AG2R Citroën Team

AG2R Citroën are the longest-running French team at the top tier of the sport and can trace their roots back to 1992 and the creation of the Chazal-Vanille et Mûre-Vetta squad by former pro Vincent Lavenu. Their title sponsor, insurance company AG2R, didn’t join until the turn of the millennium in 2000 but they’ve stuck with the team since, supporting them even as they’ve normalised the wearing of brown cycling shorts.

The team has retained its French core throughout its 30-year history and has remained focussed on winning the biggest races that France has to offer. The Tour de France has been the site of many of their major successes; since their inception they have won no fewer than 21 stages at the three-week race.

In 2021 the team underwent a number of big changes, bringing in Citroën as a new co-title sponsor, as well as a new bike supplier in BMC. Fresh sponsors boosted the team’s budget and allowed them to sign some big-name riders, including Greg Van Avermaet, Oliver Naesen and Ben O’Connor.

The latter has since gone on to become AG2R’s talisman and the rider that the team will most likely pin their hopes to in 2023. Big things will also be expected of the team’s talented Frenchmen, Benoît Cosnefroy, Marc Sarreau and new recruit Bastien Tronchon.

Ben O'Connor

Felix Gall

Benoît Cosnefroy

Aurélien Paret-Peintre

Paul Lapeira

Clément Venturini

Dorian Godon

Andrea Vendrame

Oliver Naesen

Pierre Gautherat

Clément Berthet

Valentin Paret-Peintre

Nicolas Prodhomme

Greg Van Avermaet

Bastien Tronchon

Alex Baudin

Marc Sarreau

Jordan Labrosse

Franck Bonnamour

Stan Dewulf

Damien Touzé

Nans Peters

Lawrence Warbasse

Mikaël Chérel

Valentin Retailleau

Lawrence Naesen

Michael Schär

Jaakko Hänninen

Geoffrey Bouchard

Antoine Raugel

Baptiste Veistroffer

Killian Verschuren

Joris Chaussinand

Racing

Interviews

Ben O’Connor aims to replicate last year’s Dauphiné heroics ahead of Tour de France

Ben O’Connor heading towards third overall at the 2022 Critérium du Dauphiné

Twelve months on from a stellar third place overall at the Critérium du Dauphiné, AG2R Citroën’s Ben O’Connor returns to the race this Sunday as he continues to build momentum towards the Tour de France. Last year O’Connor arrived at the Tour brimming with confidence but crashes and injuries robbed him of the opportunity to demonstrate his form and compete for a podium place. This time around, he’s determined to leave another positive mark on the Dauphiné before aiming at another Tour de France GC challenge. We caught up with the Australian to talk about form, motivation, and the Tour de France. 

GCN: You’re coming back to racing after a long break and with the Dauphiné coming up, and the Tour de France on the horizon, how’s the form building towards your next goals?

Ben O’Connor:

 It feels like I’ve progressed upwards in the last few weeks. The start of the year was pretty average. I was actually really good at Tour Down Under but from March onwards I was sick most of the time and I couldn’t really get myself working properly. It feels like I’ve fixed all that, and that I’m feeling healthy. I guess I’ll know by the stage 4 time trial as to how I’m going in the Dauphiné.



GCN: It’s another brutally tough edition of the race from ASO. Even the so-called flatter stages have 3,000m of climbing in them, and although a couple of stages might end in reduced bunch sprints, there are no easy days at the Dauphiné.

Ben O’Connor:

 It’s clearly a race for that ‘sp-limber’ style of rider - a combination of a rider who can sprint and climb. We might see stages contested by around 80 guys but not many of the best sprinters in the world will be there as there’s hardly any bunch kicks in the race. It’s like this every year at the Dauphiné, and I don’t really mind that.



GCN: What are you looking to get out of the next week of racing? Obviously you want the best result possible, but going into a bit more detail, what specific aims do you have?

Ben O’Connor: 

Look, I need to be good. After a slow start to the year, although the pressure isn’t on, I expect to perform. Whether that’s the podium, top five or top ten, as long as I’m competitive, that’s what counts. I want to have hope, enthusiasm and motivation going into the Tour de France, so that all guns are blazing. I’ve still got a few weeks after the Dauphiné before the Tour starts and watching Geraint Thomas over the last few weeks and months has been really, really interesting. Seeing a guy who is so goal oriented arrive in his best shape at a race that really matters was something that I can take a bit of inspiration from this year because it’s been a tougher start compared to last year.  



GCN: Racing is such a difficult balance for a GC rider, especially when you’re orientating your season around one massive goal. You can look at the last couple of years and see that it’s worked exceptionally well one year, like it did in 2021, but then the following year you’ve had crashes that have taken that opportunity away from you. It can be hard to rebuild at that moment. 

Ben O’Connor:

 Yes but in other ways you can build all the time. Last year I felt that I could be at the front in every race, while this year I’ve had hurdles and found myself four steps back at times. That leaves you playing catch-up but one month later it’s two steps down, and then the next month you’re back where you need to be. It’s why everyone goes through those ebbs and flows. There are some riders who can pull it together all the time but others might not. That’s all a bit philosophical but I’m just excited to be racing again because it’s been a while. I’m keen to put everything together and be competitive.

GCN: You mentioned the competitive angle. Is being competitive more important than the result in some ways? Is it more a case of demonstrating to yourself and the team around you that you’re on track for July rather than setting a target of first, second, third?

Ben O’Connor: 

The team has its objectives and they’d probably prefer a number but from style, aesthetics or my own personal goal, I just want to race. You can be conservative and smart, achieve fourth but do nothing. That would leave you disappointed because you’ve clearly had the form to try and do something. It doesn’t mean that everything will work out in your favour and you might not win but I guess I’d like to be aggressive, because that’s the point of racing.



GCN: You talked about the hurdles this season. Is a result needed from a morale perspective just to set you up for July?

Ben O’Connor:

 It definitely would help. It would make it feel like the hard work since the spring has all been worth it but there’s also a lot of races during the year, and it’s not like I have my whole career riding on one race. It’s not like that, but personally I do like performing. It makes you feel good but I’m also paid to do it. I’m paid to be a leader, and I’m paid to race well. If I was a barista and I was going to work and making average coffees despite being supplied with the best beans and coffee machine in the world I’d be letting people down. I just want to go out there and do my best.

GCN: How much is last year a motivating factor for you given that you were on the podium at the Dauphiné and it looked like you were on your way to having a great July until bad luck stopped you in your tracks?

Ben O’Connor:

 Some of the commentary from last year’s Dauphiné popped up on my phone this week and that brought back some great memories. Being on the podium was one of my best ever GC results and it felt great. It was a step forward in what I can achieve. Having those memories is great and it certainly gives me motivation to get back there again. In the last twelve months I’ve improved in how I’ve learned to deal with different hurdles, and in a racing sense I’m probably better at positioning and getting stuck in when it comes to gritty parts of racing and echelons. I’m not so worried about them anymore. I think that I’ve reached a point where I realised that confidence makes a real difference. If you’re keen and if you’re eager to be at the front, then when someone like Evenepoel, Vingegaard or Roglič does move then you can throw the whole kitchen sink at it. 



GCN: Last year at the Tour we saw that Vingegaard and Pogačar were head and shoulders ahead of the opposition. Did you watch the second half of the race and wonder where you’d have slotted in had you been there?

I actually didn’t watch a lot of the race once I went home. I watched a few bits and pieces like Hautacam and the Granon but that was it. I was pretty sad because I knew where I was in terms of my form. To be close enough to following Roglič and Vingegaard at the Dauphiné meant that I was there but that’s how Grand Tours work. I’m sure that Tao Geohegan Hart is sitting in the hospital or at home and feeling exactly the same since the Giro. He was flying but that’s one of elements to pro cycling that makes it super interesting but also incredibly tough and disappointing. Whether it’s chance or bad luck, who knows what it is, but the sport can be pretty painful. 



GCN: Back to this year’s Dauphiné, the last three days look brutal on paper. Do you think the stage finish on the Col de la Croix de Fer will be the most decisive? 

Ben O’Connor: 

I think so but I’ve also ridden a few of the climbs on the last stage and they’re pretty nasty too. The Col de la Croix de Fer stage is the one I’m really looking forward to but I’m also excited about getting stuck into the 31.1km time trial on stage 4. I’ve only done one TT this year and that was in the rain at Tirreno-Adriatico. That was a horrible experience, so it will be nice to get out there and improve in that discipline. It’s something that I enjoy and I’ll take a lot of pleasure if I can perform in the TT too.

GCN: Finally, is Vingegaard the rider to beat at the Dauphiné?

Ben O’Connor: 

So is Adam Yates. Saying Jonas is easy but we’re all there trying to fight for the win and it’s really hard to say who the favourite is because a lot of us haven’t raced for a long time. It’s hard to gauge but we’ll see by stage 4.

GCN+ will be showing live and on-demand coverage of all eight stages of this year’s Criterium du Dauphiné. Head over to GCN+ now to check the start times of each broadcast so that you don’t miss out on a moment of the action! As always, territory restrictions will apply.

Tech

Features

Tech Features

Tech throwback: Remembering the Decathlon pro bikes of the 2000s

Decathlon’s entry into the pro peloton in 2024

 generated a great deal of interest last week, as the sports retailer known for its budget-friendly bikes prepares to sponsor and supply a 

However, this is merely a return to the pro peloton, with Decathlon bikes having been ridden by two separate French teams in the early 2000s.

It was AG2R, in fact, who first used them in 2000, kicking off an eight-year spell in which Decathlon was a co-sponsor and later rolled out its Btwin brand. In 2003, AG2R were joined by French rivals 

 for two seasons, which saw a number of big wins across both squads.

The bikes of the noughties are a far cry from the new machines unveiled at the AG2R launch on Monday. Van Rysel, which was launched as Decathlon’s high-performance cycling brand in 2019, has recently developed a new range of race bikes, with Decathlon-AG2R set to use the RCR as the all-rounder road bike for all road stages, and the XCR time trial bike against the clock.

A closer look at the Van Rysel bikes Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale will ride in 2024

Wind the clock back nearly a quarter of a century, and the team saw in the new millennium aboard the Decathlon Replica Pro. This was an aluminium alloy bike, with 7003 series tubing from Dedaccia that had undergone Kinetic Energy Treatment. The frame was paired with a fork from Time that itself was a composite of carbon fibre and Vectran.

The bikes came fitted with Shimano’s Dura-Ace 7700 groupset, with a 9-speed cassette that looks tiny by today’s standards. The wheels were the Vector Pros from Rolf, and the clincher tyres came from Michelin. The stem and bar were from Deda, and the saddle from 

According to what we can gather from the depths of the internet, the bike as sold in stores – with a few component differences to the team-issue bike – retailed for in the region of 20,000 French Francs, which is around £2,500 pounds (before two decades of inflation).

Decathlon also produced a time trial version with adapted tube profiling and an extended aero seat tube, but it wasn’t the sort of radically different design seen nowadays. In any case, there wasn’t much time to devote to a TT bike, given there wasn’t even much time to get a pro-level road bike off the ground.

The deal with AG2R was struck in the summer of 1999 and the cycling engineers were given barely three months to design a bike from scratch and bring 20 or so of them to a team training camp in November.

“Never has the Mark Twain phrase – ‘They did not know it was impossible so they did it’ – been so apt,” recalls one of the engineers, Andrew Lorenzi, in an old Decathlon brochure.

After three days in “the war room”, long conversations with Dedaccia and another frame partner Carlesso, they had a first draft. They also developed the Decathlon Ergonomie Système from a fellow engineer’s university thesis, and made use of computer-aided design to hone their concept before production.

And so they rocked up to the training camp and handed one of the bikes over to the team’s star Jan Kirsipuu, who’d reportedly been scathing of the 1999 Time bikes. The Estonian took it around the block, handed it back, and simply said "good bike".

“We’d done it,” Lorenzi recalls. “We went from supermarket bike brand to top-level technical partner… in the space of three months.”

The bike made an instant impact, as Giles Maignan won the season-opening Tour Down Under, and AG2R went on to win 20 races that year, 13 coming from Kirsipuu, plus a Tour de France stage win from Christophe Angolutto. The following year, that rose to 25, with Kirsipuu’s own return rising to 17.

In 2002, Decathlon updated its flagship bike, which became the Penta Pro. There was no significant change to the frame, which remained painted in blue and yellow, but the components received an overhaul.

There was a switch from Shimano to Campagnolo and the Italian brand’s Record 10 groupset. More parts also came under Decathlon branding, notably the Penta wheels, which came from a collaboration with DT Swiss - a partnership that has been revived for 2024. Likewise, the bar and stem came in from ITM.

In 2003, Cofidis came along and hopped on the same bike, albeit with a different paint job that had more white and a touch of red. They also came with Campagnolo Record, and in addition used the Italian brand’s Bora wheelset, while the bar and stem was still ITM.

The team won 24 races that year, the pick of the bunch being David Millar’s victory in the stage 19 time trial at the Tour de France, on board the Crono version of the bike.

However, It would appear Millar wasn’t overly enthused, as he rode a debranded black British Cycling bike en route to the world title a couple of months later – a title that was later stripped due to doping violations.

A major update came along in 2004, as the Penta Pro went part-carbon. The main triangle was still alloy but the seat stays and chain stays were made using carbon fibre for the first time for Decathlon.

There was also greater flexibility in frame production, with Decathlon making efforts to tailor frames to riders’ profiles, with Kirsipuu at Paris-Roubaix choosing a heavier, stronger version of the standard frame on which he’d win a stage of the Tour that year. 

There was even an aesthetic change for that model, with more white on the frames for both AG2R and Cofidis, and prominent ‘Racing’ branding on the down tube.

Kirsipuu was one of two AG2R riders to triumph at the Tour, along with two from Cofidis, and so subsequent marketing for the Penta Pro touting this as a bike ‘designed to win four stages of the Tour de France’ as it was put on sale for €3,499.

The next major evolution in the Decathlon story came in 2006, as the brand burst onto the scene with a new name, a striking new design, and some very ostentatious carbon fibre.

This is when Btwin came along, which was launched as Decathlon’s standalone in-house bike brand. It has since been usurped by Van Rysel and, on the more budget end of the road bike market, Triban, but Btwin does live on, mainly in the form of kids bikes, while Decathlon’s cycling HQ in Lille, where the new Decathlon AG2R team was launched, is called the Btwin Village.

The first Btwin pro bike was the FC700, FC standing for full composite and the 700 for the T700-modulus carbon used. Decathlon and the team seemed keen to shout about joining the carbon party, with the frame first presented in a raw carbon weave that will either make your heart sing or make you wince.

They were making a statement with the frame design and shaping too. It was as if Decathlon were desperate to shake off their tag as ‘supermarket bike brand’ and twist it into something more cutting-edge. Gone were the modest rounded alloy tubes, replaced with hard-edges and a futuristic seatpost-toptube-seatstay junction.

This was the standout feature, with the toptube flowing into the stays and up into an extended almost-integrated seatpost in a bid to add support and a touch of compliance.

The claimed weight of the frame was 1.07kg in a size 55. The fork was still made by Time and the stem by ITM, but the Penta wheels were soon retired and switched out for Campagnolo, whose Record groups had steadily gained flashes of carbon of its own.

“From the blank sheet to finished product, having gone through all the testing, took us six months,” said Lorenzi, indicating once again that the switch to carbon was a race against time.

It didn’t take long for a new version of the bike to appear, as 2007 saw the gradual introduction of the FC900, which used a higher-modulus carbon that was lighter and stiffer.

There was no significant change in the frame design but there was a new fork, with a higher taper, which was made without the help of Time and brought in-house with Btwin FC branding. The carbon weave was also dialled back in favour of splashes of white paint, while Deda were welcomed back in for the bars and stem.

During these Btwin years, the team rode time trials on what looked much more like the old Penta line. 

The AG2R team had a steady stream of victories on their Btwin bikes, with Simon Gerrans getting his career off the ground in 2006 and Christophe Moreau winning the Dauphiné and French road race title in 2007.

However, that was to be the end of the road for Decathlon’s involvement in the pro peloton, or rather, the start of a 16-year pause. They did supply clothing under the Btwin brand to teams including FDJ, but as far as getting their performance road bike range off the ground, it was job done.

“The technical credibility the partnership brought was a real sales-booster,” said Lorenzi. “In fact, we didn’t have to sell them; they flew off the shelves all by themselves.”

Having identified cycling as a cornerstone of their global growth strategy, Decathlon will be hoping for more of the same in 2024 and beyond.

Sam Bennett: I’ve a chip on my shoulder with how my career has unfolded

Down but not out: Sam Bennett is looking to bounce back in 2024

 at the start of 2022 was supposed to shepherd in a period of success for the Irish sprinter with hopes of 

 stage wins and consistent victories after the team had built arguably the world’s best lead-out train around him.

Unfortunately for the German team and their Irish sprinter, even their best-laid plans were left shattered with injuries and inconsistency plaguing the rider’s spell on the squad.

At the end of this season, and at 33 years old, Bennett was deemed surplus to requirements at Bora, with the team deciding to develop their stage racing core and build their sprinting efforts around a younger, and more affordable option.

Bora-Hansgrohe confirm arrival of 'inspirational' Primož Roglič

’s gain with the French squad picking up Bennett on the transfer market and making him their marquee signing.

Results in 2024 will judge whether the move pays off but in this exclusive interview with 

, Bennett talks about his hunger and drive to regain his place as one of the best sprinters in the world.

The Irishman also discusses his ambitions, leaving Bora behind, and why he’s racing with a chip on his shoulder as he looks to prove the doubters wrong.

: How are your feelings after the whole team change and signing for Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale?

 I needed a fresh start and I needed a team where I’d get a good opportunity along with great support, and great bikes, and it’s all come together. Going to the presentation last week, and getting the vibe, it’s motivating. I’ve settled in quite quickly. I might need a bit more French but I’m excited.

Decathlon unveiled as new title sponsor and bike supplier of AG2R La Mondiale team

: What was it that attracted you to Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale? When you sat down and looked at your options, what was available and why did Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale stand out?

My contact was through their coach Stephen Barrett. He’s a fellow Irishman and I talked to him. He had a great vibe around him and that gave me a lot of confidence in him and what he was trying to achieve. I needed to be in a place where I had the best opportunity possible when it came to getting back to the Tour de France. I’m not getting any younger and I’m running out of time to do the Tour so I need to get back there and to try and win. I believe that I still have it in me but I just need a clear runway. I also talked to the bike manufacturer, and I know I’m on one of the best bikes in the world in Specialized but I talked to Van Rysel and I was really excited about their new project and where they wanted to take it. Everything just felt like a good fit.

: What were your options during the summer, when you were looking around? There were rumours of Human Powered Health and a couple of other squads interested. But what was the real lay of the land on the market?

 It’s hard because you have all these options but then when break it all down to opportunity, and wages, and money is a factor that you can’t ignore because you have to feed your family, but for everything to click into place there aren’t that many options. If that makes sense. There were some options, but there was one that really stood out, and in such a way that it made the others no longer look like options. And that was Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale. Because you’d talk to other teams, and I know it sounds stupid, but what they want and you want don’t always link up. Of course, I could have made many of those options work but Decathlon AG2R were just the best fit.

: What was it this year, or the past few years, that didn’t quite fit then because you went back to a team in Bora-Hansgrohe, where you had huge success in the past but it didn’t pan out?

 I don’t know. If I think about it, I have to go back to when I rejoined the team at the start of 2022. I went there thinking it would be the same as before but of course, it wasn’t. There were these little things that always got in the way, like the injury that I had at the beginning of 2022. I had the right injury at Quick-Step but then just before the 2023 season, I injured my left knee because I was overcompensating. Then I went to the UAE Tour without much training and for the whole first half of the season I was playing catch up. But you just can’t catch up like that. It doesn’t really happen. Then in the second half of the year, I didn’t show myself enough for the Tour de France, and at the time I was heartbroken but looking back I wasn’t good enough. I got myself together, was good at the Vuelta where I won a couple of stages, and then I ended the year with third in Paris-Tours. I was flying that day and had a bloody good day on the bike, but then I had a mixture of things go wrong. 

During the winter I fell in the airport trying to get a connection flight so my first sprint in racing or training didn’t happen until I was in Argentina in January. That put me on the back foot, and I couldn’t catch up again. There was no rhythm. Then the Tour came around and I realised I had to be in a place where there was a bit more leeway. Bora is a fantastic team, with fantastic riders but if they’re going for GC a lot I have to look after myself. It just didn’t click the second time around with Bora, even though I really wanted it to and we all fought really hard for it to happen. I never gave up but it just didn’t happen. We just had to go our separate ways. 

: When did you sign with Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale?

It was quite late. I think it was the weekend that the story broke about Jumbo-Visma and Soudal Quick-Step potentially merging. I signed just before and I thought ‘thank god’ because there would have been some bloody good riders in the market. We started talking around July or August time. It’s a bit weird at the minute though because it’s like you’ve broken up with the missus but you’re still living in the same house. That's just sport though and I’m excited and happy with how things are going. There are no hard feelings between me and Bora, and I did my absolute best over the last two years. We just couldn’t get it to work, unfortunately.

: Because you’ve been away from the Tour de France for a few years, do you feel like you’ve got something to prove to people? I know it’s a bit of a cliché question, or do you think you’ve got nothing to prove because you’ve already had so much success?

 Just with how my career has unfolded. I was taken out when I was coming into what should have been my best years and I lost them. I have to prove to myself, and to others, that I still have it. I don’t want to be seen as one of those sprinters who left Quick-Step and couldn’t win anymore. I just know that’s not me. There’s still so much that I have to get out of my career and I’m not satisfied yet. Of course, if I retired I could look back at having a fantastic career but I’m not there yet. When it’s time to step away from the sport I need to be able to say to myself that I achieved all the things that I set out to do. I’m not ready for that yet, and even if I can’t accomplish everything I still want to be close.

To come back and win at the Tour… after four years away, that would be amazing. Has it really been that long?

: Since 2020, it’s been four years next summer.

That’s so long. That’s four years of missed opportunities. 

: True, but just remember how long Mark Cavendish went without winning a Tour de France stage and then he came back and won again

: Also true but think about the years where you were knocking on the door at the Tour and it didn’t quite happen for you. It takes time, sometimes.

 That took time, but to just to come back and give my best would be special. Just to come back and be competitive and win stages, I’d be so proud of that.

: I’d like to ask about your lead-out at Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale because I remember speaking to Ryan Mullen at Rouleur in 2019 and he was so excited about being part of this amazing lead-out train at Bora with you. It didn’t quite work out but I’m curious how strong your lead-out train will be next year and what factors will decide who helps you.

 It’s a tough one because I do believe that I can be competitive. In 2019 my target was to have one rider with me around 1km to go in sprints. That year I had 26 sprints, 23 podiums and 13 or 14 wins. That method worked. Then at Bora, I was quite privileged and had a full lead-out train. You have to be so strong for that though and in the last two years, the races are all won in the last 50m. The biggest regret that I have was that I wasn’t able to take advantage of that amazing opportunity. But I’m looking forward and I’ll have amazing opportunities with Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale. I think we’ll have Oliver Naesen with me and he’ll be great. There are some other guys but we’ll have to see who wants to do it, who is motivated and who has the potential. We’ll have a competitive team that will get me close enough to try and win.

: Was it ever an option to take one of your lead-out riders from Bora?

 I don’t think it was. They were some of my best mates, so settling in at the team might have been easier but by the time I was talking to the team budgets were already set and the roster was almost full. We did try but it wasn’t an option, but I still have faith and belief in those around me.

: Going back to you having a point to prove, does Bora also factor into that given that they went out quite early in the season and signed a younger up-and-coming sprinter for the future [in Sam Welsford]? No criticism of him, but he’s not won a Grand Tour stage yet and they’re building him for the future. Could you not have come back and been that rider for them?

 I know I could be that rider but the markets move differently. What the team wants and their ambitions are can change. I don’t want this to come out the wrong way, but you’re going to pay less for a sprinter who hasn’t yet won in a Grand Tour than a sprinter who has had that success. If the funds need to go to GC and the investment in your current sprinter hasn’t seen a good enough return then it’s a logical move. That’s sport, and I understand it. Of course, my ego doesn’t like it and I want to be the top rider who wins. But I was an investment and I wasn’t the best Sam Bennett that they were hoping for. Then you have a young guy who is smashing it early season, is hungry and motivated with a top lead-out. I understand it. Of course, I still want to beat them. 

: What does success look like for you in 2024?

 Ten wins and a Tour de France stage. My minimum target each year is ten wins and I’ve been short a few years now but that’s the aim. It would be lovely to come out early and win at a French race but I think I need a bit more time to get ready for the season. I need the big base before I can start racing because if I’m on the back foot it’s so hard to catch up.

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Name	Age	UCI Career Wins	UCI Points
Ben O'Connor	28	11	1865
Felix Gall	26	4	1776
Benoît Cosnefroy	28	21	1540
Aurélien Paret-Peintre	28	4	1010
Paul Lapeira	23	5	816

AG2R Citroën Team

AG2R Citroën Team

The Team

Top AG2R Citroën Team Stories

Ben O’Connor aims to replicate last year’s Dauphiné heroics ahead of Tour de France

Tech throwback: Remembering the Decathlon pro bikes of the 2000s

Sam Bennett: I’ve a chip on my shoulder with how my career has unfolded

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