2014 turned out to be a breakthrough season for Ag2r-La Mondiale which established itself as one of the best teams in the world. Manager Vincent Lavenu takes stock of a fantastic year for his French squad.

The season 2014 will be remembered as one the best accomplished by the team Ag2r La Mondiale since its inception.

Obviously, the general public will especially remember the superb Tour de France but this season cannot be restricted to the Grande Boucle. With 17 victories, many top 5 results in World Tour races and very offensive racing, the team has demonstrated its ability to compete with the best world teams.

“The results 2014 of the Team Ag2r La Mondiale are obviously very good," manager Vincent Lavenus says. "We have started the season with a stage win in the Tour Méditerranéen [with Jean-Christope Peraad], then the overall Tour du Haut Var [with Carlos Betancur]. We continued with the victory of Carlos Betancur in Paris-Nice, a first in the team’s history. These results put us on the right track and this is very important in order to calmly deal with the rest of the season.

"The team has performed well in major stage races with good performances from Jean-Christophe Péraud in Tirreno-Adriatico and the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. We also shone in the Vuelta a Catalunya with Romain Bardet and Domenico Pozzovivo. The latter rose to the challenge in the Ardennes Classics and the Giro d’Italia in which we obtained great results with a 5th place overall and a victory in the overall teams standings. Don’t forget Alexis Gougeard who shone in the Coupe de France by winning the Classic Loire-Atlantique and the Boucles de l’Aulne.

"Of course, the high point of our season was the Tour de France with a stage win [with Blel Kadri], a second place overall [with Peraud] and the victory in the teams classification. We can say that it was unexpected results for us even if we took the start with great ambitions. We enjoyed intense moments in this Grande Boucle and we appreciated its true worth.

"Our second part of the season was a bit more complicated with many injured riders. We failed in the Vuelta in the absence of our designated leader, Domenico Pozzovivo. We slowed down but I prefer to remember our season in its entirety and I think we can be satisfied.”