Despite already being under contract with French team Ag2r-La Mondiale for next year, Irish champion Nicolas Roche (son of Tour, Giro and World Championships winner Stephen Roche) has, according to French sports paper l’Equipe, added a further year to take him to the end of 2010. Despite only achieving one victory in his first year with the team, 2009 was one of the 25-year-old’s most successful to date and included a second placed finish on stage 14 of the Tour de France between Colmar and Besançon and 23rd place overall in his first appearance at the race. He also finished inside the top ten in four other stages and finished sixth in the green jersey points classification.
As well as Roche, team manager Vincent Lavenue has also resigned veteran Frenchman Ludovic Turpin. Having spent his entire career with the Ag2r team, the 34-year-old had apparently expressed a desire to ride for a different team for 2010, but as he told French newspaper Ouest-France: “In the absence of a new contract, I am on the point of signing a new one-year-deal with Ag2r”.