The manager of French team AG2R Prévoyance, Vincent Lavenu, has announced his team's Tour de France line-up. The last remaining slot went to Sylvain Calzati, who already rode the Tour de Romandie and the Giro d’Italia. Sprinter Jean-Patrick Nazon will not participate in the Tour this year.
The squad will therefore include: Spaniards José Luis Arrieta, Mikel Astarloza and Francisco Mancebo, French Sylvain Calzati, Cyril Dessel, Samuel Dumoulin, Stéphane Goubert and Christophe Moreau, as well as Australian Simon Gerrans.
Another French team, La Française des Jeux, has published its list of riders for the upcoming Grand Tour. Sandy Casar, Carlos Da Cruz, Sebastien Joly, Christophe Mengin, Benoit Vaugrenard, Bernhard Eisel, Philippe Gilbert, Gustav Larsson and Thomas Lövkvist will be at the start of the Tour in Strasbourg in Saturday.
Bouygues Telecom has also announced the last two places on its team roster for the three-week event: Laurent Lefèvre and Matthieu Sprick. "We have decided to take the same team as last year," explained Jean-René Bernaudeau. "They are nine very self-confident fighters; everyone knows what he has to do. We will not aim at the General Classification, as all nine riders are equal in their capacity to join breakaways and to give us a chance to win on every stage. I expect my riders to be very cunning. They can win on every ground."
The nine riders selected are: Walter Bénéteau, Laurent Brochard, Pierrick Fédrigo, Anthony Geslin, Laurent Lefèvre, Jérôme Pineau, Didier Rous, Matthieu Sprick and Thomas Voeckler.
Finally, Crédit Agricole has also lifted the secret of who will be at the start for the green team: Thor Hushovd, Alexandre Botcharov, Pietro Caucchioli, Anthony Charteau, Jimmy Engoulvent, Patrice Halgand, Sébastien Hinault, Christophe Le Mevel and Julian Dean.
