French team targeting stage wins in the sprints and mountains
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Arnaud Démare in the points jersey after stage 4 of the Critérium du Dauphiné(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Thibaut Pinot on the Giro d'Italia's stage 20 podium(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Arthur Vichot in the leader's jersey(Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)
Davide Cimolai (FDJ) on the Volta Catalunya podium after winning stage 1
Ignatas Konovalovas (FDJ) celebrates his stage win
FDJ has confirmed its 2017 Tour de France squad with recently crowned French champion Arnaud Démare leading the line. Démare has been allocated the majority of the nine-man team in his bid for a debut Tour stage.
After his fourth place overall and a stage win at the Giro d'Italia, Thibaut Pinot is likely to focus on stage wins at the Tour, and forgo his general classification ambitions. Pinot has won two previous stages of the Tour de France and will be aiming for his first win on French soil in 2017 in July.
With eight wins to his name already in 2017, Démare is the inform French sprinter ahead of the Tour. The 25-year-old made his debut at the 2014 Tour with his best result of third place coming on stage three. He returned the next year with a fifth place on stage 21 his top result of that year.
With a sprint train fully dedicated to his cause, Démare will be aiming to claim his first Grand Tour stage win. In 2017, Démare enjoyed stage wins at the WorldTour stage races Paris-Nice and the Criterium du Dauphine and will start with the confidence of claiming the French title last Sunday.
Italian's Davide Cimolai and Jacopo Guarnieri were recruited during the off-season to bolster Démare's sprint train and both riders feature in FDJ's Tour team. Ignatas Konovalovas, will enter the race the Lithuanian road race and time trial national champion, is another important rider for Démare. The trio are the only non-French riders on the squad.
Arthur Vichot will make his sixth straight Tour appearance while Mickaël Delage also lines out for the sixth time at the French Grand Tour. Rudy Molard will ride his first Tour with FDJ and third overall while Olivier Le Gac is the sole Tour debutant selected in the squad. The quartet is likely to play versatile roles over the three weeks of racing to ensure FDJ arrive in Paris with a stage win against its name.
FDJ for the 2017 Tour de France: Davide Cimolai (Ita), Mickaël Delage (Fra), Arnaud Démare (Fra), Ignatas Konovalovas (Lit), Jacopo Guarnieri (Ita), Olivier Le Gac (Fra), Rudy Molard (Fra), Thibaut Pinot (Fra),and Arthur Vichot (Fra).
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