AG2R La Mondiale switch from Focus to Factor bikes from 2017

AG2R La Mondiale will be come the first WorldTour team to ride Factor Bikes with the French squad to switch from Focus Bikes at the end of the 2016 season.

Factor Bikes, co-owned by former Tour de France green jersey winner Baden Cooke, will provide three road models for the team - O2, ONE, ONE-S - along with its first time trial bike to be called the Factor Slick. 

"A partnership with a new brand of bicycles is always an adventure," AG2R La Mondiale general manager Vincent Lavenu said of the deal. "We approach this collaboration with great enthusiasm. We feel that with Factor we will be surrounded by highly motivated people, we are certain that the bikes that have been proposed as well as the technology and the skill set that will be put to our service, will allow our leaders to shine at the highest global level operating on very high quality bicycles. It's certain, we have beautiful things to build with Factor."

British Pro-Continental squad ONE Pro Cycling became the first team to ride Factor Bikes in the professional peloton this season but the deal with AG2R La Mondiale will see the bikes on the biggest stage of all, July's Tour de France.

For Cooke, the deal is an exciting one with the prospect of propelling Romain Bardet to the top step of the Tour podium a driving ambition.

"I am very proud that Factor will be entering the World Tour with a team as strong as AG2R La Mondiale," Cooke said. "We are highly motivated to continue to develop our machines with the feedback from the riders to stay ahead of the game. We hope that this partnership will help Romain Bardet become the first Frenchman to win the Tour de France since Bernard Hinault in 1985. AG2R La Mondiale have a very rounded team and we believe that they can not only be a Grand Tour winning team, but also a force to be reckoned with in the Classics."

Bardet finished second overall at the Tour de France this July while teammate Jean-Christophe Péraud was runner-up to Vincenzo Nibali at the 2014 edition of the French Grand Tour. The 26-year-old is looking forward to the change in bikes as he explained.

"I am very happy with this commitment with Factor, a dynamic and innovative brand of cycles. I hope that together we can develop the best products to evolve at the highest global level," said Bardet.

AG2R La Mondiale spent the last fours season racing on Focus Bikes having previously ridden on Kuota bikes.