Vincent Lavenu: «An exciting 2021 season»
«The AG2R CITROËN team had an impressive 2021 season, even though the nature of competition is to always want more.
We had some great successes, including stage victories in each of the Grand Tours with Andrea Vendrame in the Giro d'Italia, Ben O'Connor, who finished an impressive fourth overall in the Tour de France, and Clément Champoussin in the Vuelta a España. I also greatly appreciated Benoît Cosnefroy's success in the Bretagne Classic ahead of world champion Julian Alaphilippe, the emergence of Dorian Godon as a three-time winner and overall winner of the Coupe de France, and Geoffrey Bouchard's best climber's jersey in the Giro d'Italia.There is a significant twist in our very consistent season: we won the first race with Aurélien Paret Peintre at the Grand Prix La Marseillaise and the last with Stan de Wulf, a very promising young rider, at the Boucles de l'Aulne. We made a special effort in the classics and, even though we could have hoped for an even better result, Greg Van Avermaet's third place in the Tour of Flanders is a great source of satisfaction. We only missed out on a victory in a monument, which was one of our stated goals. In the end, we finished eighth in the world rankings, which is proof of our consistency at the highest level throughout the season. We are also ambitious for the 2022 season, with a very stable core of riders who will be able to rely on strong leaders and young talents who we hope will blossom. We are relying more and more on our training programme, with the U19 team feeding into the U23 team and the best players joining the professional squad. This is real recognition for the work done at all levels.»[/su_quote]
The figure
4
Four new recruits will join the AG2R CITROËN team in 2022. They are Felix Gall (Team DSM), Paul Lapeira (AG2R CITROËN Team U23), Valentin Paret Peintre (AG2R CITROËN Team U23) and Antoine Raugel (Conti Groupama FDJ).
The team will have 29 riders, nine of whom are from the training centre.
The information
Eighth in the UCI world rankings
The AG2R CITROËN team finished the 2021 season in eighth place in the UCI world rankings. It secured 12 victories.
• Grand Prix de la Marseillaise: Aurélien Paret-Peintre
• Giro d'Italia – Stage 12: Andrea Vendrame
• Tour of Finistère: Benoît Cosnefroy
• Route d'Occitanie – Stage 1: Andrea Vendrame
• Paris-Camembert: Dorian Godon
• Tour de France – Stage 9: Ben O'Connor
• Tour du Limousin – Stage 2: Dorian Godon
• Bretagne Classic: Benoît Cosnefroy
• Tour of the Jura: Benoît Cosnefroy
• Vuelta a Espana – Stage 20: Clément Champoussin
• Tour du Doubs: Dorian Godon
• Boucle de l’Aulne: Stan Dewulf
Also noteworthy are Clément Venturini's French cyclo-cross championship titles and Marc Sarreau's scratch race titles on the track, Dorian Godon's overall victory in the Coupe de France, as well as best young rider, Geoffrey Bouchard's best rider jersey in the Giro d'Italia, Greg Van Avermaet's third place in the Tour of Flanders and Benoît Cosnefroy's bronze medal in the European Championships road race. The AG2R CITROËN team won the overall team classification in the Coupe de France.
