The traditional French season opening races GP de la Marseillaise (February 1) and the stage race Etoile de Bessèges (February 2-6) will count on the participation of 18 teams, half of which are French: Crédit Agricole, Bouygues Télécom, Bretagne-Jean Floc'h, La Française des Jeux, RAGT Semences, Ag2r Prévoyance, Cofidis, Auber 93 and Agritubel.
Making up the nine foreign squads are: Davitamon-Lottto, Landbouwkrediet-Colnago, Miche, MrBookmaker.com-SportsTech, Team CSC, Chocolade Jacques-T Interim, Flanders, Jartazi-Revor and Team LPR. The most prominent riders competing in the two events are: Jaan Kirsipuu, Brad McGee, Tom Steels, Peter Van Petegem, Christophe Moreau, Laurent Brochard, Sandy Casar, Thomas Lövkvist, Franck Vandenbroucke, Bobby Julich, Jens Voigt, Sylvain Chavanel, Cédric Vasseur, Pavel Tonkov and Dimitri Konyshev.
