Usually decided after the French championship, the FDJ line-up for the Tour de France has been revealed in advance with Thibaut Pinot unsurprisingly leading the group of nine riders after he completed the race in third place overall last year.
His teammates for the 102nd Grande Boucle will be Sébastien Chavanel, William Bonnet, Matthieu Ladagnous, Arnaud Démare, Steve Morabito, Alexandre Geniez, Jérémy Roy and Benoît Vaugrenard.
"Some years we have good reasons for waiting for the French championship, other years we don't and that's the case now," team manager Marc Madiot told Cyclingnews. "In any case, the remaining nine riders have to be part of the 13 names written on the entry form. By regulation, it's not enough to be the French champion to get a late start at the Tour."
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Therefore, the non-selected riders are Arthur Vichot, Anthony Roux, Mickaël Delage and Laurent Pichon. Arnold Jeannesson had already withdrawn from the potential starters' list during the Dauphiné due to a lack of form and motivation following the health troubles he encountered during spring.
Vaugrenard, 33, makes his comeback at the Tour for the first time since 2010, which is the last time the race started in the Netherlands (Rotterdam). A former French champion for individual time trial (in 2007), he's expected to play an important role in the team time trial held right on his home soil between Vannes and Plumelec in Brittany (stage 9). It's also an exercise in which Geniez, ninth overall at this year's Giro d'Italia, excels.
Vichot had raced the past four Tours de France for FDJ but he was the only one of the 44 French participants forced to pull out last year and his first half of the 2015 season has been hampered by a cytomegalovirus.
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