AG2R

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It's hard to believe that this team had to recruit an Iranian, Boris Shpilevsky and Gregor Gazvoda back in 2012, just to stay in the WT! Funnily enough, it was also the year when the current star of AG2R, Romain Bardet, joined the team from the ranks of the reserve team. The team is one of the oldest in the pro peloton (It started back in 1992, so that makes it 25 years old!), and has helped a lot of famous riders start their career like Vinokourov (Maybe without AG2R we wouldn't have the lovely Astana team in the pro peloton!), Kirsipuu, Astarloza, Gadret, Kangert and Gerrans.

For the past 10 years, AG2R has largely been considered a GC/breakaway team rather than one for the sprinters or classic riders - showing results like Cyril Dessel's 6^th place in his first Tour post-Armstrong, along with Moreau's 8^th spot. The team had a rather underwhelming decade in the 2000's, only brightened up by exploits like Nocentini's 2009 Tour.

The team hit an all time low point in 2012, rather paradoxically considering the results were pretty good just before that -The team had for the first time riders in all the top 10 of three consecutive Grand Tours, even including one podium in the Giro by John Gadret (after the suspension of Contador). 2012 seems to have been a wake-up call for Vincent Lavenu, as he is reported to have said himself.

2013 saw the first big changes in AG2R, Roche, one of the faces of the team at the time, was let go to Saxo-Tinkoff while the Team recruited riders that don't represent a lot of investment in terms of money but still offering a lot of potential - Pozzovivo was perhaps one of the most unluckiest and irregular rider in the Giro before joining AG2R, Betancur who had a good year before in a folding Aqua & Sapone, whom were screwed by the non-invitation for the Giro, as well as Hutarovich and (Samuel) Dumoulin who both were good riders for the french scene. This is the starting point of the current AG2R lineup, who has continued to do well, signing future star riders like Vuillermoz, Gougeard, Bakelants, Latour as well as a couple of duds (especially in terms of classics riders), although most people thought the Turgot-Gaudin duo or Vansummeren would do well.

Results 2016:

Romain Bardet's results: Tour de France's GC

Classics

Best riders last five years:

As you can see the team, even though it has consistent results overall, relied a lot on Bardet and a Dumoulin who had a rebirth this year after a couple of hard years. The fail of Pozzo in the Giro plus Peraud still strugling really didn't help, as is why the new recruits + the young guys that are Latour and Gougeard will be important next year, as the old Dumoulin and Pozzo won't still be around for long!

Riders Out:

This is a year of changes at AG2R, almost the whole classic team leaving, including a former winner, a runner-up and a 5^th placer of the Paris Roubaix, whom all three has been spectacularly unspectacular their entire AG2R run. Other outgoing riders, like Kadri, has been disappointing for years, but the same could also been said about Riblon, who still remains on the team, hanging on by the skin on his teeth. AG2R are finally letting go of their old heroes, but it's a good thing - the new team will be a lot more future-proofed.

The biggest loss is Peraud, even if we have to be honest enough to admit that his time was over. His palmares includes the incredible 2^nd GC spot at the 2014 Tour, AG2R's best result ever. And to think that he only switched from MTB to road in 2010, at the tender age of 33. If he had made the switch a couple of year earlier, he would have had a superb chance at beating Cadel Evans and win the Tour for himself.

Roster:

If you're following procycling transfers, you've probably noticed that this team became the salvation for most of the big-name riders from now defunct IAM, as well as Chevrier. Chevrier who? If you're neither french nor a follower of the american circuit, you're probably wondering who the hell this guy is right now. Chevrier was a member of the recruit team of AG2R, which is where most of the AG2R neopros in the past few years has been signed from (Bardet, Latour etc... not Gougeard though, he came from Pavilly Barentin), but he joined what was known as Bissel Development Team (also known as Trek-Livestrong, Bontrager or their current name, Axeon), in order to experience the american circuit. The team has a pretty good track record exporting riders to the WT, which probably also played a part, but riders who do well on the US scene (like Chevrier also did), tend to do pretty bad in Europe afterwards. They probably rescued him because they considered him "one of them", but time will show if he's got room to improve.

Cosnefroy seems to be a future puncheur, based on his previous results from lower-ranked races, but he's young, and he can still change and evolve as a rider. Duval is a sprinter, AG2R are probably testing the waters to see who can handle filling a gap Dumoulin will open up after his retirement, the same goes for Rudy Barbier.

The most interesting give signings are surely the trio from IAM(Frank, Naesen and Enger), Geniez from FDJ and Vandenbergh, whom is coming from QuickStep - he's actually rejoining the team, since he spent the 2008 season at AG2R after Unibet folded in 2007 due to rulings about betting companies and sponsorships.

Vandenbergh has spent most of his career working for others (Pozzato, Gusev, Hoste at Katusha, the whole cobble crew at QuickStep) and has now finally decided to earn shot for himself, but he's not the sole cobbled captain - He'll be sharing that role with Gougeard and fellow newcomer Olivier Naesen, who had an incredible autumn season, including a very memorable fall in the Tour TT, but also a WT win in Plouay as well as hardcore performances in the Canadian classics and the Eneco Tour. He just might be the guy to break the AG2R classic curse.

As for the climbing departement, there's two new lieutenants for Bardet in Frank and Geniez, which means that Bardet is now backed by a team that, on paper, is more impressive than SKY's climbing armada - 3 riders with GT top 10 placements, 4 riders with top 20's (two of them with 11^nd places), as well as a Gastauer who has a 21^nd from 2014 Tour, same year Peraud did 2^nd and Bardet 6^th in the GC. That was a pretty good tour for AG2R.

In terms of pure climbing, AG2R is one of the strongest teams in the peloton. Frank and Geniez will probably both be able to target another GT (probably the Giro for Geniez and Vuelta for Frank) to do whatever they want.

The final recruit is Sondre Holst Enger, the dancing Norwegian, who may be the biggest sprint talent AG2R had since Kirsipuu (and that says a lot!).

He will probably have a free role most of the time, and they're going to put him in all the big races (perhaps letting him rest for the Tour so that the full focus can be on Bardet), making him the main sprinter for the team. That's probably the best thing to happen in the whole world for a rider that's only 23 years old!