John Gadret to ride Tour de France

The AG2R-La Mondiale team has confirmed that John Gadret will ride the Tour de France despite having completed the Giro d'Italia, where he won a stage and finished fourth overall.

"Gadret will be at the start aiming to support Nicolas Roche and Jean-Christophe Péraud. He will also have a chance to play his own hand on certain mountain stages," the team's communiqué said.

Gadret clashed with team leader Nicolas Roche during last year's Tour de France when he refused to give his wheel to the Irishman during stage 15.

Roche criticised Gadret in the Irish Independent newspaper, admitting he felt like putting his window through the window of the team bus. However team manager Vincent Lavenu recently insisted the problems between the two were now in the past. Gadret and former mountain biker John-Christophe Péraud are expected to be important domestiques for Roche this year, as he targets a top ten overall in the Tour.

With team leader Roche and Péraud already officially named in the AG2R-La Mondiale Tour squad, Lavenu has three excellent climbers on hand for an especially mountainous Tour de France. He will have to pick another six riders from the following long list in the coming days: Christophe Riblon, Maxime Bouet, Sebastien Hinault, Mathieu Perget, Hubert Dupont, Anthony Ravard, Lloyd Mondory and Cyril Dessel. Blel Kadri is also hoped to recover from his calf muscle injury in time for the event.