Cofidis announces eight riders for Tour de France

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Jerome Coppel, Dani Navarro and Rein Taaramae will headline Team Cofidis in the Tour de France. The Professional Continental team, which is riding the race on a wildcard invitation, announced its first eight riders for the Tour, which starts next week. The final rider will be named after the French National championships on Sunday.

Coppel, 26, rode the Tour for Saur-Sojasun, finishing 14th in 2011 and 21st in 2012. Navarro has spent much of his career supporting Alberto Contador and will now look for his own chances. He won the Tour of Murcia this spring. Taaramae has been with the team his entire career, since 2008, and will be looking for his first Tour stage win in his fourth start.

The trio will be supported by Egoitz Garcia, Christophe Le Mevel, Luis Angel Mate, Yoann Bagot, and Rudy Molard.  The latter two, both of whom rode the Vuelta a Espana in 2012, will be making their Tour debut.

“For Yoann and Rudy, this is a logical progression,” said team principal Yvon Sanquer. “Our role is also to help develop young French riders.”

Team Cofidis for the Tour de France: Yoann Bagot (FRA), Jerome Coppel (FRA) Egoitz Garcia (ESP), Christophe Le Mevel (FRA), Luis Angel Mate (ESP), Rudy Molard (FRA), Dani Navarro (ESP), Rein Taaramae (EST)

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