WorldTour ranking: 11/17
Win count: 23 (up from 17)
Top riders: Romain Bardet, Alexis Gougeard, Jan Bakelants, Alexis Vuillermoz, Domenico Pozzovivo
Coming off of the high of having a Jean-Christophe Peraud as the runner-up of the Tour de France in 2014 and Romain Bardet in the top 10, it would be a tall order for AG2R La Mondiale to improve upon that performance in 2015, but the French team put in a respectable effort. The one major black mark on their record this year was the EPO positive of Lloyd Mondory, who was quickly and emotionally denounced by his betrayed team manager Vincent Lavenu.
The early season was not terribly friendly to AG2R La Mondiale on the road, either. Although they scored some victories, it was clear that Peraud had come into the season half-baked and would face an uphill battle for the Tour. He managed to pull out a repeat victory in the Criterium International, but when it came to the Tour de France it was clear he was in no shape to repeat his second place ride from the previous season. He'd already been relegated to fetching bottles when he had a high-speed crash on stage 13, but he soldiered on through to Paris.
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Bardet's hopes for the general classification in the Tour de France were already somewhat dashed by the time the race hit its first major summit finish - he came into the stage with a four-minute deficit thanks to a poor opening time trial and missing the split in the crosswinds on stage 2 - but coming in 8:50 behind Chris Froome at La Pierre-Saint-Martin was the nail in the coffin.
The team's Tour fortunes turned around on stage 8, when Alexis Vuillermoz nabbed his first Grand Tour stage win by attacking the race favourites on the Mur-de-Bretagne and holding off Dan Martin.
Never one to give up, Bardet rallied in the high mountains, stomping over his favourite terrain with a vengeance. He entered into the day's breakaway on stage 12 but faded to third behind Joaquim Rodriguez. He seemed set to contest the stage victory in Mende, but a bit too much cat and mouse with rival Thibaut Pinot in the final climb allowed MTN-Qhubeka's Stephen Cummings to come across and outmanoeuvre them for the win. His day finally came on stage 18 to St-Jean-de-Maurienne, where he put his descending skills to good use to distance his breakaway companions on the drop from the Col du Glandon, then held off the chase of Pierre Rolland to claim his first Grand Tour stage victory. He wore the polka dot jersey for one stage but conceded that classification to Chris Froome.
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