Management

AG2R LA MONDIALE (ALM) - FRA

The Ag2r La Mondiale team is again part of the UCI WorldTour in 2012, as team manager Vincent Lavenu celebrates 20 years as a professional cycling team manager.

Lavenu has built his team on a base of quality and consistency, securing significant success year after year, while also giving his riders time to mature and realise their potential.

In 2011 John Gadret was the revelation of the Giro d’Italia, finishing third overall and winning a tough stage to Castelfidardo. Gadret is multi-talented and again rode a winter cyclo-cross season before returning to road racing. He is expected to again target the Giro d’Italia and especially the many mountain stages in the final week.

Nicolas Roche faces a difficult task to emulate his father but the determined Irishman believes he can be consistently successful in major stage races. He was hampered by crashes and injuries in 2011 and finished 26th overall in the Tour de France. However his best years are surely yet to come and he will form a solid partnership with Jean Christophe Peraud, who is suited to this year’s time trial heavy Tour de France route.

Rinaldo Nocentini has already shown he is back to the form that saw him lead the Tour de France for eight days in 2009. He finished fourth overall at a testing Tirreno-Adriatico and will peak for the hilly Ardennes classics. To further boost the team’s strength in depth for 2012, Lavenu secured the services of Amir Zargari of Iran, Italy’s Manuel Belletti, veteran French sprinter Jimmy Casper and Boris Shpilevski of Russia. Cornerstones of the team are again Frenchmen Christophe Riblon, Lloyd Mondory, Maxime Bouet and Swiss veteran Martin Elmiger.