It sounds like the stuff of Hollywood, but an actor is to be amongst the many sponsors involved in the ProTour in 2010.
Frenchman Francis Perrin will back the Ag2r la Mondiale team this year, and will appear with the riders at the official presentation of the squad at the end of this month in Paris.
Perrin is a 62 year old actor, scriptwriter and film director from the historic city of Versailles. He was made an Officier de la Légion d’honneur in 2007, receiving the highest decoration in France.
Perrin is also involved in the fight against autism. He uses his name and standing within French society to promote the ABA methodology of dealing with the condition.
Ag2r la Mondiale will have 28 riders in 2010, including Tour de France yellow jersey Rinaldo Nocentini, former Tour Down Under winner Martin Elmiger and promising young rider Nicolas Roche.
It will aim to improve on its 2009 win total of five victories; they were stages of the Tour of California (Nocentini), Tour de l’Ain (Ludovic Turpin) and the Route du Sud (Christophe Riblon and Nicolas Rousseau) plus the Irish road race championships with Roche.
It had been aiming for more wins, but the Tour performance salvaged its season. Nocentini held the maillot jaune for eight days, while Roche was second on stage 14 to Besançon.
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Ag2r la Mondiale for 2010:
Jose Luis Arrieta (15/06/1971)
Julien Berard (27/07/1987)
Guillaume Bonnafond (23/06/1987)
Maxime Bouet (03/12/1986)
Dimitri Champion (06/09/1983)
Cyril Dessel (29/11/1974)
Hubert Dupont (13/11/1980)
Alexander Efimkin (02/12/1981)
Vladimir Efimkin (02/12/1981)
Martin Elmiger (23/09/1978)
John Gadret (22/04/1979)
Ben Gastauer (14/12/1987)
Kristof Goddaert (21/12/1986)
Sébastien Hinault (11/02/1974)
Blel Kadri (03/09/1986)
Yuriy Krivtsov (07/02/1979)
David Le Lay (30/12/1979)
Julien Loubet (11/01/1985)
René Mandri (20/01/1984)
Lloyd Mondory (26/04/1982)
Rinaldo Nocentini (25/09/1977)
Anthony Ravard (28/09/1983)
Christophe Riblon (17/01/1981)
Nicolas Roche (03/07/1984)
Nicolas Rousseau (16/03/1983)
Gatis Smukulis (15/04/1987)
Ludovic Turpin (22/03/1975)
Tadej Valjavec (13/04/1977)