Thibaut Pinot has been included in the Groupama-FDJ team for the Tour de France in his final season as a professional, but there is no place in the line-up for Arnaud Démare.
Manager Marc Madiot announced the first five names on his team sheet on Tuesday afternoon, when he also confirmed that sprinter Arnaud Démare would miss out on selection for the second successive year.
David Gaudu, fourth overall a year ago, will lead the team’s general classification challenge, while Pinot will make his tenth and final Tour appearance with the aim of chasing stage wins. Valentin Madouas, Kevin Geniets and Stefan Küng have also had their Tour selection confirmed, with the last three riders to be announced closer to the Grand Départ.
"Our team will be focusing on the mountains," Madiot said in a statement from Groupama-FDJ on Tuesday.
"The objective is, of course, the general classification with David Gaudu. We'll also allow ourselves to go on the offensive with Thibaut Pinot, Valentin Madouas and Stefan Küng."
Démare had been pencilled in for possible Tour selection since last winter, although Gaudu had voiced his opposition to the idea in an online chatroom conversation that was leaked into the public domain in January.
"He knows I don't want him at the Tour, I've already told him," Gaudu said before issuing an apology on social media.
Speaking to L’Équipe from the Tour de Suisse, Démare said that Madiot had informed him of his omission from the Tour squad last Thursday. The Frenchman also revealed that he would leave Groupama-FDJ when his contract expires at year's end, having been deemed surplus to requirements.
"This was the second hard blow," Démare said. "At the Boucles de la Mayenne, [Madiot] announced that it was the end with the Groupama. Not in so many words, but I understood that it was all over. He told me: 'We can't keep you.' And that's it."
Démare expressed frustration at missing out on the Tour after spending much of the season building towards the race, including self-funded training camps.
"I'm angry and disheartened because I worked for this, and I made concessions this winter knowing that I would only have one teammate with me for the sprints," said Démare.
"Normally, when they tell me I'm not doing the Tour, it's on December, and you don't speak of preparation. This time, I was on the Tour," he added. "My close ones had booked holidays around the Tour, my wife had reserved hotel rooms to come on the rest days. I don't know what I'm going to do [instead]. I don't know. I'll look at the results but I'm going to feel sick watching stages finish in sprints."
Démare is currently in action at the Tour de Suisse, where he placed second behind Biniam Girmay in the bunch sprint on stage 2. The 31-year-old has made five Tour appearances in his career, winning two stages.
"It was a difficult selection to make, especially the decision not to select Arnaud Démare. I can understand his disappointment," Madiot said. "I have affinities with the riders, but the interests of the team have to come first. It's a sporting choice. I'm here to decide which team I think is the most competitive. There are strengths and weaknesses. I take responsibility for those choices."
Démare, however, insisted that there was room for the team's big stars: Pinot, Gaudu, and himself.
"It wasn't a contest between Thibaut and me for a place. The three of us [with Gaudu] could have done a good job together. I think I had a place as a teammate.
"At Paris-Nice, I showed I was a great professional and a good teammate," he added, referring to how he supported Gaudu and led him out in sprints for bonus seconds.
"I knew and I understood that I wouldn't have four guys around me, that I was going to be an important teammate at certain moments and then, when the time came, I'd contest the sprints. I'm convinced we would have had some great results together."
Démare's interview in L'Equipe was tinged with sadness, above all given the confirmation he will leave Groupama-FDJ after spending 12 years - his whole career - there.
"I wanted to have the choice [to continue]. It was perhaps already a message last year when they took apart my lead-out train. I could feel there was less enthusiasm for sprinting but I thought that they'd give me the choice, that I mattered in their eyes.
"I was part of the foundation of the team. We did exceptional things together," he said. "We made sporting memories and life memories. It is my life. To sweep away 12 years like that..."
