AG2R La Mondiale head up the mountain for pre-season camp - Gallery

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Samuel Dumoulin picks up the speed (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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Those not skiing head out for a hike (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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Team manager Vincent Lavenu (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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Victorious (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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Oliver Naesen takes a tumble in the cross-country ski race (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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A fat-bike race to finish the relay competition (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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A chalet stop for coffee and vin chaud (Image credit: Patrick Fletcher)

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Strapping in (Image credit: Patrick Fletcher)

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The hikers strap themselves into their snow raquettes (Image credit: Patrick Fletcher)

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Romain Bardet gets ready to go (Image credit: Patrick Fletcher)

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Silvan Dillier leads the way (Image credit: Patrick Fletcher)

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Romain Bardet takes in the views (Image credit: Patrick Fletcher)

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Romain Bardet tackles the course from the opposite direction, much to the surprise of his teammates (Image credit: Patrick Fletcher)

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Romain Bardet out on the skis (Image credit: Patrick Fletcher)

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Alexis Vuillermoz rounds a bend at speed (Image credit: Patrick Fletcher)

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A beautiful day for a ski (Image credit: Patrick Fletcher)

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There were some very tentative descenders (Image credit: Patrick Fletcher)

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The race is on (Image credit: Patrick Fletcher)

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Down in the shooting gallery (Image credit: Patrick Fletcher)

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Tony Gallopin on the fat-bike (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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Down in the shooting position (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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One of the riders takes aim at the targets (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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New signing Jakko Hanninen (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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Directuer sportif Julien Jurdie (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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The fat-bikes were equipped with electric motors for the steeper sections (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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Silvan Dillier heads uphill (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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Romain Bardet shows off his well-honed technique (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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The AG2R riders challenged each other on the cross country skis (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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Gediminas Bagdonas on the skis (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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Romain Bardet crests one of the climbs (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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Benoit Cosnefroy on the fat-bike (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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The riders took to a rolling 3km course (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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New signing Larry Warbasse opts for snowhoes after crashing on the skis the previous day (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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Oliver Naesen's unorthadox skiing technique (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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Silvan Dillier on the skis (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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Stijn Vandenbergh on the luge (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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The second leg of the relay competition was a luge run (Image credit: Yves Perret/YPM)

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Training camps don't often come with this kind of scenery (Image credit: Patrick Fletcher)

The AG2R La Mondiale riders enjoyed a full range of winter sports as they hit the French Alps for a first get together ahead of the 2019 season.

Gallopin back on track in Vuelta a Espana after tumultuous mid-season

Warbasse signs with AG2R La Mondiale

AG2R La Mondiale reveal Eddy Merckx bike for 2019 season

Bardet to focus on Tour de France and skip Giro d'Italia

In a partnership with the Oisans regional tourism board, the end-of-November trip to Vaujany - near Alpe d'Huez - has now become customary for the French team. Although the serious training gets underway in the south of Spain next month, the first camp is a chance for preliminary plans to be put in place and for a range of team-building exercises away from the bike.

On Tuesday and again on Wednesday, the riders piled into a cable car to take the trip from the village of Vaujany at 1,250 metres up to L'Alpette at 2,050m. The main activity was cross-country skiing, and a three-kilometre course was traced out, with plenty of snow already on the mountain. Team leader Romain Bardet, a well-known fan of biathlon and friend of world and Olympic champion Martin Fourcade, was the star of the show, closely followed by Alexis Vuillermoz.

New signing Larry Warbasse, an American, was less at home, and crashed hard on his face coming down a descent on Tuesday, giving himself a black eye and a burst lip that required four stitches. On Wednesday he played it safe and strapped on snow raquettes for a less risky one-hour hike.

While Tuesday afternoon doubled as a media session - with those riders not doing interviews instead swimming, ice skating or in the gym - Wednesday was the main team-building day up the mountain. A multi-discipline relay competition was organised, seeing teams of riders first send a representative on a short ski lap, then tag in a teammate for a head-first downhill toboggan run, then another for five shots in a biathlon-style shooting range, and finally a last rider to do laps on a fat-bike depending on how many shots had been missed. While Oliver Naesen fell flat on his face, the victory was brought home by Tony Gallopin.

Click or swipe through the gallery above for a full range of photos from AG2R's first winter get-together.

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