The traditional French season opening races GP de la Marseillaise (February 1) and the stage race Etoile de Bessèges (February 2-6) will count on the participation of 18 teams, half of which are French: Crédit Agricole, Bouygues Télécom, Bretagne-Jean Floc'h, La Française des Jeux, RAGT Semences, Ag2r Prévoyance, Cofidis, Auber 93 and Agritubel.
Making up the nine foreign squads are: Davitamon-Lottto, Landbouwkrediet-Colnago, Miche, MrBookmaker.com-SportsTech, Team CSC, Chocolade Jacques-T Interim, Flanders, Jartazi-Revor and Team LPR. The most prominent riders competing in the two events are: Jaan Kirsipuu, Brad McGee, Tom Steels, Peter Van Petegem, Christophe Moreau, Laurent Brochard, Sandy Casar, Thomas Lövkvist, Franck Vandenbroucke, Bobby Julich, Jens Voigt, Sylvain Chavanel, Cédric Vasseur, Pavel Tonkov and Dimitri Konyshev.
The GP de la Marseillaise will be held over 128 km from Six Fours-les-Plages to Gardanne. On the next day, the 35th edition of Etoile de Bessèges will start in Marseilles and finish in Bessèges four days later. The race course is as follows:
February 2: Marseille-Marseille (126 km)
February 3: Nîmes-St-Ambroux (149 km)
February 4: Branoux-les-Taillades-La Grande Combe (143 km)
February 5: Allègre les Fumades-Allègre les Fumades (152 Km)
February 6: Gagnières-Bessèges (148 km)
Courtesy of velomania.net
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