Pierre Rolland will miss his Vital Concept-B&B Hotels team's training camp in Oliva after falling while training at home. The Frenchman fell face-first and temporarily lost consciousness, but said it would not affect his 2020 race program.

"I fell only 2 km from home and was able to inform my wife before I lost consciousness.

"It's going to take a few days for my wounds to heal, so I'll just have to make do with sessions with my home trainer and physical work at home.

Laurent will not travel with the team to Spain this week, but plans to start the season in late February.

"It pains me to miss the first team gathering of the 2020 season, but this setback will absolutely not change my program," Laurent said. 'Together with the team staff, we had planned to start later than last year, with the goal of reaching the peak of our season's form just once. Once we put on our race numbers for the first time, ideally at the end of February, we will have a long build-up to be in top shape for the summer races."

Laurent and Vital Concept are hoping to be used in the Tour de France in July. The French Pro Continental team missed an invitation to La Grand Boucle in its first two seasons of existence, despite signing Brian Coquard in 2018 and adding Laurent in 2019.

Vital Concept has not been among ASO's four wildcard invitees in the last two Tours, leaving race organizers with only two invitation slots at their disposal in 2020. two of the four 2019 wildcards have already automatically qualified for next year's Tour secured. Cofidis has been promoted to the World Tour, and Total Direct Energie has earned an automatic berth as the highest ranked Pro Continental team for 2019.

Arkea Samsic, which added Nairo Quintana and Nasser Bouhanni to a roster that already includes Warren Barguil, is expected to earn a Tour invitation, while Vital Concept and Wanty Group Gobert are among the teams competing for the other slot.