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With the reveal of the 2024 bikes for the crew that shall be generally known as Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale subsequent season, here’s a look again at what the French squad has raced since 2005.
– By Rob Arnold
Let’s take a stroll down reminiscence lane as we race in direction of the beginning of a brand new season of professional biking. Within the first of what’s going to be a collection about crew bikes, RIDE Media has compiled a set of motorcycle photos from through the years. With only some extra weeks with a automotive model as a co-title sponsor, AG2R Citröen Group will quickly be rebranded to Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Group.
One results of this modification of companions is a doozy of a hashtag that was spelled out in ALL-CAPS upon launch of the brand new title: #DECATHLONAG2RLAMONDIALETEAM – you GOT THAT!?
The excellent news, after all, is that predictive textual content means followers received’t need to spell out that 28-letter abstract every time they share some ideas on the crew that now consists of the inexperienced jersey winner from the 2020 Tour de France, Sam Bennett.
The Irishman is without doubt one of the additions for 2024 however different recruits for the brand new season embody Bruno Armirail (who wore the maglia rosa throughout this yr’s Giro d’Italia whereas racing with Groupama-FDJ), TDF stage winner Victor Lafay (from Cofidis), and Dries de Bondt (from Alpecin–Deceuninck).
Full Circle: Decathlon returns
Scroll right down to the underside of this web page and also you’ll discover a gallery of photos showcasing the vary of bikes and groupsets utilized by one of many long-standing groups within the professional peloton. (Word: lacking from the sequence are the bikes raced in 2008 and 2020 – BH and Merckx, respectively.)
Introduced with the most recent bikes on the prime you’ll see that the Van Rysel model is about to enter the WorldTour for the primary time. That is the home model of title sponsor Decathlon which has beforehand had robust hyperlinks with the crew (again to insurance coverage firm AG2R and numerous different co-sponsors) since 1998.
On the backside of the web page is the aluminium-framed, Campagnolo-equipped ‘Decathlon’ bike raced by Simon Gerrans in 2005.
Gerrans is the primary of a number of Australians who’ve lined up with the French crew when he joined Vincent Lavenu and his cohort initially of the 2005 season, the yr he made his TDF debut.
In 2024, Ben O’Connor stays one of many leaders of the crew and he admits {that a} bit of excellent fortune would serve him effectively if he’s to enhance on his stellar debut season with AG2R Citröen Group in 2021 when he completed fourth on GC in his first TDF look.
The opposite Australian hyperlink with the crew is promising 18-year-old Oscar Chamberlain from Canberra. {The teenager} received the world title within the junior time trial earlier this yr and completed second in Paris-Roubaix Juniors in April.
Chamberlain is a part of the event crew that shares the identical title because the WorldTour squad.
Goodbye Campagnolo, hey Shimano
For just a few years AG2R Citröen Group was one of many final of biking’s top-tier groups to race with Campagnolo groupsets. That partnership spanned the final 4 seasons (and was additionally a part of earlier sponsorship agreements) however there have additionally been dalliances with Shimano and SRAM previously.
In 2024 the Van Rysel bikes shall be spec’ed with Shimano Dura-Ace and so it’s goodbye to Campy, and hey to Di2.
There’s a wealth of different adjustments to the crew as the brand new season approaches however for now we’ll let the photographs inform the story. Scroll down the web page to match one season to the following. One factor quickly turns into apparent: bikes have modified loads since 2005… even when this crew has remained one of many stalwarts of the peloton all that point.
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