Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale 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. They've been sponsored by insurance company AG2R since 2000, and for 2024 have brought on board sports store Decathlon as their main title sponsor, as well as the brand's Van Rysel bikes and helmets.

The team has retained its French core throughout its 30-year history and has remained focused on winning the biggest races that France has to offer. The Tour de France has been the site of many of their major successes, with the team taking over 20 wins there so far.

The team has undergone some big changes in recent years, first in 2021 when Citroën and BMC came on as sponsors, boosting the team's budget and allowing them to sign Greg Van Avermaet, and now as they enter a new era with Decathlon.

Van Avermaet retired at the end of 2023, but the team still have some big stars in their ranks, from Grand Tour contender Ben O'Connor to puncheurs Benoît Cosnefroy and Victor Lafay, as well as a new sprinter in the form of Sam Bennett. 

Ben O'Connor

Felix Gall

Benoît Cosnefroy

Aurélien Paret-Peintre

Paul Lapeira

Dorian Godon

Andrea Vendrame

Oliver Naesen

Pierre Gautherat

Bruno Armirail

Clément Berthet

Victor Lafay

Valentin Paret-Peintre

Nicolas Prodhomme

Dries De Bondt

Sam Bennett

Bastien Tronchon

Alex Baudin

Sander De Pestel

Jordan Labrosse

Franck Bonnamour

Stan Dewulf

Damien Touzé

Nans Peters

Gianluca Pollefliet

Lawrence Warbasse

Valentin Retailleau

Edvald Boasson-Hagen

Jaakko Hänninen

Geoffrey Bouchard

Racing

News

Race News

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

The AG2R team will have a change of sponsor, name, and equipment in 2024, with Decathlon replacing Citroën as title sponsor, and the French sports retailer supplying bikes, helmets and glasses to the riders.

The French WorldTour team, known as AG2R Citroën Team for the past three years, will be named Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale from January. The riders will compete at the Tour de France and all other races on the calendar using Van Rysel bikes, Decathlon’s in-house bike brand.

The deal will last for an initial five years, running through to 2028. It is, in fact, the resurrection of a former partnership, with Decathlon sponsoring the team between 2000 and 2007, when the riders used Decathlon bikes - being the Penta range at that time.

“This is a new chapter in our history, with a lot of pride and emotion,” said long-standing team manager Vincent Lavenu at a special presentation in Lille. “This five years will take us to real success and objectives."

Decathlon’s CEO, Barbara Coppola, added: “It’s a partnership in every sense of the word.

“We will be with the riders on every step. We are co-creating, we are working hand in hand, on the bikes, helmets, glasses to meet their performance need at the highest level. These products will then be available to the public.”

AG2R Citroën and BMC to part ways after three-year partnership

The French team has been running since the early 1990s, starting out as Chazal before insurance firm AG2R La Mondiale arrived in 1998 to start one of the longest-running sponsorships in professional cycling. Decathlon was on board when the team was known as AG2R Prevoyance from 2000 to 2007 and, after a long period known simply as AG2R La Mondiale, Citroën joined as co-title sponsor from 2021 in a deal that was supposed to last through to 2025 but has now been cut short.

Coming in to the lead title sponsor slot is Decathlon, which was founded in 1976 and has grown in recent years to become the world’s largest sports retailer.

“Did you know, the first product Decathlon offered to the world was a bike – 37 years ago,” noted Coppola, claiming that they’ve become one of the top three bike designers and distributors globally.

“Bikes have played important role in the growth journey of Decathlon. There are millions of children who learn to ride their first bike with Decathlon, and millions of adults using Decathlon bikes for everyday commuting or to do sport.”

Coppola repeatedly outlined Decathlon’s mission to ‘democratise’ sport, and sees the AG2R partnership as an opportunity to expand its presence in the cycling market.

“Professional cycling is only becoming more and more popular with time, and cycling is also becoming a far bigger part of our lives and culture across the world. The timing is perfect and the match between us couldn’t be better.

“Decathlon is aiming at democratising sport, and therefore elevating cycling all over the world. The team will be a symbol.”

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

After unveiling the Decathlon partnership, the team unveiled their new colours and new faces for 2024.

The team had kept a silence surrounding all transfer activity, and used Monday’s announcement to reveal its new signings and full roster for the season ahead.

, the Irish sprinter who won the green jersey at the 2020 Tour de France but has had a disappointing couple of seasons on returning to 

. He has joined on a two-year contract, as has 

 who won a stage of this year’s Tour de France and courted interest from a number of teams, including Ineos Grenadiers.

Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale have also added all-round domestique 

 from French rivals Groupama-FDJ and former Belgian national champion 

 from Alpecin-Deceuninck. Two more Belgians are arriving in 25-year-old 

 from the Sport Vlaanderen Baloise team and the 21-year-old Omloop Het Nieuwsblad U23 winner 

, who has been poached from Lotto Dstny’s development set-up.

, they will have a 28-rider roster, made up of eight nationalities, in 2024.

The team leaders, along with Bennett in the sprints, will be 

, who will likely lead the line at the Tour de France, 

, who’ll target the hilly Classics along with Lafay, and 

 was a breakthrough climber in 2023 and should step up into a leadership role next year, while Aurélien Paret-Peintre and Geoffrey Bouchard are important members of the team.

The riders will wear a new kit that carries on the diagonal format of the Citroën days. The jersey is split into sky blue and white, cut diagonally across the chest, with Decathlon’s logo on the top and AG2R’s on the bottom.

The AG2R logo appears in the company’s trademark brown, although the days of brown shorts – which earned the team a fair bit of ridicule – are now a thing of the past, replaced by black.

Tech

Features

Tech Features

Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale will ride Van Rysel bikes in 2024

, soon to be Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale from January, will ride Van Rysel bikes for the 2024 season after announcing a five-year partnership with Decathlon. The team’s new bikes, the RCR Pro and XCR, will be specced with 

 is likely to be absent from the WorldTour peloton in 2024.

Van Rysel is the performance road cycling arm of Decathlon, which has stepped up as co-title sponsor of the team. The team and brand aren’t strangers, with Decathlon providing the team with bikes between 2000 and 2007. 

For Van Rysel, which was only founded in 2018, it will be the first time its bikes have been used in the WorldTour, and it will also provide helmets and sunglasses for the team.

The announcement comes after BMC recently confirmed that its three-year partnership with the French team had come to an end, meaning the Swiss brand’s bikes won’t be present at WorldTour level for the first time in over a decade.

"Van Rysel has a big ambition: to reach the global top five cycling brands," said the brand's director Nicolas Pierron, on Monday. To achieve that, we must have the best in class products. It’s not an option.

"Our engineers and designers place ultra-high standards to achieve ultra-performance. We are partnering with experts and professional riders, to arrive at the starting line with products ready to win. 

"We are very proud to see our bikes, helmets and glasses chosen by the AG2R La Mondiale teams, including the historic team of UCI World Tour. We are excited and looking forward to starting the season."

Founded in 2018, Van Rysel took over B’Twin as Decathlon’s premium road bike brand. Monday's presentation took place at the B'Twin factory in Lille, and the name Van Rysel in fact means 'From Lille' in Flemish, with Lille situated near the Belgian border in north east France. 

"This name is very important for us. It truly means something," said Pierron. "We have deep roots and we are proud of that."

The Van Rysel range of bikes has been bolstered throughout 2023, leading to plenty of rumours that Decathlon was preparing for a return to the pro ranks, something that has now been confirmed.

Let's take a closer look at the bikes and equipment Decathlon-AG2R will be riding in 2024.

2024 Men's WorldTour bikes: A guide to the bikes, groupsets, and tech of the top-tier teams

For road stages, the team will use the RCR Pro, an aero road bike designed in collaboration with ONERA, a French aerospace research laboratory. 

It’s no surprise that this partnership was focussed on aerodynamics, and the bike sports a modern and on-brand aero design, with dropped seatstays and a deep head tube. 

The integrated cockpit is the fruit of another partnership, with the Italian component company, Deda.

With Van Rysel choosing to follow the one-bike solution that's being adopted by many brands, the RCR Pro will be used in every type of stage, from flat days to forays into the mountains. This is an approach taken many brands, including Specialized, Colnago and Pinarello. 

For time trials the team will turn to another new bike in Van Rysel’s line-up, the XCR.

It has made appearances at exhibitions this year and for its design the brand turned to Swiss Side, whose over experience working on Formula One cars was filtered into the bike.

Again, the cockpit comes directly from Deda.

Both bikes will be paired with Shimano Dura-Ace components, which extends the Japanese brand’s numerical domination at WorldTour level, while ending Campagnolo’s stay.

The historic Italian brand has become less frequent in the WorldTour over recent seasons and, as of 2023, only AG2R Citroen used its components after UAE Team Emirates also made the switch to Shimano. Unless another team switches to the brand prior to the new season, it means that Campagnolo will be absent from the top level of both men’s and women’s cycling in 2024.

It’s not all change for the team, which will continue to use Swiss Side wheels. 

There is, however, an apparent change of tyres, with the new bikes fitted with Continental rubber, whereas the team were sponsored in 2023 by Pirelli. 

The partnership with Decathlon also covers helmets and glasses, which also come under the Van Rysel brand.

The team will have three different helmets at their disposal, the Van Rysel RCR, FCR and XCR.

While the XCR is the time trial helmet to go with the XCR TT bike, there are two options for road races. The RCR, which also follows the name of the other bike in the range, is a ventilated all-round helmet, while the FCR is a dedicated aero helmet with reduced vents for smoother airflow over the helmet.

All of the helmets are new and, according to Van Rysel, have been designed with safety as a priority.

"The speed of the peloton continues to break records and because road cycling is one of the only sports to be shared with motorists, our priority is safety," Van Rysel says. "We have set an even higher requirement than the CE standard, guaranteeing cyclists maximum protection."

Van Rysel has also developed a new line of glasses for the team, the PERF900. The standard model comes with rims but there's a second option, the PERF900 light, which does without them. 

The frames are paired with lenses from Zeiss, NXT, and Transitions.

Tech News

How much does bike technology really boost performance? - GCN Tech Show

It feels like the WorldTour peloton is still in the early throes of the 2024 season but it has already reached May and the half-way mark in the road calendar. It’s been a season characterised by trends on the bike, namely 

 winning everything, and trends off the bike, with the use of 

. It’s also been a season that has delivered plenty of success for 

, who have taken 12 wins so far this season - the fastest they’ve reached that tally since 2005.

That success has obviously been delivered by its talented riders but, as 

 Tech Show, it could also be driven by the team’s 

. When looking at the team, most of the key elements have remained the same, including many of the riders, but the bikes stand out as being the key difference.

Decathlon joined the team as title sponsors

, bringing its new high-end range of Van Rysel bikes with it. They’ve caused quite the stir in the world of racing and away from it, with the 

bikes selling out hours of going on pre-sale

. It’s perhaps not surprising considering the much more friendly price tag compared to other WorldTour bikes, with the top-of-the-range model with SRAM Red AXS selling for €8,500.

That lower cost doesn’t appear to have come to the detriment of performance, with the bikes performing admirably in tests, so are they helping to drive the team’s success? Check out what Alex and Ollie think in the video at the top of this page and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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

It’s been another busy week in the world of tech, with a new 

 Red groupset potentially breaking cover at the 

New SRAM Red on show at the Giro d’Italia

While there has been no official word yet, an unreleased version of SRAM’s top-tier Red AXS groupset has been in full show at the Giro d’Italia.

We won’t give away all the details here, but suffice to say there are some interesting developments across the groupset, with changes to the shifting levers and derailleurs. 

Check out a full breakdown of the changes we spotted at the Giro d’Italia.

Tadej Pogačar skinsuit divides opinions at Giro d’Italia

Having taken the race lead on stage 2, Tadej Pogačar took ownership of the maglia rosa. Except, in a move that has divided cycling, the UAE Team Emirates rider chose to wear a Castelli skinsuit on stage 3 that blended the usual pink on the top half with a granata on the bottom.

Featuring it in hot tech is controversial in itself, as it wasn’t to the liking of many. Including, as it turned out, the 

race’s commissaires who apparently threatened him with disqualification

 - not for crimes against fashion, but for breaking rules. The UCI has since dismissed such rumours and cleared the Slovenian to wear the mutli-coloured skinsuit in future stages, should he keep hold of the lead.

Tadej Pogačar cleared to use multi-coloured skinsuit at the Giro d’Italia

Forge+Bond bring recyclable rims to the road

Forge+Bond is a new company, only hitting the market in 2023, but it has already made a big impact through its carbon recyclable wheels. It previously only offered gravel and mountain bike wheelsets but has expanded the recycling capabilities to the road through the new CR wheels.

Like the other wheels in its line-up, they are created using FusionFiber technology which combines nylon and carbon fibre. When heated up, this takes on a liquid-like substance, hence why it is recyclable.

Forge+Bond brings FusionFiber technology to the tarmac through new CR all-road wheels

SLF Motion new oversized pulley wheels…kind of

Oversized pulley wheels are popular with many brands tapping into the market, including SLF Motion. The brand, which manufactures its products in the US, has done things a little differently though, developing slightly over-sized versions designed for sprinting.

They’re a lot less in your face compared to the giant wheels that are a regular sight on bikes, although the blue colour still helps them to stand out from the crowd.

Mountain bikers are seen as the cool kids of cycling, but it appears they’re now challenging their inner nerds by tapping into the world of aerodynamics. It’s previously been difficult to do so as the UCI has banned skinsuits in the sport - presumably to uphold its cool kid status - but Fox has come up with a solution through a two-piece aero jersey and bib shorts. Except, the bib shorts come all the way over the top of the shoulders and act like the top of the jersey.

If you want to see your bike critiqued by our presenters, don’t forget to submit images of it via 

Once submitted, your bike could earn a much coveted super nice vote, although it’ll need to meet our presenters’ high benchmark for presentation, like this Giant TCR Advanced.

For all the latest tech developments make sure to head over to

Are Decathlon Winning Because Of The New Van Rysel? | GCN Tech Show 333

Are Pro Handlebars Getting Higher For More Speed?

Narrow Handle Bars, Perfect Bike Saddles & Chain Wax | GCN Tech Clinic

Are Super Strong Cyclists Killing Racing? | GCN Show Ep. 591

Name	Age	UCI Career Wins	UCI Points
Ben O'Connor	28	11	1865
Felix Gall	26	4	1776
Benoît Cosnefroy	28	20	1540
Aurélien Paret-Peintre	28	4	1010
Paul Lapeira	23	5	816

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team

The Team

Top Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team Stories

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

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

How much does bike technology really boost performance? - GCN Tech Show

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