2010 Bbox Bouygues Telecom season

The 2010 season for Bbox Bouygues Telecom began in January with La Tropicale Amissa Bongo and ended in October at the Japan Cup. It is the team's first season as a UCI Professional Continental team, after being relegated from UCI ProTour status after the 2009 season. The team had been part of the ProTour since the ProTour's inception in 2005. The team carries wildcard status in 2010, meaning they are eligible to be invited to any ProTour event should the organizers wish to include them.

The team's manager is former cyclist Jean-René Bernaudeau, who has led the team since its origination. The team nearly folded at the end of 2010, after a search for a title sponsor to replace the outgoing Bouygues group proved very difficult. Europcar came forward at the last moment to save the team.

Ages as of January 1, 2010.

The team opened their season in Africa, at La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, in the nation of Gabon. After first taking the overall lead in stage 3, Charteau backed it up with a stage win from a breakaway the next day, padding his lead. Gène and Bernaudeau finished in the top two positions in a mass sprint finish to stage 5 a day later. Charteau won the race overall the next day by finishing with the peloton in a stage conquered by a breakaway.

Bbox was one of 22 teams in the Giro d'Italia. They sent a squad headed by Voeckler and there with the express goal of trying for stage wins. The team was not competitive in the Giro's opening stages in the Netherlands. They did not have any riders contesting the sprint finishes to the first two road race stages, and their highest-placed man in the overall standings prior to the transfer to Italy was Bonnet in 40th place. Their fortunes changed little in the stage 4 team time trial, when they finished 17th.

In stage 5, Arashiro instigated the day's principal breakaway 25 km (16 mi) into the stage. He and two of the three riders who first broke away with him stayed away to the finish line, coming home 4 seconds ahead of a fast-charging peloton that had just mistimed the catch. Arashiro was last of the three in the sprint for the stage win, but received much praise for his combativity on the stage in starting the break and in his pacemaking, which helped them stay away. The next day's stage featured a depleted group sprint for the high stage placings available to the peloton after a two-man breakaway stayed away to the finish. Bonnet took sixth in this stage.

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