Frédéric Moncassin, the French national coach, has already made public which riders he will probably take to the World Championships in Madrid in October 21-25, 2005. Moncassin told L'Equipe the names of six riders who have already made it into his theoretical selection, with three others still to be added to total nine - the previous number of 12 men has been decreased to improve the chances of the emerging countries.
Built around sprinter Jean-Patrick Nazon (Ag2r) for the obvious reason of parcours flatness, the team will also include Jérôme Pineau (Bouygues Telecom), Christophe Le Mevel (Crédit Agricole), Anthony Geslin (Bouygues Telecom), Carlos Da Cruz (Française des Jeux) and Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis) if the national coach gets it his way. The three vacant spots will be decided on later, with Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux), Samuel Dumoulin (Ag2r), Thomas Voeckler, Pierrick Fedrigo, Laurent Brochard (all Bouygues Telecom), Cédric Vasseur (Cofidis) and Nicolas Jalabert (Phonak) being on the list to be decided on.
