Now, now the team previews start to get interesting. I am not sure there is a team that has done more significant overhaul this offseason to their roster than this AG2R team, and this change is fully symbolized with their big splash of most daring new kit of the season thus far. So let us playfully begin with the kit, for it is supposed to strum up some conversation. I am a big fan. This Citroen automobile sponsor is new, thus I like that the kit is significantly different this year—just like their roster. The kit still undeniably has the A2GR lineage with the dung-brown shorts that have somehow been allowed to endure for as long as I can remember, but the plain white top with only a hint of the light blue and brown diamond-argyle is perfectly accented, and the red Citroen is a welcome addition in my opinion. Then the diagonal-sashed lettering looks so different, flashy, and even cool in my opinion. I am excited to see this new-look team in action in a fitting new-look jersey.
When rumors began flying about the departure of Romain Bardet to Team DSM, many saw it as quite the head scratcher. For Frenchman Bardet had been the heart and soul of the French AG2R team for some six or seven years, one of the best chances the whole French nation had of winning the Tour in this century. To hear that Pierre Latour—who many figured AG2R was grooming to be Bardet’s successor—was leaving the team as well was also a head scratcher for many. For many, but not for all; not for me, because quite frankly I have never paid much attention to AG2R. For me they have always been one of those old guard French teams with a below average budget and below average results. Always grooming and massaging the next big French hope and to their credit they did put Bardet on the Tour podium in Paris twice. But I have never seen any successful follow through at all to crack into or topple the dominance of many top teams. The closest they came was with Bardet and I think those Tour podiums are the best GC results he’ll ever get. Meanwhile on the Classics front they went all-in when they signed Oliver Naesan a couple years ago to give him leadership in the Spring one-day classics and then bodyguard Bardet at the Tour. I found this to be a good idea, because Naesan has been the talented Belgian knocking on the door of a big Classics win for a couple years now….but then a couple years stretched into too many years. Which brings us to this 2021 season where for the first time ever, I am excited and interested in the AG2R lineup; dare I say it: this squad has such a good-looking roster I now actually put expectations on them!
Whether it was Bardet’s and Latour’s idea to leave or whether it was the AG2R’s decision to go in a new direction is unclear, but the results are the same: AG2R is clearly denotating any serious GC ambitions and I love it. Seemingly overnight they have retooled to become on paper a top Classics team. No longer will all the pressure be on Oliver Naesan to deliver a big result, AG2R made the big splash of signing over Greg Van Avermaet from the now defunct CCC Team and Bob Jungels from powerhouse Deceuninck-Quickstep. For three or four years now, Naesan has had the weight of the AG2R team on his back for every single race that takes place in Belgium. This was problematic, not because Naesan is bad at handling pressure, it was simply a bad strategy for the one-day Classics. The Cobbled Classics are the most chaotic races in an extremely chaotic sport. To say the Cobbled Classics are chess on wheels is an understatement, it chess on wheels where the board is constantly shaking and some of the pieces randomly fall of the board and cannot be used. Why has Decuninck-Quickstep been the most dominant Classics team? Because they have the most options, for every classic they bring three or four powerful “Queens” to continue the chess analogy. If they lose one of their Queens to a crash or mechanical or bad day, they can take the hit—in fact sometimes two or even three of their Queens work together in deadly coordination to get one of their riders up the road to take victory solo all alone. Meanwhile AG2R for the past couple years has had only one Queen in Naesan. In the races where he did not crash out or have an untimely mechanical that cost him his race, Naesan’s simply been marked by teams with multiple Queens or multiple cards to play and then missed the winning move or lost the sprint to a stronger rider. All of that is now changed.
I think the signing of Greg Avermaet shall prove to be a masterstroke for AG2R. The 2016 Rio Olympic champion, the man who has won all the Cobbled Classics except the one he wants most, could prove invaluable this season even if he continues to not achieve any major results. In the Spring of 2017, Van Ave was clearly team BMC’s only Queen but he still managed to win Omloop Het Nieuwsbald, E3 Harelbeke, Gent-Wevelgem, and Paris-Roubaix. These are all the biggest Cobbled Classics, besides Tour of Flanders which he took 2nd in that year; and there was a high probability he would have won that one too if he wasn’t involved in that Sagan crash where the fan’s coat snagged around his handlebars. To look back, that season sounds unreal, especially since then: he has looked good, looked strong, but his results have been undeniably meager. At BMC he had a decently strong support team, even though he was the undisputed leader. At CCC Team he had no support and he was a couple of years older and could never reconjure that 2017 form. With CCC’s folding, besides going to Quickstep, this is really the best opportunity I see for Van Avermaet—especially to achieve results all year long. Now he gets to team up with one of his training partners and friends in Oliver Naesan, and here is the other advantage to having multiple Queens: the Queens strengthen each other. So though Van Ave is now 35, this could prove a rejuvenating move for both him and Naesan. Neither is any longer the only leader of their team that the other favorites must always relatively easily mark. When teams chase down an attacking Naesan, after they spend their energy catching him, Van Ave can launch an attack himself. Once he is brought back Naesan can try again….or perhaps one of AG2R’s other new signings.
I was surprised to see Bob Jungels leave the successful Deceuninck-Quickstep team for AG2R, but when the Van Avermaet transfer news came out too it all made sense and greatly excited me. The Luxembourger has proven to be a great talent: winning uncountable national titles on the Road and in the Time Trial, placing Top Ten on Grand Tour General Classifications, winning Monuments and Classics like Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne; he is a complete package. His biggest problem honestly is to become a jack of all traders and master of none. Thus I was happy to see him seem to drop Grand Tour GC ambitions. Talented he, O, so is, but will he ever win one of the Grand Tours? Or place on their final podium? I think not, at best I could see him placing Top Five, but at that point surely it is more exciting and fun to throw all your energy behind winning instead of only placing well. This is cycling, not Track & Field, second place in a photo finish is still lightyears behind throwing up your arms in victory. Jungels is also not a young wolf anymore. At 28 he is in the prime of life, and coming from Quickstep perhaps he will help facilitate a team culture of three Queens always ready to share and coordinate their shots at victory.
I like the look of the rest of the team as well, even if I not familiar with half the faces to be brutally honest. Bringing in Lilian Calmejane from Total Direct Energie is a good addition in my eyes: from memory the year he took his Tour stage win he was electric in the lead up and that was the crown jewel of the season, but he has been underwhelming ever since. Just like Van Avermaet, I think this move for Calmejane could prove extremely rejuvenating. Surely at this point we must consider Tony Gallopin and Mathias Frank the team veterans. I fondly remember Gallopin’s 2014 Tour stage win and Frank’s 2016 Vuelta breakaway heroics but those events seem so long ago, truly they are past their primes and we cannot expect much more from them. But I see the team has signed over the young Australian Ben O’Connor, he’s a talent for the Grand Tours—stage and GC wise. Nans Peters’ Giro and Tour stage wins were both impressive and he is only now coming into what should be his peak years. I have always had a soft spot for American Larry Warbasse though he does not have many results to his name and usually proves a better helper than winner. And then this year I remember watching Benoit Cosnefroy be the place holder of the Polka-Dot Jersey at the Tour for two weeks and quite frankly I was unimpressed; but at the end of the season, he grew on me: 2nd at Fleche Wallone and 3rd at Brabantse Pijl were undeniably impressive especially when you notice the company that he finished with: Marc Hirschi (Team DSM), Mathieu Van der Poel (Aplecin-Fenix), and Julian Alpahillipe (Deceuninck-Quickstep). Then AG2R fills out the rest of their team with mostly young French talent. I daresay they have potentially found the prefect and Right balance of star-firepower and regional identity.
Yes, I think AG2R has made some interesting moves that I shall be shocked if they do not prove to be successful. As I said, I like the cut of this team’s gib so much, I would say there should be pressure and expectation on them. Unless Matheiu Van der Poel and Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) are riding in an altogether higher stratosphere and just go on to dominate all the Spring Classics from Omloop to Liege, I would expect this team to win a Monument or at least two major Classics—as in they should cast down their heads in disappointment if they don’t achieve that goal. Additionally, I expect this team to be more than just cannon fodder in the Grand Tours or working for a Dark Horse leader who needs everything to go off perfectly to maybe finish on the podium. This team should go to the Tour de France with an All-Star team of Stage Hunters: bring your top Classics Queens or Aces in addition to climbing talents like Cosnefroy and Peters. They should be taking their shots everyday in high mountains breakaways and in late-escapes on every transition day that has any sort of lump in the profile within the last 30 kilometers. In addition to that, allow O’Connor and even occasionally Jungels, if he wants, to ride GC with no pressure in all the big weeklong stage races and even the Grand Tours. As I said, this is truly the first time I am excited for AG2R and it is because they finally have options—options they should be firing off like a shotgun. I expect them to land a fair number of their shots and I dare dream it should prove greatly entertaining in the process.
Cycling Odysseys 