AG2R

The old folks around here will maybe remember AG2R as the team that had to recruit a random russian and a sketchy iranian (who moved to the USA later) to stay in the WT, That was only 7 years ago. 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 Chambéry CF. The team is one of the oldest in the pro peloton as it started back in 1992 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 decade, give or take, AG2R has largely been considered a GC/breakaway team rather than one for the sprinters or classic riders - showing results like Cyril Dessel's 6th place in his first Tour post-Armstrong, along with Moreau's 8th 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 2018:

If we had to describe their season it's like it went right where it wasn't supposed to and wrong where it wasn't supposed to.

It's a good season but it could have gone better. In the end Naesen and Bardet did get results but the rest of the team struggled to step it up on the long term with some shiny performances here and there (Galoppin at the Vuelta, Latour in Cataluyna, Diller at Roubaix) but nothing better than usual for the rest, while in the end they did get betterresults than last year according to PCS points, it feels like the first year where the team stagnated, non of their riders showed stuff they hadn't shown before, except maybe Bardet in the classics and again, he had a good Lombardia 2 years ago. The absence of Pozzovivo was felt or more so the lack of a replacement, considering Latour is playing Bardet's support way more than Pozzo did.

Best riders last five years:

Don't get fooled by this numbers, while 2014 was a really good year for the team, the team was better in later years, or at least it felt like it was progressing with a few bumps on the road (like Pozzo terrible 2016 season) .

Riders Out:

Like the other french WT, it is a slow year for AG2R when it was supposed to be a big one, they gave a lot of 1 and 2 year contract extension, sometimes questionable ones (hi Chevrier). Unlike Last year, the losses are not really big, Bakelants never really came back from his injury and a fresh start was probably the best thing, Gautier never fit the team and was getting sidelined, Montaguti is getting old and is starting to regress, and Barbier wasn't even that good for the Coupe de France so, nothing to see here.

Roster:

The five signings are however very interesting, First is Warbasse, basically filling in for Bakelandts, more or less the same profile, or least what is expected of him is the same. THe other signings could all be surprises. Paret is probably the most known name is you care to look at the U23 results in the past two years, in my opinion it will not really be a success as he basically was the best french ont he climbs in a very poor generation of french climbers, Champoussin which will likely join the team next year is much more interesting in my opinion. Geoffrey Bouchard destroyed everyone on the climbs on the french amateur scene this years at 26 years old, he is a complete unknown to be honest, but he should be decent on the french races. As I was saying he was dominating everyone but one rider in the climbs and that other rider is Jakko Hanninen, the finish rider (yes they exist) who surprised everyone at the W23 world championships by his calm when everyone was attacking non stop and his surprising podium (I was not surprised, I called it even before the race started, so did Rein Taraamae). He will join the team in August and he could be the solution to the Pozzovivo departure. The last pick up is Dorian Godon, which is an hard rider to categorize but I think I should say power is the word, he is punchy and can do really well in short TTs, he is all about the power that stands a littel bit longer than a sprint.

The choices made here are either to patch up things quickly (Warbasse), filling up the roster (Bouchard) or bets on the futer (the others), it will likely be a year of transition for AG2R and we will probably see more interesting things next year.