According to L'Equipe (open in new tab), Romain Bardet and Pierre Latour will both leave AG2R La Mondiale at the end of 2020.

The two French riders both have expiring contracts and have long been rumored to be moving on from the team where they spent their entire professional careers.

On Wednesday, L'Equipe magazine reported that the two riders were leaving and that a team led by Vincent Lavenu would be reinventing itself. They will continue to target the Grand Tours, but without the two leading riders.

Bardet is favored to move to Team Sunweb in 2021, and L'Equipe reinforced a report by Le Dauphiné Libéré (open in new tab) that Latour has already agreed to move to Total Direct Energie.

"I am not afraid of what might happen if one rider or another leaves. We are thinking about the future of the team. We have projects, we have big ambitions," Lavenu told L'Equipe.

However, there were also hints that the 29-year-old Bardet, a two-time Tour de France podium finisher and one of the most important figures in the team's history, might leave the team.

"He comes from a training center in Chambéry. We cannot claim to have 'made' Romain. It is he himself, his family, and his environment.

Both players' agents, Giorna Laukka, have yet to confirm their departure, but both told Cycling News last month that they are looking for offers from other teams.

As for Bardet, he said that he was still waiting for AG2R to come up with a "sports project" and that proper negotiations had not yet begun, but at that point the team had already agreed to new long-term contracts with Oliver Naessen and Benoit Kosnefrois.

"I am at a critical time in my career and have gained quite a bit of experience," he said.

"I am carefully considering what is best for me, with AG2R or with another team. I think it's natural to have these thoughts at this point in my career."

Bardet has been rumored to be moving to Team Sunweb. The team, led by Ivan Spekenbrink, needs a Grand Tour leader to replace Tom Dumoulin and the soon-to-retire Sam Omen.

Total Direct Energie director Jean-Rene Bernadeau recently hinted that he is also interested in Bardet, but it seems certain that he will take Latour next year, supporting Bardet at the 2018 Tour de France while finishing 11th overall. The 26-year-old Latour, who finished and won the white jersey, reportedly turned down an offer from Groupama-FDJ to join the French professional team.

AG2R solidified its cobbled and Ardennes Classics prospects with the addition of Nyssen and Kosnefrois, but with the departures of Bardet and Nyssen, the team is now without a true stage race leader.

"The goal is not to lose the leaders in the mountains and not to replace them," Lavenu said.