top 5 finish GP La Marseillaise
Easy - Top 10 finish Strade Bianche
Medium - Top 5 GC Criterium International
Medium - Top 5 finish GP di Lugano
Hard - Top 5 GC Paris-Nice
Hard - Stage win Tirreno-Adriatico Edited by Neillster on 02-10-2013 12:12
GC victories: Criterium International - Thomas Hinault
GC top 10: Tirrenno Adriatico - 8th - Carlos Betancur
Jersey victories: Criterium International U25 - Thomas Hinault Criterium International KOM - Thomas Hinault Criterium International Team Rankings
Jersey podiums: Criterium International Points - 3rd - Thomas Hinault Tirrenno Adriatico U25 - 3rd - Carlos Betancur
Stage victories: Criterium International Stage 3 - Thomas Hinault Volta a Catalyuna Stage 7 - Matteo Montaguti
Stage podiums GP de la Marseillaise - 2nd -Matteo Montaguti GP di Lugano - 2nd -Romain Bardet Criterium International Stage 1 - 3rd -Manuel Belletti Tirrenno Adriatico Stage 6 - 2nd -Carlos Betancur
Stage top 10: Strade Bianche - 7th -Romain Bardet Tirrenno Adriatico Stage 5 - 8th - Carlos Betancur Volta a Ciclista al Pais Vasco Stage 4 - 8th - Carlos Betancur Volta a Ciclista al Pais Vasco Stage 7 - 5th - Jean-Christophe Peraud Armstel Gold Race - 8th - Carlos Betancur La Fleche Wallone - 6th - Carlos Betancur Edited by Neillster on 26-04-2014 22:06
Having seen how AG2R race and the success that they have, now is your chance to become a part of it. We are open to any and all applications, and we will strongly consider riders across all disciplines.
We will seek to try and mold you, and grow you as a rider, and we will try our hardest to develop your skills.
As a rider at AG2R, we can promise you an in depth role as part of our team, and you will be given a chance on the big stage, and take part in the big races. We will not squander your talent sitting on the sidelines, but we wish to fully integrate you into our squad, and hope that with the great riders which we already have on our team that they will bring you along and that you will be able to get the most out of your time with us.
So please do apply, and give us the opportunity to do our best to help you achieve yours.
Edited by Neillster on 01-10-2013 23:38
Name: Thomas Hinault
Nickname: Le Faucon
Age: 21
Nationality: French
Specialty: Climbing
Hi, my name is Thomas. I am 21 years old and hail from the South Pyrenees. Every ride i do for training is packed with amazing climbs, and i regularly pass 15,000m of climbing a week.
I have decided to join French team AG2R for the season. Sharing a language helps, but the manager really made it clear that i would be key to the sqaud, with it's development now based around giving me the change to win Le Tour as soon as possible.
And that is my big goal, to win the Tour. This season i will lead that race, but i don't expect to win, but a Top10 could be reachable. I do also have eyes on the Giro in the future, and maybe even La Vuelta too.
I'll do my best to update you across the season with stories and quotes and things. So hope you drop by.
Hi guys, Christian Muriel here! I'm so happy to have signed my first professional contract with AG2R La Mondiale. I come here hoping to prove that I am another great talent from Colombia in the mountains. I also would say that I am strong on the flat and I have Time Trialing capabilities too which would make me a stage racer. I'm here to work for my team leader and also my friend Carlos which will be fun! I also hope for opportunities to participate in a grand tour and to lead a WT stage race but I understand that I must work for it!
I believe that AG2R is the best place for my development and I can't wait to get on the road, racing with the boys!
Tour Down Under
GP La Marseillaise
GP di Lugano
Strade Bianche
Paris-Nice
Tirreno-Adriatico
Milan-San Remo
Volta a Catalunya
E3 Harelbeke
Criterium International
Gent-Wevelgem
The first part of the season has certainly been an interesting one for our boys. Plenty of ups and down, but never boring! Here is an overview of how things have gone so far.
Tour Down Under
With our first race of the season, we most certainly didn't cover ourselves in glory. Whilst we had no expectations for the race, it would still have been nice to see our men actually try something, with the best we could muster being getting Berard into the break on Stage 5.
For our first race in our front of our home support, we intended to make a good showing. Our first objective of the season came at this race, and we were determined to succeed! And so with still 80km to go, we sent Montaguti into the attack after the breakaway.
It took him just 15kms to make up the 4 minute gap to breakaway. Having been joined late by an Astana rider, Dyachenko, these pair set off away from the rest with just 13km to go.
Unfortunately, our Italian wizard ended up in front going into the sprint, and so led out the Kazak rider who robbed us of the victory. Still in all, a 2nd place was brilliant from Montaguti and we're really proud that we were able to fulfil our first goal.
Boyed by success with our first goal of the season, we are confident that we can repeat the success for our 2nd here in Switzerland. Nevertheless, we send a stronger squad just to make sure that we can see off our rivals. Should be good exercise for those preparing to race in Paris Nice.
Even though we were not listed among the favourites for the race, the boys knew that they could deliver today. However, this underestimation by the others allowed us to sit back and not take much of a lead in the peleton, resting up for the final. We were quite happy for Katusha, Saxo-Tinkoff and FDJ to do all the dirty work for us.
We just tucked in behind, and waited, watching as the gap to the break deminished. Yet with 12km to go and still a gap of 40'', things were still in the balance, so we took affairs into our own hands.
Christophe was feeling great and goes solo off the front to make up the gap. Allez Riblon!
It takes him just 2.2km to bridge the gap, and we've still got a full 51'' on the chasers!
But Riblon isn't happy just to let the victory come to him, he drives the break on, as the escapees desperately try to hang on to his wheel!
But again we have our man in the lead coming into the sprint, and a tired Karpets is able to pull himself past the storming Frenchman as we again have to settle for 2nd.
Goal 2 of 2 achieved, though we'll feel we could have done better today. Yet all the boys are pleased with the result.
Result:
2
Christophe Riblon
AG2R La Mondiale
4h23'45
41
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 51
72
Hugo Houle
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 6'45
80
Maxime Bouet
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 12'51
84
Guillaume Bonnafond
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 14'19
98
John Gadret
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 17'04
112
Matteo Montaguti
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
117
Ben Gastauer
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
Strade Bianche
So here we are in Italy this time, and having completed both of our available goals so far, we're looking to continue our perfect streek today with a solid top 10. So that end, we've named a fairly similar squad as to Lugano, hoping for a similar if not better result.
Yet on the day there were definite plus' and minus' courtesy of a lovely 7th by Romain Bardet, we succeeded again in our aim, but yet, we do feel that we could have done more to light up the day than simply letting Sagan walk away.
Result:
7
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 2'47
19
Christian Muriel
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 10'06
20
Matteo Montaguti
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
23
Gediminas Bagdonas
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
30
Samuel Dumoulin
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
46
Valentin Iglinskiy
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
74
Manuel Belletti
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
85
Anthony Ravard
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
Paris-Nice
So here we are for the first big stage race on French soil this season. And it's Le Faucon's first chance to show us what he can do as he'll be leading the line for us here. We've set ourselves a tough challenge here, a top 5 GC, but we're hoping that with the help of the home support, that we can do ourselves proud.
Well we certainly made a showing here en France. The Prologue was a disappointmnt for the team with Bagdonas' 26th being the best the team could muster. Hinault's 190th was most certainly not the start we were hoping for.
So the team came up with a new plan... attack! And we lit up the race ever since, with riders in the break on Stages 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7.
Julian Kern did us proud by leading the King of the Mountains jersey for a couple of days, thanks to his break on Stage 2. And it was great to see him follow it up with an attack in the Jersey the next day, showing some really great spirit.
Stage 4 saw both Nocentini and Bardet taking over, yet sadly neither rider were able to carry their advantage through to the finish. Still in all, it's good to see them showing off the jersey.
Stage 6 saw Dupont taking his turn in the attack, also taking a number of Mountain points to his name.
Stage 7 was the biggest for the team, with Maxime Bouet getting into the lead, and spending the whole day duelling with Euskaltel's Ion Izagirre for the Moutain Points. It came right down to the last sprint, but unfortunately the Spaniard outlasted Maxime who was still able to take 2nd in the King of the Mountain Classification. Bravo Bouet.
Yet these attacks merely covered over our failing in the GC battle. Bardet ended up taking over the leadership, yet still he fell outside of the top 20 as we sadly weren't able to meet our sponsors goal. Still in all, a courageous showing from our boys, we just have to work on building up some substance to back it up.
GC Results:
22
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 5'22
38
Rinaldo Nocentini
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 8'28
39
Thomas Hinault
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 8'29
48
Hubert Dupont
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 11'38
49
Maxime Bouet
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 11'41
106
Julian Kern
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 21'57
138
Gediminas Bagdonas
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 33'57
164
Axel Domont
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 46'03
Points:
47
Thomas Hinault
AG2R La Mondiale
8
54
Julian Kern
AG2R La Mondiale
7
56
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
5
79
Maxime Bouet
AG2R La Mondiale
1
King of the Mountains:
2
Maxime Bouet
AG2R La Mondiale
22
11
Hubert Dupont
AG2R La Mondiale
13
22
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
5
23
Julian Kern
AG2R La Mondiale
5
U-25
14
Thomas Hinault
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 5'09
34
Julian Kern
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 18'37
61
Axel Domont
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 42'43
Team:
8
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 39
+ 10'28
Tirreno-Adriatico
Here at the same time as our Hard objective in France, we have our other in Italy as we're being asked to get a stage win. With that in mind, we have sent our best climber to lead us, Carlos Betancur. Let's see how this goes.
This race through Italy couldn't have been much different from Paris-Nice for our team if we tried. No fireworks, no attacks, we had a very docile race, yet one with fairly decent results. While we failed to get the win we were craving, we none the less were able to quietly secure a nice Top 10. Carlos had a close battle with Oreste Ghita for 2nd in the U25, though fellow Colombian Quintana was streaks ahead.
So with a nice top 10 GC and top 3 U25, we can be fairly pleased with that. Yet in all, with a breakaway victory in Stage 6, Carlos was able to manage a 2nd place in the pack, making it rather disappointing that the break was let go. GC Result:
Milan-San Remo
Here we are now for the first Monument of the season! It's great to be here in the palmy weather in Italy. We're hoping to get off to a good start in these Monuments, and have sent a team that will hopefully make a splash. We're focusing on our sprinters for this one, with Hutarovich as our leader with help from Appollonio, Bagdonas, Belletti, Bonnafond and Chainel. Muriel and Nocentini are both here in free roles. Let's see how we go.
Davide Appollonio was our man in the substantial breakaway hoping to make his home advantage count. He was a key component of the break, helping to lead his fellow escapees into the last 30kms.
Sadly, the group got swept up, along with our chances for victory, as our sprinters toil over the climbs. In the end it's Cancellara who takes the victory ahead Greipel and Sagan. In the end Nocentini was our highest placed rider in 65th, not a stellar day for our men.
Results
65
Rinaldo Nocentini
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 59''
100
Yauheni Hutarovich
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
112
Davide Appollonio
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
122
Steve Chainel
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
123
Gediminas Bagdonas
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
130
Manuel Belletti
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 5'25
142
Christian Muriel
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
188
Guillaume Bonnafond
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 10'04
Criterium International
The team was set a goal here in on home soil of reaching the top 5 on the GC. We however, wanted to put on a show for the home fans. With that in mind we gave Thomas Hinault the reins and let him lead the team made up of Belletti, Bardet, Bouet, Dumoulin, Gadret, Kadri and Iglinskiy.
And the team did us proud. With a great start on stage 1, Belletti grabbed an excellent podium from nowhere doing a fantastic job to hang onto the sprint trains of others.
Stage 2 was rather a blow to our hopes as Hinault lost 1'03'' to Wiggins, finishing 125th of 128 riders. Things weren't looking so good for our GC hopes. But with this being Thomas' first real leadership role, we were going to stick with him.
Entering stage 3, we had a lot to prove, so we decided upon some fresh tactics. Thomas went on the attack with 65km still to ride, and Bardet joined him as support at couple of km later. The race was on!
It only took 15km for our attackers to catch up to the break of the day, and we had the great asset of riding with French legend Pierre Rolland as we worked together to distance an Euskaltel lead peleton.
Then at the foot of the final climb, Le Faucon decided to make his killer strike! With 14km of climbing ahead of him he was going solo.
And he does it! Le Faucon is the first man home and raises his hands to the heavens after a phenominal ride! We're really proud of him! Now the ticker starts, how much time has he gained? He needs over a minute...
And he gets it! A full 1'54'' and Wiggins crosses in 2nd, giving Hinault le Maillot Jaune! Now that is how you light up a race. Also from this fantastic display, Thomas takes home the young riders jersey, and come 3rd in both the points and the KOM classification. Just to show how good that display was, AG2R also win the team classification! Bravo mes amis Bravo! GC Results
1
Thomas Hinault
AG2R La Mondiale
6h44'33
16
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 2'17
19
Maxime Bouet
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 2'18
59
John Gadret
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 11'46
76
Blel Kadri
AG2R La Mondiale
+14'00
80
Samuel Dumoulin
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 14'30
81
Manuel Belletti
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 14'37
102
Valentin Iglinskiy
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 26'22
Volta a Catalunya
For this race we had no major objective, but we were going to give Pozzovivo his first shot at leading the team. For support we sent Bonnafond, Cherel, Dupont, Gaustauer, Montaguti, Kern and Nocentini.
After being completely invisible on the first 2 stages, Nocentini made a short and ill fated attack on stage 3 with Nieve and Weening. Pozzovivo was able to pick up a solid 9th on the stage.
On the 4th queen stage Montaguti got himself into the break, but sadly wasn't able to come close to contesting the victory. Pozzovivo's gutsy 13th unfortunately saw him fall out of the top 10 on the GC.
After another quiet stage 5, we send Dupont onto the attack in stage 6. This time the breakaway makes it right to the finish, but unfortunately Dupont just misses out on the podium by a whisker.
Stage 7 was far and away the greatest stage of this race for us, as Montaguti not only made it into the attacking group, but all the way to the finish line for the stage win! Very proud of our Italian man who's been a great asset to the team already this season. What a great way to finish the race.
E3 Harelbeke
Going into the cobbles season we have no objectives whatsoever, so any decent results we get is a major plus. Our team for the spring classics includes: Domont, Berard, Houle, Hutarovich, Bagdonas, Minard, Mondory and Chainel.
For Harelbeke we were able to get our Lithuanian champion Bagdonas some good television time as he burst into the break. However, as I fear may be a sign of things to come, he just missed out on a top 20 spot, finishing as our top rider in 21st, 1'38'' behind eventual winner Boonen.
Summary
So by the end of Part I, we have managed to achieve 4 of our 6 goals in what this manager measures as a successful part. With 1 GC win, 2 stage wins and several podiums, this is a bright start to the season. Let's hope that we can keep this up going into part 2 Edited by Neillster on 26-04-2014 10:19
Ronde van Vlaanderen Pais Vasco Paris-Roubaix Amstel Gold Race La Fleche Wallone Liege-Bastogne-Liege Tour de Romandie Giro del Trentino* 5 Jours de Dunkerque* Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt* Giro d'Italia Skoda-Tour de Luxembourg* Criterium du Dauphine Tour de Suisse
* pending approval
Goals Part 2
Easy - Top 20 Liege-Bastogne-Liege
Easy - Stage win 5 Jours de Dunkerque
Medium - Top 5 GC in the Giro del Trentino
Medium - Top 10 GC Criterium du Dauphine
Hard - Top 3 Youth Classification Giro d'Italia
Impossible - Top 5 Paris-Roubaix Edited by Neillster on 20-01-2014 17:51
Le Faucon Bonjour!
I will not be writing in French this time around as i have to make better my English. It been mixed start to le season. Hoping for more from Paris-Nice in which i struggled and could not find the legs i knew i had.
But i put that behind at the Criterium International. I attacked hard on the last stage win take my first win, and also the GC and Youth jerseys as well. Big result for me and for the team. From here we will build onwards and hopefully bring another big result in the next part of the season.
I am really liking the team and my domestiques. It is a atmosphere and everyone is friendly. So far everyone happy for me to lead le team and i will bring more wins soon.
Dippofix wrote:
I think you can't have a "split" goal (win this, this or this race).
Also, i don't think Fleche or AGR are monuments.
I know that it's a bit of a stretch, but since they are all in the same week, and of similar profile that I'd give it a shot. I await the judges ruling
Invitation from Euskaltel - Euskadi [img-r]https://hl2mp.tsgk.com/hlstatsimg/flags/es_states/euskadi.png[/img-r]
To the management and certain riders of AG2R La Mondiale
In our evergoing effort to promote cycling in the "extended Basque country" meaning Euskadi, Navarre and Aquitaine the management of Euskaltel - Euskadi have decided to host a Basque race series taking place with one race in each season break.
That means that someone on your team is eligeable to take part.
Since we respect that riders are bound by their contracts we want you to have the final word in whether or not they may take part They will off course ride in their usual team kit.
The lineup will consist of as many professionals as possible as well as a talent-team from each of the three regions.
The route will vary slightly from race to race but the first edition will be held on the route used for Clásica San Sebastián.
Your eligible riders are: Blel Kadri
To take part all you have to do is confirm your participation below or by PM.
Sincerely
Alaon Etxeberdea
Manager of Euskaltel - Euskadi
Squad 
Tour Down Under
GP di Lugano*
Volta a Catalunya
E3 Harelbeke
Armstel Gold Race - 8th - Carlos Betancur 
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
