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Pinot was one of five names confirmed by manager Marc Madiot, with the last three riders to be announced close to the start of the Tour on July 1.
David Gaudu, who finished fourth overall last year, will lead the team’s general classification bid once again, and will have Valentin Madouas, Kevin Geniets and Stefan Kung in his corner alongside Pinot.
This year marks Pinot’s 10th and final appearance at the French Grand Tour and the 33-year-old is hoping to crown his final season in the professional peloton with a stage win.
“Our team will be focusing on the mountains,” Madiot said in a statement from Groupama-FDJ.
“The objective is, of course, the general classification with David Gaudu. We’ll also allow ourselves to go on the offensive with Thibaut Pinot, Valentin Madouas and Stefan Kung.”
Demare, meanwhile, will not travel with the team to his homeland – his potential inclusion recently opposed by Gaudu after an online chatroom conversation was leaked.
“He knows I don’t want him at the Tour, I’ve already told him,” Gaudu said in January before apologising on social media.
According to L’Equipe, Madiot informed Demare of his omission last Thursday during a conversation that also signalled the end of his time with the French team beyond this season.
It was an exchange that left the French champion “angry and disheartened” after spending so much of his time training for the famous stage race.
“At the Boucles de la Mayenne, [Madiot] announced that it was the end with the Groupama,” Demare said.
“Not in so many words, but I understood that it was all over. He told me: ‘We can’t keep you’. And that’s it.”
“I’m angry and disheartened because I worked for this, and I made concessions this winter knowing that I would only have one teammate with me for the sprints,” he added.
“It wasn’t a contest between Thibaut and me for a place. The three of us [with Gaudu] could have done a good job together.”
The decision to omit Demare, a two-time stage winner at the Tour, was a “difficult selection to make”, according to Madiot, and the Groupama-FDJ boss took full responsibility for its aftermath.
“I have affinities with the riders, but the interests of the team have to come first,” he said. “It’s a sporting choice.
“I’m here to decide which team I think is the most competitive. There are strengths and weaknesses. I take responsibility for those choices.”
