TOUR DE FRANCE

The 2026 Men’s Tour Delivers an Alpe D’Huez Double Finale, and an Innovative Team Time Trial

BY WHIT YOST — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 15:24:34 +0000

The routes of the 2026 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift were announced in late October in Paris, and I can barely contain my excitement. The overall route looks well balanced: the first week features tons of action-packed stages (including an innovative Team Time Trial format), the second week gives the sprinters a chance, while allowing the GC riders to recharge ahead of a jam-packed week full of mountains.

“The Tour’s organisers have given us a race that lets Pogačar do his “dominance thing” while still giving other riders a chance.”

The 2026 Tour de France begins in Barcelona with the Tour’s first team time trial since 2019. While traditional TTTs can be viewed as unfair to teams with smaller budgets, I’m actually excited to see this one because it features two climbs in the final quarter of the stage and will be the first Tour de France TTT to give each rider their own individual time. That means we’ll see some interesting tactical decisions unfold on the road as the contenders’ teams try to pace and then launch their leaders to gain as much time as possible by the end of the stage.

Stage 2 is a punchy road stage with eight categorised climbs, which means we could see Pogačar back in the yellow jersey by the end of the opening weekend. So we might as well talk about the elephant in the room. If you were hoping that the route of the 2026 Tour de France would make it hard for Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) to run away with his fifth Tour de France victory, you’re going to be disappointed.

To be fair to the organisers, I really don’t think there’s anything anyone can do about Pogačar. He’s just that good. In fact, he’s better than good: he’s legendary. Assuming he enters the Tour healthy and manages to avoid getting sick or injured once the race begins, there’s no reason–at this point–to expect him to lose. That’s the reality of the modern men’s peloton, which is why the 2026 Tour route doesn’t try to stop Pogačar and instead offers ample opportunities for everyone — including Pogačar — to do their thing.

Stage 3 brings the Tour into France via the Pyrenees. As expected, it ends in the Les Angles ski resort, but the climb to get to it isn’t as severe as the rumor sites led me to believe. That’s why I bet we’ll see whoever enters the day wearing the yellow jersey (probably Pogačar) give it away (or lose it on purpose) to a rider in the day’s main breakaway. It’s as if the course designers are saying, “We want to tempt Pogačar into taking the yellow jersey early in the Tour, but then make it easy for him to let someone else wear it for a while.”

Stage 5 looks to be the first opportunity for the sprinters, while the next big test for the climbers will come on Stage 6. It is the only stage that takes the Tour into the high Pyrenees, with ascents of the Col d’Aspin and the Col du Tourmalet before a new summit finish in Gavarnie-Gèdre that might tempt Tadej but is probably too easy to cause any real changes to the General Classification.

The sprinters should get two more chances in Bordeaux and Bergerac on Stages 7 and 8, and a breakaway should go the distance into Ussel on Stage 9. But I really can’t wait for Stage 10, which brings the Tour out of the first Rest Day with an exciting Bastille Day battle through the Massif Central with almost 4,000m of elevation gain and a jagged finale that looks a lot like the stage Pogačar narrowly lost to Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (the Slovenian’s primary challenger and himself a 2-time Tour champion) in 2024. The race even finishes in the same place: the Le Lioran ski resort.

Stages 11 and 12 shift the balance back to the sprinters’ teams, which gives the GC contenders a chance to rest before the weekend arrives and the Tour heads visit three mountain ranges in three days: the Jura (Stage 13), the Vosges (Stage 14), and the Alps (Stage 15).

Of the three I’m most excited to see Stage 14 through the Vosges, a day with 3,800m of elevation gain and a finish at the Le Markstein ski resort (where Pogačar won a stage in 2023) after first climbing a brand new ascent: the Col du Haag, a climb that the organizers describe as a “forest trail that’s been converted into a bike path.” I love it when the Tour finds new climbs to tackle, especially when once upon a time they were hunting trails, goat paths, or old farm roads.

The second week comes to a close with Stage 15 and another new ascent: the 11.3km, Plateau de Solaison, a steep climb (it has a 9.1-percent average gradient) that should serve as a pivotal GC battleground. It’s the day before the Tour’s second Rest Day, and everyone will be looking ahead to the Tour’s only individual time trial: Stage 16, the day after the Rest Day.

The 26km ride from Évian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains can be looked at in thirds: the first third goes up, the next goes down, and the last is flat as a crêpe. The course should favor GC riders like Pogačar, Vingegaard, and Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel, the current world champion in the discipline (assuming he makes it this far into the Tour–yes, I went there).

The sprinters will get what could prove to be their last chance of the Tour on Stage 17. I wondered before the unveiling how many stages the sprinters would get: it looks to be about six to seven, depending on how things play out, a pretty good number considering how things have been trending in recent years.

I like how the sprinter’s stages are spaced throughout the Tour and that a few of them are stacked, so the GC teams will have some chances to recover for when the mountains return. You could see riders and teams get worn down as the 2025 Tour got deeper into the third week. With more balance during the first and second weeks, the 2026 Tour looks to avoid that.

But these first 18 stages are really just the big wind-up for a “crescendo,” as the organisers called it in the press release, leading to Stages 19 and 20, which feature back-to-back summit finishes on Alpe d’Huez. Well, sorta. Stage 19 does finish at the top of the climb that we all know and love, with 21 hairpins spaced over 13.8km with an 8.1-percent average gradient. The rest of the stage isn’t incredibly hard, though, and even though it’s short at just 128km, I suspect the GC action will be saved for the final climb.

And given the relatively short distance and the fact that Pogačar has never won here, I don’t think a rider from the breakaway will win the stage–especially after the Slovenian missed a chance to win on Mont Ventoux this past summer. He’ll want this one. Badly.

But Stage 19 could be another story: it’s longer (171km) and much harder, with 5,600m of elevation gain including the Col de la Croix de Fer, the Col du Télégraphe, and the Col du Galibier, a 2,600m summit that’s easily the highest in this year’s Tour.

And what about that second Alpe d’Huez finish? Well, the organisers cheated a bit: the stage will indeed finish at the Alpe d’Huez ski resort and follow the same finale as Stage 19, but they’ll complete most of the ascent by climbing the Col de Sarenne, which the riders descended in 2013 during a stage that went up the Alpe twice. On one hand, the Sarenne is a hard climb that will likely earn a “Beyond Category” rating when the course routes and profiles are finalised next May. On the other hand, it’s a cheeky way for the organisers to include a “second” stage finish at Alpe d’Huez.

And then there’s Stage 21, which used to be a parade followed by the sport’s most prestigious field sprint but last year borrowed a page from the 2024 Olympic road race and took the race up and over the cobbled Côte de la Butte Montmartre three times in the finale for what proved to be a spectacular conclusion to the Tour.

So we wondered before the announcement whether the organisers would keep the new finish and its three circuits or revert to the traditional laps around the Champs-Élysées. Well, they kept it, but with an interesting twist: there are now about 15km between the top of the climb and the finish line on the Champs-Élysées. This gives the sprinters a chance to stay in contention and makes an already exciting finish even more tense. Let’s hope it stays dry this year so we can see it raced as it is intended.

Overall, I’d call this one of the more balanced Tours we’ve seen in a while, with a healthy mix of innovation, tradition, and just enough whimsy to make it one of the most original Tours I’ve ever seen. If the 2025 Tour burned out quickly after an intense opening week, the 2026 edition should be more of a slow burn that builds to an incredible finish.

Yeah, it’s not a route designed to defeat Pogačar. But trust me: that course doesn’t exist. Instead, the Tour’s organisers have given us a race that lets Pogačar do his “dominance thing” while still giving other riders a chance. That’s a win-win for the Tour, and an even bigger victory for fans like you and me.

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Behind the Scenes: What It Takes to Survive & Thrive at the Tour de France

BY DAVID MOSELEY — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 14:38:51 +0000

With the 2025 Tour de France in full swing, cycling fans everywhere are once again glued to their screens, absorbed in breakaways, attacks, and team tactics. Praise that little ‘minimise’ button on your computer screen, so you can watch the Tour at work… And praise the French too, for inventing ruined castles, country chateaus and the greatest sporting spectacle known to mankind.

“There’s nothing else like it,” says Daryl Impey, ex-pro rider and current Assistant Sports Director at Israel-Premier Tech. In 2013, thanks to consistently high finishes, Impey became the first African rider to wear the Yellow Jersey; and at the 2019 edition he won Stage 9. In all, he competed at the Tour eight times.

“When you arrive at the Tour de France, you know you’re there,” he says. “The Monuments are big. The Giro is big. The Vuelta is big. But the Tour is bigger.”

“The media buzz is immense; it feels like the whole world is excited. The teams all look smart – new bikes are launched, new kit is launched – and the magnitude of everything is on another level. If you have success at the Tour, like winning a stage, it can change your career.”

Another former national road-racing champion who knows a thing or two about bleeding through the eyeballs on French roads is Jaco Venter, who raced for Team Dimension Data at the 2017 edition of the race. Venter echoes Impey’s comments about the magnitude of the Tour de France: “The level of the competition, the people, the noise… everything is so much more intense,” he says. “Before I rode the Tour, I always thought, ‘But how could it be bigger? It’s the same guys I race at the Giro; the same guys I race at the Vuelta…’ But then you arrive at the Tour, and everything ramps up to levels you’ve never seen before.”

Photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

South Africans on Tour

Impey says the Tour de France is what made him an elite cyclist; but he almost didn’t get there. It’s the same for Venter, who readily accepts that without the South African influence at Team Dimension Data, he probably would never have ridden the Tour. For most professional cyclists, being selected for the Tour de France is huge. For South African cyclists, it requires a near-superhuman effort to be chosen.

“If you’re a South African, I think the main reason it’s so hard to race in Europe is that there’s no clear path,” says Venter. “Every rider has a different story. I was lucky to have my parents help me.

“But now… it’s so expensive. Where do you go? Everyone says you must go and race in Belgium. But the level is so high there that you have to win to get noticed. And besides, why would a European team take a South African over a local?”

Venter and the other South African riders of his generation raced in Europe and got decent results, but they could never take the next step. So, they came back to race at home; but then they’d fall behind the pace of the European riders.

“If it wasn’t for Doug Ryder starting Team Dimension Data, I would have been out of the sport,” Venter says. “None of what I experienced at the Giro or the Tour would have happened.”

Impey’s story is similar. After a few years of racing in Europe, he came home to race in South Africa. It took the intervention of another South African Tour de France hero, Robbie Hunter – who won a stage in 2007 – to get Impey’s mind fully focused on racing in Europe again.

“You have to be determined to succeed over there. It’s a cliché, but it’s that simple. I was home in South Africa after spending time in Europe – a period of time I thought of as a failure. When Robbie won that Tour de France stage, I messaged to congratulate him. He wrote back: ‘Why are you at home? Why are you racing in South Africa?’ Robbie was the catalyst. His comments strengthened my resolve.”

Besides determination, Impey says, to succeed you also need a healthy dose of desire – and resilience. He notes that riders like Louis Meintjies and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio have shown that it is possible to have a successful career overseas.

“It is possible to make it, but you have to want it. “

“A lot of riders go overseas and it’s tough, so they give up and come home. I did. But I went back. I was determined to make it work. It is possible to make it, but you have to want it.

“I came from a good home, and my parents did a lot for me. But then, in France, I was suddenly cooking for myself, servicing my own bike, living with other foreign guys – totally out of my comfort zone. You have to learn to push through the initial discomfort.

“Some of the young guys now don’t want to put in the effort. They ride locally and they seem happy, which is also fine. But if you want to crack it in Europe, you really have to want it. It’s not easy, and initially you’ll get your head kicked in by the level of racing; but the smart and lucky riders will figure out what they need to do to survive.”

Photo: A.S.O./Billy Ceusters

Taming Tadej

You can’t talk about the modern Tour de France without talking about Tadej Pogačar. With a handful of huge victories already under his belt in 2025, including Strade Bianche, the Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the three-time Tour de France winner is the hot favourite yet again.

“Tadej is definitely the favourite,” Impey concurs. “Especially since he didn’t race the Giro. A lot of people thought he’d fade last year after Italy, but he didn’t. He won the Triple Crown – the Giro, the Tour and the Road World Champs – and this year it seems he’s even stronger.”

Unsurprisingly, Venter agrees. “What Pog is doing is unreal. Looking at what he’s already done in 2025… You’d normally say, if someone has ridden that much in the year already, he’ll be tired at the Tour. But Pog isn’t normal.

“Jonas Vingegaard is right up there; but he’s had crashes, a concussion – it hasn’t been a dream build-up for him. Still, he and Tadej are the two clear favourites this year, as they were last year.”

Why does Pogačar make the world’s best and most exciting cyclists look like mere mortals? For Venter, it’s simple: “He’s just better,” he says. “As humans, we’re not all the same. If you want to level up, you can’t just work harder – you can have the same coach and do the same training as a guy like Pogačar, but you’ll arrive at the December training camp and he’ll already be flying. How is that possible?!”

Impey and Venter both agree that even without the might of UAE Team Emirates behind him, Pogačar would still be winning. “He’d get the same results racing for any team,” Venter says.

“It’s easy to look at UAE, their budget, and how they do everything right. But it’s not just that,” Impey adds. “It’s hard to pinpoint why, but Pogačar would dominate in any team. Maybe not the same way he does with UAE, but his ability leaves me scratching my head. We haven’t seen someone like this before.

“There was the Peter Sagan era – where he could win any race he entered – but Tadej is Sagan with an extra watt per kilogram. He can do what he wants.”

How does such a dominant force affect the racing? Do competitors give up before the day’s riding even starts?

“He lives rent-free in everyone’s heads. I actually feel sorry for the likes of Remco and Jonas…”

“It is a bit frustrating,” Impey says. “You can see it – nobody even tries to follow him. If you follow him, you’re doomed. He lives rent-free in everyone’s heads. I actually feel sorry for the likes of Remco and Jonas… The riders will tell their team directors that they tried to match his efforts, but they have to be realistic.

“That’s not to say that the other teams have given up. They’re definitely trying, but they’re getting bullied. The budget that UAE has, just for their riders at the Tour de France, is the same as Israel-Premier Tech’s entire budget for the whole year.”

With a handful of summit finishes (including Mont Ventoux), hilly stages and a mountain time trial, it’s fair to say that the strongest rider will win this year’s Tour de France. “There are five proper mountain-top finishes,” Venter says.

“On those days, we’re looking at around 4 500m of climbing, which is right up Tadej’s alley,” Impey adds. “I think Remco Evenepoel and the usual suspects will be at the top end of the field, but I can’t see anyone beating Tadej. His team is so strong. There are four or five riders at UAE that could place in the top 10. They destroy themselves for Tadej; so it’s not just the world’s best cyclist you’re up against, but also this monstrously powerful team.”

Photo by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images

The Lay of the Land

The beauty of the Tour de France is that the route changes every year. And with those changes come new challenges for the riders.

When the route was launched late last year, Bicycling’s review noted: “While it looks fairly mundane compared to the opening stages of the 2023 and 2024 Tours, the first weekend will be tricky for the riders thanks to tight roads, punchy climbs and a chance of crosswinds blowing in from the English Channel to break the race into echelons.”

“There’s so much adrenalin, so much excitement… It’s easy to end your Tour before it even begins.”

Venter remembers trying to survive those frantic opening stages. “You just have to get through the first few days,” he says. “Only then can you make a call on the favourites. There’s so much adrenalin, so much excitement… It’s easy to end your Tour before it even begins.”

When Venter raced the Tour in 2017, Team Dimension Data had Mark Cavendish and Mark Renshaw in their ranks. Venter’s job – and indeed the rest of the team’s – was to guide their sprint stars through the chaos, and ensure they were still in one piece so they could compete for stages.

For Venter, however, the excitement of his first Tour almost got the better of him. “There was so much going on! I was getting bottles and pacing the guys. Then I found myself in front within the first 5km of Stage 1.

“Everything was so overwhelming. There were people everywhere, and I was so in the zone that I forgot to eat or drink. I was asking people for water at one stage. I was on such a high!”

Another aspect of the Tour de France – something that caught Venter unawares – is the ferocity of the bunch. “At races like the Giro and the Vuelta, you ride through lots of tight, narrow roads. It’s exciting for the individual riders. But the Tour is different – it’s this huge bunch of riders moving in unison. It’s very difficult to move in the bunch, so there’s an enormous amount of pressure to be in front. All you hear on the radio is, ‘Be in front! Be in front!’

“That was all I thought about in 2017, when we had Cavendish in the team. There are lots of straight roads in France. You might see some speed bumps and islands, but then it’s back into the straight roads. You really have to keep your position in front – if you don’t, you’ll lose your spot.”

What was it like riding with Mark Cavendish and his lead-out man, Mark Renshaw? Their skill and dedication to their craft left a lasting impression on Venter: “The sprinters are a different breed,” he says. “You can have all the power in the world, but sprinting is about more than that – it’s about instinct.

“That’s why Rensh and Cav could float around effortlessly in the peloton. They had that instinct – something you can’t train. They were crazy, too – if one of them crashed, they’d be back on the bike doing it all over again the next day. If I had an accident, I’d be rattled for days.”

So, what’s Venter’s overriding impression of the Tour? He smiles. “The first day, your legs are sore. Then the pain gets worse. After a week, there’s no more pain. Just… deep fatigue.

“You think you’ve got no power left, but it’s all in your head – I had some of my best days late in the Tour. The main thing to overcome in your mind is doing the same thing, every day, for 21 days. It’s relentless, and you start to think, ‘I can’t do it.’

“But you can. You don’t realise how strong you are until you’ve suffered through a Tour de France.”

The post Behind the Scenes: What It Takes to Survive & Thrive at the Tour de France appeared first on Bicycling.

A Day in the Life of a Tour de France Rider

BY DAVID MOSELEY — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 13:20:20 +0000

What’s it really like to ride the world’s most grueling bike race? Former pros Jaco Venter and Daryl Impey pull back the curtain on the daily grind of the Tour de France – from 6am weigh-ins and bus-ride tactics to post-stage showers with no privacy. It’s a relentless routine of early starts, strict structure, and barely any downtime — where every gram, gear choice and gesture is monitored. Here’s what life inside the Tour really looks like, hour by hour.

Wake up

The mechanics are already at work, prepping bikes. Riders weigh in first thing. It’s all part of the daily ritual.

“The first thing we did was fill in a mental wellness app,” says Jaco Venter. “Basic questions that went to the performance team so they could see where your head was at. Then it was off to the doctor’s room for the morning weigh-in. You’d also pee in a bottle you’d been given the night before.”

Breakfast

Meals are often served straight from the team chef’s truck or prepped in advance and delivered to the hotel. Variety is not key, just consistency: rice with an omelette, porridge, toast, muesli, sometimes pancakes.

“Back then , we weren’t overly focused on nutrition – definitely not as scientific as other teams,” says Venter, who raced for Team Dimension Data at the 2017 edition of the race. “We were a sprinters’ team, and maybe also budget-conscious. The chef would prepare food, then we’d drive to the start, which could be a one or two-hour trip.”

These days, every rider eats precisely-timed and measured meals, developed with nutritionists to fine-tune the fuelling. There’s usually another weigh-in just before the stage.

It wasn’t this precise when Daryl Impey was racing. (He raced the Tour from 2012 – 2019.) “We didn’t carb-count,” he says. “Now the guys weigh everything. 360g of rice for today? Done. It’s robotic.”

On the bus

For Impey, it was coffee time: “Straight Americano or espresso. Can’t ride without coffee, right?”

The bus ride is also usually when team meetings happen with the sports director: course breakdown, tactics, rider roles. “We were focused on the sprint stages,” says Venter. “Especially the last five kays. Cav and Rensh were very specific about which side of the road they had to be on.”

Race!

The real work begins. Riders race for hours, flat-out, up mountains, into crosswinds, through crashes and chaos.

Post Race

Shower in the team bus. The team leader might head to the hotel in the soigneur’s car.

“Teams normally have two buses. The best one always goes to the Tour. Ours had one open shower with three heads –absolutely no privacy.”

“Teams normally have two buses,” says Venter. “The best one always goes to the Tour. Ours had one open shower with three heads –absolutely no privacy. There was a big sofa at the back, a small kitchen, and a coffee machine. In the last few years, the seats have really improved. These days, the guys have nice, big, reclining chairs.

“Depending on the day, we’d have a debrief – either on the bus, or later at the hotel. The director might talk to us all together, or one-on-one. We’d all have to use an app to record what our job had been that day, and how we thought it went. It was private. No one could see each other’s answers, which annoyed me. Some guys got ambitious with what they said they did, because no one could really verify it.”

Evening

Rest, eat, rehydrate, get a massage. Sleep is essential. “I hated it, in the end,” Impey admits. “I fed off the team environment, but once everything got clinical – scales and so on – I was seen as ‘unprofessional’ for not weighing my food.

“The new guys? They don’t care. They’ll walk around with a little scale like it’s normal. Our dinners were simple and repetitive: plain pasta, chicken or red meat, veggies and salad.”

It sounds like a relatively simple daily routine, but it’s demanding. “You don’t have time for anything personal,” Venter says. “Between the traffic in the mountains and the long drives, you sometimes only reach the hotel at 10pm. Sometimes I’d skip the massage and go straight to bed.

“Before riding the Tour de France, you need to make sure that everything is sorted out at home; because once you’re there, you have zero time for anything else in your life.”

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Why Does the Tour de France Keep Getting Faster?

By Whit Yost and Dan Chabanov — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 08:54:12 +0000

The 2022 Tour de France is still on record as the fastest Tour de France ever with an average speed of 42.1 kph. 2024 is currently the second fastest at 41.8 kph. Third fastest? 2023 (41.4 kph), which edges out the 2005 Tour (41.1 kph). And that’s not an anomaly, it’s a trend. According to data gathered by ProCyclingStats, the Tour de France has been getting steadily faster over the years. But why? It’s impossible to say with 100% certainty, but there are a few obvious reasons that can help explain the increase in speed.

The Tour is getting shorter

The simplest and mathematically obvious reason why the Tour is getting faster: the race is getting shorter. The overall distance of the Tour has been steadily decreasing over the past several decades. Once upon a time, stages were commonly longer than 200 kilometres, with some days exceeding 250. But today’s Tour organisers realise that more doesn’t always equal better, and that’s why they’re favouring shorter, punchier stages to liven up the action and encourage more aggressive tactics.

Stage 19 in 2023 was a perfect example: even at the end of the Tour’s third week, when the riders were most fatigued, the 172km stage from Moirans-en-Montagne to Poligny was raced more like a spring Classic than a transitional stage the day before the Tour’s final mountain showdown. Had the stage been longer–or come at the end of a longer Tour–we might have seen fewer attacks, fewer risks being taken, and a more boring –and slower–stage. Shorter stages are generally faster stages, and shorter Tours are generally faster Tours.

Riders are training more effectively

Back in the day, riders built their training bases with long, slow rides in the off-season, attended a few warm-weather training camps with their teams, and then raced themselves into shape once the season began. But that changed at the beginning of the 21st century when riders started limiting their racing programs in favour of specific training blocks in controlled environments, realising that racing is an imperfect form of training because there are too many variables involved. The process was helped by the popularity of the power meter, which made their training even more focused and efficient.

Today, teams spend much of their seasons preparing for their goals at training camps, often at high altitude, with teams of coaches, physiologists, and nutritionists guiding the riders every step of the way. The result is the most well-trained and fastest peloton we’ve ever seen.

Bikes are faster

The bikes being ridden in the Tour de France have also evolved, and teams are continuing to find new ways to use their equipment to squeeze every watt out of their riders. The bikes are stiffer, more aerodynamic, and more efficient, which definitely helps increase the Tour’s average speed.

On Sunday the 13th, Stage 9 of the race was the second fastest stage in the history of the race, averaging 50.013 kph (31.07 mph) during a flat, 181 km sprint stage.

Today’s bikes are significantly faster than the machines of even 10 years ago. Aero optimisation is everywhere. Everything from wheels to handlebars is shaped with consideration for the air flow in mind.

Drivetrain efficiency, or how much energy is lost between the pedals and the rear wheel, has seen significant gains thanks to the popularity of wax-based lubes. Tyres have gotten significantly faster as well, with the tubular now being completely abandoned by every team in the race. Moving from 23 or 25mm tubulars to 28 to 30mm tubeless and clincher tyres has been shown to provide big gains thanks to the reduction of rolling resistance.

Even clothing has made the race faster: riders don’t just wear jerseys and bib shorts anymore, now they wear one-piece speed suits that offer all the comfort of traditional kits while being lighter and more aerodynamic. And aero-helmets cut down on drag without sacrificing ventilation and comfort. These gains might seem minimal, but add them up over the course of a 3-week grand tour and they make a big difference.

Teams have more (and better) resources

There used to be natural ebbs and flows within a race as riders sent their domestiques back to the team car for water, food, and information about the road ahead. When a team saw one rider go back to the car, they would send one of theirs as well, and before you knew it, the entire peloton was taking a “break” from the action to refuel. These lulls in the action kept speeds down.

But now teams have radios, GPS units, and staff at multiple positions along the course to give them bottles, gels, and information. This means less of a need to send teammates back to the caravan, and fewer drops in speed as a result. Thierry Giouvenou, the man who essentially designs the course each year, cited this as one of the reasons for the Tour’s faster speeds in a conversation with The Cycling Podcast.

Teams also have resources like VeloViewer software at their disposal, which allows them to study the course in detail and pass that knowledge to their riders before the stage in pre-race meetings and during the race itself via their radios.

By themselves, these innovations are minuscule, but when combined, they’ve changed the sport forever, making a generation of riders who are better trained, better equipped, better informed, and of course, faster than their predecessors.

The Riders Are Eating More Than Ever

The carb revolution in the pro peloton is likely one of the biggest contributing factors to the increase in speed over the last few years. Simply put, the riders are eating more on the bike during this year’s race than many thought possible, even a few years ago.

Ben Healy won Stage 6 of this year’s race with an impressive long-range solo move from the day’s breakaway. That kind of full gas riding is now possible because the riders are fuell1ing in a way that lets them ride essentially at their limit without bonking for hours on end. Healy’s team revealed that during that stage-winning ride, Healy consumed 535g of carbs (120g per hour). He also ate 225g of carbs for breakfast and lunch ahead of the stage, followed by 260g of carbs for dinner. That’s almost 3 pounds of carbs in a single day.

Putting down that much food in a single day, much of it while riding a bike very hard, is not easy. Today’s riders do a lot of gut training to be able to stomach that kind of intake.

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5 Things That Surprised Me – a Complete Newbie – About the Tour de France

BY ASHLEY TYSIAC — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 14:14:46 +0000

I visited Paris for the first time last year to cover the Olympics, and I still remember when my coworker freaked out as we stumbled upon Avenue des Champs-Élysées–and I felt very confused.

“This is something you never imagine seeing beyond TV!” he told me. I didn’t understand his excitement at first, until he explained to me the significance of the historic roadway: It’s the long-standing finishing site of the Tour de France.

Now, as my reaction to walking along Avenue des Champs-Élysées probably indicates, I’m no cycling expert. However, the Bicycling team has packaged a ton of creative content in the lead-up to the Tour, which began on Saturday, July 5, and I’ve been studying up to further my knowledge on cycling’s most iconic race. Much of what I learned surprised me, from the race course layout to how riders take bathroom breaks.

For those of you on the same bike as me, take a deep breath. I found these Tour de France details the most interesting, and you’ll learn a thing or two to help you watch the legendary event as a more informed spectator.

1- Four Cyclists Receive Coloured Jerseys Throughout the Tour de France

Those brightly-coloured jerseys you see certain cyclists wearing during competition? I’ve never really paid them any attention, but as Bicycling editors explain, riders wear those for specific reasons.

As the Tour unfolds, four cyclists earn unique jerseys that hold certain meaning. After each of the 21 stages, organisers award specific jerseys in different colours–yellow (maillot jaune), green (maillot vert), red polka dots (maillot à pois rouges), and white (maillot blanc). Everyone sets their sights on the most coveted jersey of them all: the yellow jersey.

The yellow Tour de France jersey signifies the rider who leads the General Classification (a.k.a. the racer in first place overall). After each stage, officials determine which cyclist has the fastest time across all the stages contested and give him the maillot jaune to sport. For the rider who wears the yellow jersey at the end, they’ve earned all the Tour de France glory.

The green jersey goes to the leader of the Points Classification, while the jersey covered in red polka dots goes to the rider at the top of the Mountains Classification leaderboard. For the General Classification leader 26 years old or under, they don the white jersey.

Naturally, after learning about the jersey system, my mind began to run wild. How do the riders get these colourful jerseys to wear mid-Tour? Who makes them? It turns out that the yellow jersey in particular gets custom-made by organisers after each stage.

2- The Tour de France Course Changes Each Year

I guess I never thought that a race as iconic as the Tour de France would feature a different course each year. To make a comparison to a sport I know a bit better–cross country–established courses hardly ever change.

But organisers meticulously plan out a unique course each year. In October, media members and riders meet in Paris for the official reveal of the next year’s course layout. And each year’s route brings something different to the table. In 2024, the race spent much of its time south of Paris, whereas this year, the route will take riders through larger cities in Northern France.

The 2025 course could prove quite challenging as it features some big climbs for riders to tackle and a potentially windy, tight course in Lille in the early stages. The route has more than 50,000 metres of elevation gain and covers 331 kilometres, making it one of the most grueling courses in recent memory.

3- The Women’s Race, the Tour de France Femmes, Only Began in 2022

While male cyclists have competed in the Tour de France since 1903, I never realised that women didn’t truly have their own true “Tour” until 2022. The Tour de France Femmes features fewer stages than the men’s race but a similar jersey classification system. While various iterations of women’s races meant to be equivalent to the Tour de France took place from 1984 through 2021, the current version of the women’s Tour only started three years ago.

And for over 80 years, from 1903 to 1984, there was no place at all for women in the Tour de France. The Tour de France Féminin, a three-week trek coinciding with the men’s race, launched in 1984, but only lasted two years due to disinterest from the media and fans. A shortened, two-week version of the Tour de France Féminin ran from 1986 until 1989, but that would be the final year a women’s stage race ran at the same time as the men’s Tour de France.

Financial struggles remained a constant theme for organisers hoping to create a women’s Tour de France-like event over the following decades. From 1992 to 2009, the La Grande Boucle ran through France and featured plenty of difficult stages and climbs, but there was little money behind the race efforts. Then, beginning in 2014, a one-day race on the Champs-Élysées called La Course served as a respected women’s cycling race until the Tour de France Femmes came to fruition in 2022.

When the inaugural Tour de France Femmes concluded three years ago, competitors lauded the race for its impact on the cycling community. Riders said they felt appreciated by receiving media coverage and fan support, which some also said changed the sport.

“Tour de France Femmes has only been going for a year but it’s already become the biggest race on the calendar,” Alice Towers of Canyon//SRAM told Bicycling. The race’s prestige translates across to the women’s side. It’s changed in the way riders train: everyone’s at altitude now and everyone’s really focusing on it. It feels like everyone’s centering their season around this one race.”

The 2025 Tour de France Femmes takes place from July 26 through August 3 and features nine stages, making it the longest installment of the race to date.

4- Tour Riders Are, Well, Fast

I’ve seen portions of the Tour de France on TV before and watched cyclists seemingly fly down winding roads. But I could never get a good grasp on just how fast riders would spin during competition stages.

Spoiler alert: The pros move quickly. Performance metrics show that a Tour pro averages 46 to 50 kmph during a time trial, or about 16 to 18 kmph faster than a typical rider. On flat terrain, pros can maintain about 40 to 45 kmph–almost double the speed of an average rider–and generate 1,200 to 1,400 watts of power during a sprint.

Even riding over cobblestones doesn’t slow Tour riders down too much. They typically average 35 to 38 kmph riding over the uneven surface that the Tour de France often features. I know I would be just managing to not crash my bike if going over a cobblestone road.

5- Tour Riders Have Strategies … For Peeing?

As a runner, I’ve had experiences using port-a-potties along marathon routes and occasionally peeling off into the woods for emergency bathroom breaks during training runs. But who knew that cyclists had certain strategies for relieving themselves when nature calls mid-Tour? (I certainly had no clue.)

According to Stephen Hall, professional track cyclist and a stage winner at the 2015 Tour of Thailand, the rider wearing the yellow jersey typically calls the shots when it comes to bathroom breaks. The peloton will slow down for the race leader for him to pull off to the side of the road for a quick pit stop. Often, though, riders will take their bathroom breaks in groups during more leisurely sections of the race, since it’s harder to work back into the race as a solo rider as opposed to part of a pack.

But sometimes, riders won’t stop to pee. Pros master the art of going while they’re going, and retired pro cyclist Ted King told Bicycling that a certain technique helps riders relieve themselves while coasting. “If you’re peeing to the right, your right leg is in a 6 o’clock position, left at 12, left hand on the handlebars, right hand holds the shorts down, and you coast while relieving yourself,” King said.

However, they have to carefully avoid spectators. Pee in front of a spectator, and a rider receives a fine from Tour de France organisers.

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The Tour de France Is Tadej Pogačar’s Race to Lose. These Stages Could Flip the Script.

BY WHIT YOST — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 19:14:16 +0000

According to most pundits and fans (including several members of Bicycling’s Tour de France team, it’s a foregone conclusion that Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) will win the 2025 Tour de France this July.

It’s easy to see why: the 26-year-old has won just about every race he’s targeted over the last two seasons: one-day Classics like the Tour of Flanders, week-long stage races like the Critérium du Dauphiné, and of course, three-week grand tours like the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France. And when the Slovenian hasn’t won (which has been rare), he’s still finished on the podium. It’s been a truly legendary run of success, one that calls to mind the greatest champion in the history of men’s cycling, Belgium’s Eddy Merckx, who won 525 races over the course of his career in the late-60s and early-70s, including just about every race on the calendar.

But what if the 2025 men’s Tour de France isn’t Pogačar’s race to lose? And what if he does, well, lose it? After all, his greatest rival–Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)–came into last year’s Tour underprepared and uncertain after a crash in early April left him with a broken collarbone, several cracked ribs, and a collapsed lung. The Dane wasn’t able to ride–let alone train–for several weeks. It was a miracle that even made it to the Tour, let alone that he managed to win a stage and finish second overall.

This year, Vingegaard–who defeated Pogačar in winning the Tour in 2022 and 2023–and his reinforced team will take the starting line next Saturday in Lille healthier, more focussed, and much more confident than they were last year, which means Pogačar won’t have an easy time running away with what would be his fourth Tour de France victory. And his toughest challenge might come from the course itself, a route that has a few tricks up its sleeves, a few stages that could trap the Slovenian.

It’s definitely a long shot, but if Pogačar does indeed lose the 2025 Tour de France, here’s where we think it could happen.

Stages 1 – 4: Chaos and Crashes

Tim de Waele//Getty Images

The opening days of the Tour de France are always a s@#$show as everyone’s fresh and motivated to win a stage and take the yellow jersey. That means crashes are unfortunately common, especially near the end of each stage, as the sprinters and their teams position themselves at the front of a full-strength peloton.

To make matters worse, this year’s Tour begins in northern France and then winds its way west through Normandy and Brittany, regions known for tight roads and unpredictable weather. When you throw in a large, nervous peloton, that could mean bad luck for a few GC contenders.

Pogačar is generally one of the luckiest riders in the peloton–partially because he’s such a terrific bike handler, but also because he’s given a wide berth in the peloton. (No one wants to be known as “the guy who took down Tadej Pogačar”.) So he rarely crashes, and when he does, he often hops right back onto his bike. But anything can happen during the chaotic opening stages of the Tour, and even the luckiest riders can succumb to the unexpected.

Thanks to several days with punchy finishes, the Tour’s first week also presents some tantalizing opportunities for Pogačar to win stages for himself and grab time bonuses. And while it might be tempting for the defending champ to try and start chipping away at his rivals, doing too much too soon could hurt later in the Tour. Forgive the cliche, but the Tour is a marathon, not a sprint–and Pogačar’s exuberance could hurt him later on, especially if he expends a lot of energy for the sake of only marginal gains.

Sometimes the juice isn’t worth the squeeze, and it might pay for Pogačar to show some restraint and play it safe. That’s been hard for him in the past, like during the first week of the Tour in 2022, when he raced for every second during the Tour’s opening week, only to crack in the mountains and lose minutes during the second week. He might not be able to afford to make that same mistake again.

Stage 10: A Hot Day in the Hills of the Massif Central

Photo: Thomas Samson

During last year’s Tour de France, there was really only one stage on which Pogačar looked vulnerable: Stage 11 through the Massif Central, a mountainous region in central France that’s known for hot weather and hard climbs.

That day, Pogačar attacked three climbs from the finish and got a quick gap on the leading group of GC contenders. But Vingegaard never panicked. The Dane rode a steady tempo, ultimately catching the Slovenian and then shockingly outsprinting him to win the stage in Le Lioran. It was one of the most dramatic days in last year’s men’s Tour.

The race returns to the Massif Central on Stage 10 this July with a stage that’s even harder, thanks to eight categorized climbs, including an uphill finish on the steep Category 2 Puy de Sancy. A relatively short stage at just 165.3 kilometres, it will test whichever team is defending the yellow jersey to control the race. The riders will spend the day either climbing or descending on tight, technical roads.

It will also be the peloton’s tenth day of racing in a row, as the Tour’s first Rest Day comes a day later due to the organizers wanting this potentially explosive stage to take place on Bastille Day. After a hard, unpredictable first “week,” everyone will be exhausted, which means there could be splits in the peloton.

On paper, the course suits Pogačar as well as anyone else, especially if he learned his lesson after last year’s stage through the Massif Central. But if he’s burned too much energy trying to win stages and score time bonuses during the Tour’s punchy first week–and especially if it’s hot (Pogačar’s bad days have usually coincided with soaring temperatures)–Stage 10 could be a good day for Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike to ambush the Slovenian.

Stage 13: A True Mountain Time Trial

When it comes to individual time trials, Pogačar and Vingegaard have been pretty evenly matched: in the three Tours they’ve raced head-to-head, the score is only 4-3 in favour of the Slovenian.

So while it might be tempting to put a lot of stock in their performances during Stage 5’s long, flat ITT around Caen, we don’t think it will be as impactful as the Tour’s second race against the clock: Stage 13’s mountain time trial up the Col de Peyresourde to Peyragudes, a stage that we think strongly favours Vingegaard.

Over the past few years, Vingegaard has generally outperformed Pogačar in hillier time trials, and this one isn’t just hilly; it features an 8-kilometre Category 1 ascent that begins just a few kilometres after the start of the stage. In a vacuum, Vingegaard is probably a slightly better climber than Pogačar. But the Dane is less explosive than the Slovenian, which means he often gets gapped when Pogačar makes his initial acceleration. But as we saw in the recent Critérium du Dauphiné, Vingegaard doesn’t tend to lose much time after Pogačar has made his initial move. He rides a steady tempo, minimizing his losses and in some cases, reducing his deficit.

But a mountain time trial is a pure test of a rider’s climbing ability, with no accelerations to respond to. And as much as the riders are racing against each other to see who can finish the stage the fastest, they’re really racing against themselves.

So there will be no attacks for Vingegaard to respond to on Stage 13 and the climb to Peyragudes–just a long, steady maximum effort that Vingegaard has probably been simulating at training camps since April. Don’t be surprised if Vingegaard is in yellow by the end of the day.

Stage 18 – A High-Altitude Alpine Raid

Pool

Compared to the Pyrenees, the climbs in the Alps are longer and steadier, making them easier to simulate in training. And Vingegaard (thanks to the incredible staff assembled by Visma-Lease a Bike) is perhaps the best-trained cyclist in the world, especially when it comes to targeting specific stages and climbs. So it makes sense that the Alps have played a big role in Vingegaard’s two Tour de France victories (and Pogačar’s two Tour defeats).

For example, take Stage 11 in the 2022 Tour, a 151.7-kilometre stage through the Alps with two Hors catégorie summits, including a finish on the 2,404-metre Col du Granon, a high-altitude climb with a steep, 9.1 percent average gradient. Perhaps sensing that Pogačar wasn’t at his best that day, Vingegaard put his team to work earlier in the stage, asking them to set a hard pace on the 2,629-metre Col du Galibier to isolate Pogačar from the rest of his team. By the time Vingegaard launched an attack of his own on the Granon, Pogačar had nothing left to give: he lost 2:51 to the Dane, a deficit he would never overcome.

Then there’s Stage 17 from the 2023 Tour, a day that will probably go down as one of the worst of Pogačar’s career. One day after losing 1:38 to Vingegaard in a time trial (with an uphill finish), the Slovenian cracked big-time on the slopes of the Col de la Loze, a 2,304-metre summit high in the Alps. After famously saying, “I’m gone. I’m dead,” into his race radio, Pogačar lost over five minutes to Vingegaard–and with them, the Tour.

Well, Stage 18 in this year’s Tour de France takes the worst parts of those two stages (if you’re Pogačar) and rolls them into one to create a 171.5-kilometre stage with three massive Hors catégorie ascents–all with summits that sit above 2,000 metres–and a finish at the top of the Col de la Loze. It’s a stage that looks tailor-made for Vingegaard–and like a bad-day-waiting-to-happen for Pogačar.

Now, to be fair, Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates team is significantly better than it was in 2022, and the Slovenian started the 2023 Tour undertrained thanks to a broken wrist he sustained in a crash in late April. But that doesn’t change the fact that Vingegaard has taken large chunks of the time from the Slovenian in the Alps, where the climbs are longer, steadier, and higher–which makes them ideal for a rider like Vingegaard–who’s probably been replicating them at training camps all season.

If he’s wearing (or close to wearing) the yellow jersey heading into Stage 18, expect Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike to throw everything they have at Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates, with the pressure coming early and often throughout the stage. And if Pogačar’s not wearing the yellow jersey by the time the Tour wraps up in Paris three days later, expect Stage 18 to have played a major role in making it (not) happen.

Admittedly, it’s risky to bet against a living legend like Pogačar, but the Tour de France is a race that rewards courage and panache–so why not take a risk or two ourselves?

The post The Tour de France Is Tadej Pogačar’s Race to Lose. These Stages Could Flip the Script. appeared first on Bicycling.

2025 Men’s Tour de France Contenders Power Rankings. Is the Race for Yellow Wide Open?

BY WHIT YOST — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 18:21:02 +0000

Nowadays it’s rare to see the Tour’s main contenders competing against one another less than a month before the start of the race, but for the first time since they finished 1-2-3 in the 2024 Tour de France, Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) competed against one another.

The riders reignited their three-way rivalry at the 77th edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné, a stage race in southeastern France that many Tour riders use as their final warm-up for the Tour. With an individual time trial and three high-mountains stages, the Dauphiné offered the Tour’s “Big Three” their best chance to test themselves against top competition before the main event this July, and the race wrapped up with a familiar result: Pogačar won the 8-day stage race, Vingegaard took second, and Evenepoel ended the week in fourth.

The 2025 Tour begins in Northern France on Saturday, July 5, and Pogačar, Vingegaard, Evenpoel, and the men chasing them will certainly come to the start of Stage 1 in Lille stronger than they were when they left the Dauphiné or their final tune-up races. But the constellations are starting to align, and we think we have a pretty good idea where the Tour’s top contenders will end up once the race wraps up in Paris on July 27.

We’ve broken them into tiers based on their previous Tour performances and what they’ve shown (or not shown) so far this season.

Tier 1 – The Defending Champion and Overwhelming Favourite

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates)

Photo: Dario Belingheri//Getty Images

The reigning Tour de France champion, Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar is aiming to win the fourth Tour de France of his career next month. (He won back-to-back Tours in 2020 and 2021.) But instead of building his entire season around winning another Tour de France, the 26-year-old started the year by storming the Spring Classics, a 6-week run of tough one-day races that Tour de France contenders often skip in favour of training camps and short stage races.

Then again, Pogačar is not a typical Tour de France contender, which is part of what makes him so exciting. By the end of the spring, the Slovenian had taken victories in Strade Bianche, the Tour of Flanders, La Flèche Wallonne, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège and scored podium finishes in Milan-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix, and the Amstel Gold Race. Pogačar’s spring was nothing short of legendary, an exploit that calls to mind legends such as Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault.

He then took a long break before starting the Dauphiné–only the second stage race of his season–and he picked up right where he left off, winning Stage 1. He lost a bit of time to Evenepoel and Vingegaard during an individual time trial on Stage 4, but “blamed” his performance on poor pacing on the first part of the course.

At the time, it seemed like a convenient excuse–and perhaps even a smokescreen–to cover the fact that maybe Pogačar was a step or two behind his two biggest rivals. But he quickly put those ideas to rest, dominating the race in the mountains with solo victories on Stages 6 and 7, both of which ended with summit finishes. By the time it was all said and done, Pogačar won the race by 59 seconds over Vingegaard, with Evenepoel in fourth, 4:21 behind the Slovenian.

Simply put: Pogačar is the world’s best rider and the captain of the world’s strongest team. (UAE Team Emirates has dominated the sport all season.) And with three weeks between the end of the Dauphiné and the start of the Tour, he has plenty of time to get even stronger. As far as we’re concerned, it’s his race to lose.

Tier 2 – The Top Challenger By a Large Margin

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Photo: Dario Belingheri//Getty Images

Well, not if Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard has anything to say about it. And, well, maybe he’s got a point.

After all, the 28-year-old has twice defeated Pogačar at the Tour de France. After finishing second to the Slovenian in 2021, the Dane took the fight right to Pogačar in 2022, using the depth of his team to drop the Slovenian in the mountains, ruining his rival’s bid to win a third Tour in a row. Vingegaard then defended his title in 2023, crushing an admittedly under-trained Pogačar (who broke his wrist in late-April) to win back-to-back Tours of his own.

Vingegaard started the 2024 season in Pog-esque fashion, winning two early stage races before a crash at the Itzulia Basque Country in early April left him with multiple fractures and a punctured lung. The fact that he made it back to the Tour de France was incredible in itself, but winning a stage and finishing second overall with no racing in his legs since the first week of April? A miracle.

Fast forward to the Dauphiné, where Vingegaard returned to racing after another long break–this time due to a concussion he sustained in a crash during Stage 6 of March’s Paris-Nice. While serious, his injuries were much less severe, and the Dane was able to continue training with minimal interruptions. And it showed: he finished second overall, just under a minute behind Pogačar.

There are two perspectives from which to judge his Dauphiné performance: on one hand, he defeated Pogačar by 28 seconds in Stage 4’s individual time trial and then limited his losses in the mountains, improving steadily from one day to the next.

But on the other hand, Vingegaard ceded almost a minute-and-a-half to Pogačar on Stages 6 and 7, a sign that he’s close but still a rung below from the Tour’s defending champion. He can’t expect to lose that much time to Pogačar at the Tour and still go on to win it.

Like Pogačar, Vingegaard will certainly get stronger between now and the start of the Tour de France (he and his teammates went right from the Dauphiné to a training camp in the Alps), and he probably has the sport’s best team of coaches, nutritionists, and sport scientists helping him put the finishing touches on his preparation.

He also hasn’t raced all that much this season, which means he could have the biggest gains still to make. If the Dauphiné was just a chance for the Dane to kick off some rust after almost three months spent training either alone or with his team, he could be a sleeping giant that’s saving his best days for the Tour.

He’ll also be supported by perhaps the only team of riders able to put pressure on UAE Team Emirates. And if Pogačar–who sometimes races too aggressively–burns too many matches winning stages and fighting for time bonuses during the Tour’s first week, you can bet that Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike will be ready to pounce once the race hits the Pyrenees and the Alps during the second and third.

Tier 3 – Racing For Third

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step)

Photo: Dario Belingheri//Getty Images

Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel won a stage and the Best Young Rider Classification on his way toward finishing third overall in last year’s Tour de France, a terrific showing in the young Belgian’s Tour debut. His performance was all the more impressive given the fact that he also went down in that nightmare crash at the Itzulia Basque Country, breaking his collarbone and needing surgery to repair it.

Evenepoel’s start to the 2025 season was similarly delayed after the double-Olympic champion (he won the road race and the time trial in Paris last summer) was doored by a postal service vehicle in early December. He sustained several fractures, a dislocated clavicle, and lung contusions in the crash, interrupting his pre-season training and delaying the start of his racing season until mid-April.

So it makes sense that his performance in this year’s Dauphiné looked strikingly similar to his performance in last year’s Dauphiné: he won the ITT on Stage 4, and then faded in the mountains at the end of the week. Last year he ended the race seventh overall; this year he finished the week fourth.

While perhaps a bit disappointed that he wasn’t able to follow Pogačar and Vingegaard in the high mountains, Evenepoel knows he’s got time to get stronger–and that there’s a long individual time trial in the middle of the Tour’s first week. So he could pull on the yellow jersey as soon as Stage 5.

But can he keep it? Well, that remains to be seen–especially for someone who rides for one of the Tour’s weakest teams (GC-wise), a squad that’s lost two of its best mountain domestiques to crashes over the past few weeks. Another podium finish is probably the best Evenepoel can hope for.

Primož Roglič (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe)

Photo: Alessandro Levati//Getty Images

Slovenia’s Primož Roglič crashed out of last year’s Tour de France–the race that Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe signed him to win–the team seemed to have read the writing on the wall about its 35-year-old champion’s Tour prospects and instead planned the first half of his 2025 season around trying to win the Giro d’Italia. But that never came to be as a crash during Stage 16 ruined the Slovenian’s chances; he abandoned the race the next day.

Now he heads back to the Tour de France where he’ll join Germany’s Florian Lipowitz as the focal point of the team’s GC hopes. Roglič–who’s scored podium finishes in all three grand tours (including four wins in the Vuelta a España and one in the Giro) is clearly not the rider he once was, but as he showed in overcoming a large deficit to win last year’s Vuelta, he’s still got something left in the tank.

João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates)

Photo: Tim de Waele//Getty Images

Portugal’s João Almeida finished fourth in last year’s Tour de France all while riding on behalf of Pogačar, an impressive performance for a 25-year-old riding his first Tour. On Sunday he took an impressive victory at the Tour de Suisse, his final race before the Tour de France, albeit one that most Tour favourites skip.

Despite a start list that included few Tour contenders, Almeida rode impressively at the 8-day stage race, consistently chipping away at the riders ahead of him on the General Classification as the race progressed. By the end of the week he had won two stages, including a mountain time trial on the tour’s final day to take the top spot on the race’s General Classification.

At the Tour he’s again expected to be one of Pogačar’s top mountain lieutenants, but in winning three WorldTour stage races so far this season, he’s shown that he has the talent–and the form–to both support Pogačar’s bid for the yellow jersey and score a podium finish of his own.

Tier 4 – Everyone Else

Photo: Tim de Waele//Getty Images

Behind the Tour’s four podium contenders, there’s a large group of riders hoping to come to the race with the form they need to put themselves on the podium should one of the men ahead of them falter. Young upstarts, talented teammates, and GC opportunists, all it takes is a crash, an illness, or a bad day for one of the pre-race podium contenders to stumble down the General Classification, putting one of these men in a position to secure a top-3 or top-5 finish.

Spain’s Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) had an impressive Tour debut in 2023, winning a stage and finishing fifth overall. He endured a bit of a sophomore slump last year, ending the race rather anonymously in seventh. Ninth in the Dauphiné, he’s hoping to challenge for another top-5 finish as the leader of an INEOS Grenadiers team that’s desperate to find a consistent GC contender.

American Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) shone in his first Tour de France with Visma-Lease a Bike last year, and the 25-year-old looks ready for another high finish. The American won Paris-Nice for the second year in a row in March and finished sixth overall at the Dauphiné. He’ll join Great Britain’s Simon Yates, winner of the Giro d’Italia in May, in support of Vingegaard’s bid to win the yellow jersey–but don’t be surprised if he manages to score a top-5 finish of his own.

Great Britain’s Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) will join Almeida as Pogačar’s top two domestiques. While Almeida gets the nod as a podium contender in his own right, Yates–who completed the Giro in May–took third at the Tour in 2023 and sixth last year. Together, they’ll hope to shepherd Pogačar through the mountains while securing their own top-5 finishes.

While riding with the French Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team, Australia’s Ben O’Connor (Team Jayco AlUla) won a stage and finished fourth overall at the Tour in 2021. But after coming up short in his bids for a podium finish in 2022 and 2023, he skipped the French race last year. But he took fourth at the Giro and second at the Vuelta, results that put him back on the GC-radar. The 29-year-old will start this year’s race with an Australian squad, which might be a welcome change given the pressure GC riders often face while racing the Tour with French teams.

And last but not least, Spain’s Enric Mas (Movistar Team) took fifth and sixth at the Tour in 2020 and 2021–but hasn’t come close to the podium since. But Mas is a proven GC contender who has four podium finishes at the Vuelta a España on his resume. Seventh at the Dauphiné, he won’t make a big splash during the first half of the Tour, but the 30-year-old could quietly climb into the top-5 in a Tour that’s back-loaded with mountains.

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What The Tour De France Jerseys Mean

BICYCLING EDITORS — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 02:18:48 +0000

The Tour de France looks so colourfully chaotic that it’s almost psychedelic when the peloton, filled with bright, splashy jerseys, whooshes by in the blink of an eye. All the pro cyclists racing the Tour wear their team jerseys, which are covered in the names of the team and all the sponsors, and are designed to be as bright, recognisable, and eye-catching as possible.

However, throughout the race, four cyclists are awarded different, special coloured jerseys that are unique to the Tour de France. These colours include yellow (maillot jaune), green (maillot vert), red polka dots (maillot à pois rouges), and white (maillot blanc).

Each one of these jerseys has its own meaning and importance. The rider wearing each of these jerseys can change at the end of every stage, and often does, with the special jersey changing hands before the next day’s stage begins.

Here’s a simple breakdown of what each Tour de France jersey colour means and how a rider can win each one.

Yellow Jersey

MARCO BERTORELLO//Getty Images

For most, the race’s fabled yellow jersey, or maillot jaune, stands above all else. It designates the rider who leads the general classification (GC) and has the fastest overall time. After each stage, the riders’ cumulative times of all previous stages are calculated to determine the overall leader. The yellow jersey is then awarded to the GC leader, and he wears it in the following stage. Because the yellow jersey is based on time, not points, a rider who wins the stage may not necessarily win the yellow jersey that day.

Contenders for yellow are well-rounded cyclists and smart tacticians who possess a combination of skills in both climbing and time trialling, but who are also strong enough to hold the pace of the peloton, especially as rival teams work together to drop the leader at every possible opportunity.

Green Jersey

A.S.O./Billy Ceusters

While known as the “sprinter’s jersey,” the green jersey goes to the leader of the Points Classification. The amount of points given depends on the stage profile—whether it’s flat or mountainous, for example. Typically, the winners are the first 10 to 25 riders who cross a stage finish, because the most points are traditionally gained at the end of the flatter stages (where the sprinters shine).

Ultimately, the green goes to a well-rounded and consistent rider, as well as to those who show tremendous persistence, picking up points where they can.

Polka Dot Jersey

a.s.o./charly lopez

The polka dot jersey goes to the leader of the Mountains Classification, otherwise known as King of the Mountains. Points in this contest are awarded to the first riders who reach the summit of designated climbs on each stage.

Tour de France climbs are ranked from category 1 (most difficult) to category 4 (least difficult). A fifth class, hors catégorie (“beyond category”), is reserved for the most challenging ascents. The amount of points awarded depends on the difficulty of each climb, though sometimes shorter or milder climbs will join a higher category if they come at the end of a stage.

Of course, the rider in polka dots must be a strong climber. Often, it goes to small, lightweight guys with very high power outputs. The KoM competition comes into its own once the race heads into the mountain stages, where most points are available.

White Jersey

a.s.o./charly lopez

The white jersey, or maillot blanc, is worn by the leader in the general classification that is 25 years old or under (on January 1 in the year of the race), or put simply: the best young rider with the lowest overall time. For the young, ambitious all-rounders in the race, winning the white jersey is like winning the yellow jersey.

Other Awards

There are two other classifications that are not awarded with a special jersey: the Combativity Award and Team Classification.

Although largely a token prize, winning the Combativity award still gets you a podium appearance once the race finishes on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. After every stage excluding time trials, a panel decides the day’s most aggressive rider. Not necessarily the stage winner, it could be someone who has consistently attacked, instigated a breakaway, or a key player in the stage’s outcome. This rider wears a red race number (instead of black) during the following day’s stage. A Super Combativity award is given on the final stage for the most aggressive rider during the entire Tour.

The Team Classification award is based on the collective time of the three highest-placed riders in the general classification from each team. The three leaders of the team classification wear race numbers that are yellow with black numbers, rather than white with black numbers, and have the option of wearing yellow helmets.

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2025 Tour de France Routes Revealed: New Challenges, High Drama, and Unpredictable Routes

BY WHIT YOST — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 10:11:48 +0000

Each year in late October, journalists and riders gather in Paris for the unveiling of the Tour de France (July 5-27, 2025) and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (July 26-August 3, 2025) routes, eager to see if the rumours about key stages have proven true. Despite the season just ending, the event’s growing prestige reflects cycling’s enduring popularity. This Tuesday, the 2025 routes were revealed, and we’ve been analyzing them to find the standout challenges awaiting riders and fans next year. Here are the key highlights.

A Northern Start for the Men’s Tour de France

After spending most of its time south of Paris in 2024, the 2025 edition begins in Lille, one of France’s largest northern cities. And while it looks fairly mundane compared to the opening stages of the 2023 and 2024 Tours, this will be a tricky weekend for the riders thanks to tight roads, punchy climbs, and a chance for crosswinds blowing in from the English Channel to break the race into the echelons. Expect an intense start to the Tour with a sprinter taking Stage 1, a Classics rider taking Stage 2, and at least one pre-race GC contender losing time either due to a crash or a badly-timed mechanical.

A.S.O. Route map of the 2025 Tour de France

No Cobbles

Lille sits within throwing distance from many of the ancient cobbled farm roads that make April’s Paris-Roubaix one of the most punishing (for the riders) and exciting (for the fans) races of the season. But while the organisers have been more inclined to offer cobbled stages in recent Tours de France, they missed out on a golden opportunity to build one into this year’s Tour. Yes, there will be a few cobbled climbs as the race criss-crosses the region, but these are minor challenges compared to the long, rutted sectors of pavé that the race could have visited.

An Early Individual Time Trial to Honour a D-Day Landmark and Shuffle the GC

The former home of William the Conqueror, the town of Caen was a key objective of the D-Day Invasion during World War II. It took Allied forces over two weeks to liberate the city at a cost of over 30,000 Allied soldiers and more than 3,000 of the town’s inhabitants.

The city is celebrating its millennium in 2025–yup, it’s thousand-year anniversary–so the Tour’s organisers have given it the right to host Stage 5, a 33km flat time trial that should be one of the most important GC battlegrounds of the Tour’s first week. The course favours specialists–like Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel–and it could be the perfect chance for the young Belgian–who finished third as Tour rookie in 2024–to take the first yellow jersey of his career.

Back to the Mur de Bretagne—This Time to Honour the Badger

Stage 7 ends with two trips up the Mûr-de-Bretagne, a short, steep climb in Brittany–not far from the home of Bernard Hinault, the French legend who won five Tours de France in the late-1970s and early-1980s (and is famously nicknamed “the Badger” thanks to his tenacious riding style).

Overall, the Tour’s opening week boasts four stages with punchy, uphill finishes, which means fans are in for a treat at the end of stage–and riders will have to gamble a bit in order to win on these tricky finishes.

Bastille Day Fireworks in the Massif Central at the End of an Extra-long First “Week”

The first “week” of the 2025 Tour de France is actually ten days long, one more day than the riders are accustomed to. That’s because Bastille Day falls on a Monday this year, and the organisers always plan something exciting to entertain the legions of fans celebrating the holiday weekend on the ride of the road or at home.

This year’s Bastille Day stage is no different: a challenging ride through the Massif Central, a rugged region known for steep climbs and high temperatures–which is fitting considering the region was formed by a chain of now-extinct volcanoes. In all, Stage 10 boasts seven Category 2 climbs, over 4,400m of elevation gain, and a finish in Le Mont-Dore on the slopes of the Puy de Sancy, a 3.3km climb with an average gradient of 8-percent. If Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard and Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar race this stage like they did last year’s stage through the region, then we’re all in for a big treat. After ten hard stages–including four of the five longest days in the entire 2025 Tour de France–the riders will be eager to treat themselves to the race’s first Rest Day when it’s over.

A Hattrick of Pyrenean Summit Finishes Highlighted By a True Mountain Time Trial

The Tour’s second “week” begins on a Wednesday and lasts just five days. But with a trip through the Pyrenees including three consecutive summit finishes, the shorter week will be more of a treat for the fans than it will be for the riders.

Stage 13 is the purest mountain time trial we’ve seen in years

The highlight is without a doubt Stage 13’s 11km individual time trial from Loudenvielle up to Peyragudes, the purest mountain time trial we’ve seen in years. There will be no long stretches of flat roads on the run-in to the climb; the riders will roll down the start ramp, have about three kilometres to get their legs moving and then they begin the 8km climb with an average gradient of 7.9-percent and a ramp one kilometre from the finish line that hits 16-percent.

The mountain time trial is sandwiched between a 187km stage with a summit finish to Hautacam on Stage 12; and a Pyrenean mountain-fest on Stage 13: a 183km stage with almost 5,000m of elevation gain (including a trip over the Tourmalet) and a summit finish at the Superbagnères ski resort (Stage 14). These three stages could easily decide the Tour.

The Return of Mont Ventoux

Believe it or not, the Tour de France hasn’t finished atop Mont Ventoux, a bald, lunar-like summit that looms high above Provence, since 2013. A stage was supposed to finish at the summit in 2016, but high winds forced the finish to be moved further down the mountain. (That was the day when Great Britain’s Chris Froome–who won the stage in 2013–was forced off his bike and started running–sans said bike–up the road.) The climb returned in 2021, and while the riders summited it twice, the stage ended in a town back down the mountain.

But Mont Ventoux will be back in 2025, and–if things go as planned–the riders will tackle the 15.9km Géant de Provence at the end of Stage 16. Stages that finish atop Ventoux are always a treat for fans, but this one could be tricky for the riders as it comes right after the Tour’s second Rest Day–and mountain stages that come right out of Rest Days can sometimes be case of “too much, too soon” for riders who need more time to regain the rhythm of racing after a day “off.”

The Col de la Loze Headlines Two Hard Days in the Alps

After making the riders tackle Mont Ventoux at the start of the Tour’s third and final week, the organisers are “treating” them to “just” two days in the Alps near the end of it–but they’re two of the hardest stages in the entire 2025 Tour de France.

Stage 18 is probably the toughest, with 5,500m of elevation gain, three summits that top-out above 2,000m, and a finish on the Col de la Loze, the summit that famously cracked Pogačar in 2023. 26.km long and with two steep ramps near its 2,304m summit, it’s easily the highest–and the hardest–climb in the 2025 Tour de France.

And the next day isn’t much easier, with five summits jammed into just 130km of racing and 4,600m of elevation gain by the time the riders hit the finish line atop the 19.1km climb to La Plagne. Of the six summit finishes in the 2025 Tour de France, these two might be the worst.

The Tour de France Femmes Begins with Two Tricky Stages in Brittany

Just as the Tour de France heads back to Paris (after finishing in Nice in 2024), the 2025 Tour de France Femmes will be getting underway in Brittany, along France’s northwestern coast. And like the men’s stages that came through the area a few weeks earlier, these opening stages will be tricky, with tight roads, punchy climbs, and uphill finishes that could create a GC surprise or two.

A.S.O. Route map of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift

The Longest Tour de France Femmes Yet

Taking place over nine days, the 2025 Tour de France Femmes will also be the longest since the race was relaunched in 2022. The organisers had to receive special permission to run the race over nine stages as the Union Cycliste International (the sport’s governing body) limits Women’s WorldTour stage races to just eight days.

Two Stages for the Sprinters

After the opening weekend, sprinters should get their chances on Stages 3 and 4, with flat finishes expected in Angers and Poitiers. Stage 5 looks destined to go to a breakaway, but earlier in the day the race passes through the town that’s home to the headquarters of FDJ-Suez, the team that just signed 2023 Tour de France Femmes champion Demi Vollering to a 2-year contract. After narrowly losing the race thanks–in part–to an unfortunate crash in 2024, expect Vollering and her new team to enter the Tour looking for revenge.

A Midweek Trip Through Massif Central

As the Tour de France Femmes cuts a diagonal path across the country, the peloton will make another trip through the Massif Central on Stage 6, a 124km ride from Clermont-Ferrand to Ambert with 2,350m of elevation gain spread over five categorized summits. The summit of the final climb (the Col du Chansert) comes about 13km from the finish line in Ambert, but with a flat plateau right after the summit–and a few kilometres before the road plunges downhill in the direction of Ambert–it’s the perfect place to launch a stage-winning–or yellow jersey-stealing–attack.

Another Alpine Finale for the Femmes

For the second year, the Tour de France Femmes will be decided in the Alps with Stages 8 and 9 offering the perfect opportunity for a high-mountain showdown. Saturday’s Stage 8 begins in Chambéry–which hosts the finish of Stage 7–and then starts climbing right away. But the highlight has to be the summit finish on Col de la Madeleine, a 18.6km climb with an average gradient of 8.1%. Even more climbing still to come on Stage 9, the race could be over by the top of this climb.

But if it isn’t, Stage 9 will settle things with another 2,880m of elevation gain and three more categorized summits. It’s not as brutal as Stage 8, but after eight days of hard racing–and with a trip over the Col de Joux-Plane midway through the 124km stage–it’s going to do some damage.

No Time Trial

Despite having nine stages, there will be no time trials in the 2025 Tour de France Femmes, and we like it. Let’s face it, time trials can be a bit…um…boring at times, and given the way each road stage in the last two Tours de France Femmes has been raced, we’re all for more of them. And without a time trial to help sort the GC, we might see more risk-taking and few surprise attacks as riders try to capitalise on the race’s several less-predictable days–which will be a major treat for fans watching from home.

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An Unforgettable Second Place: Jonas Vingegaard’s Remarkable Tour de France

BY MICHAEL VENUTOLO-MANTOVANI — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 09:12:57 +0000

Ten, twenty, or thirty years from now, people will look back to the 111th edition of the Tour de France and mostly remember the performance of Slovenian phenom Tadej Pogačar. They’ll remember his insatiable need to win and those trademark mountainside attacks that made everyone else—the best climbers in the world, to be sure—look like they were standing still.

They might also remember, though less clearly, the history made in that Tour edition: Britain’s Sir Mark Cavendish finally breaking the all-time record for stage wins, Eritrean Biniam Girmay becoming the first Black racer ever to win a classification in a Grand Tour, Richard Carapaz as the first Ecuadorian to wear the Yellow Jersey and win a Tour de France stage.

They might remember the race’s second-place finisher. Perhaps only because he’d won the two previous Tours de France editions and, for a time, was the only person on Earth who could beat Pogačar in the French Grand Tour.

What history is far less likely to remember is that Vingegaard gave perhaps the most extraordinary performance in the Tour de France’s history. But as we know, history rarely remembers second place. And this, after all, was a bicycle race, and someone had to lose. And Vingegaard lost to a rider looking more and more like one of the greatest of all time.

Photo: A.S.O./ Billy_Ceusters

But in losing to Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard still beat one-hundred-and-seventy-four of the world’s strongest bike racers. He beat João Almeida and Adam Yates and Carlos Rodríguez and Mikel Landa. He also beat Remco Evenepoel, a rider who might be in the pantheon of greats when his career is finally over. He beat Richard Carapaz, the King of the Mountains, up some of the biggest and more fearsome climbs in bike racing. Over the last three weeks, Vingegaard beat all but one man. And he was only six minutes and seventeen seconds behind him. And he did it a mere twelve weeks after a crash that hospitalised him for nearly two weeks.

It’s impossible to say what kind of shape the Dane was in when the Tour rolled out of Florence, Italy, on June 29—but missing that much training time ahead of what is widely regarded as one of the toughest challenges in all of sport took a massive toll.

We saw it all over his face in that first, atypically brutal week. We saw the pain streaked across Vingegaard’s cheeks with every climb. We saw him fighting to keep his shoulders relaxed, and his cadence normalised. But we saw him respond as best he could to everything Pogačar tried to throw at him. Sometimes, like at the end of his win on Stage 11, it worked. Most times, it didn’t.

In those final few Alpine days, which everyone eyed as Vingegaard’s last chance to attack, he simply stuck to the wheels on those in front of him, desperate to stay in second place. In that final mountain stage, when he heroically pulled Pogačar up the Col de la Couillole, past Carapaz, who was resplendent in head-to-toe polka dots, only to be dropped when Pogačar attacked, we saw a rider performing on pure instinct.

When we saw him heaped in a pile atop his handlebars moments after, fighting back tears as his wife, Trine Hansen, rushed to comfort him, we saw a bike racer completely drained of everything but emotion.

At that moment, with Hansen rubbing her husband’s back amid hordes of cameras shoved in their faces, we saw the culmination of arguably the greatest performance in Tour history. But history will likely forget this performance because history rarely remembers second place.

Toward the end of the Tour, when it was realised that the race was basically over, there was much talk about next year. The punditry bloviated about looking forward to a showdown between a world-beating Pogačar and a fully healthy Vingegaard in the 112th Tour de France. The conversation trudged on as if this year’s matchup was something of a wash. Meanwhile, one of the greatest performances in Tour de France history continued to unfold before our eyes. But it may have been easy to miss, considering it wasn’t that of the winner.

Many people say we’re lucky to be living in a time when Tadej Pogačar is racing, to be watching someone do things that no rider has been able to since the great Eddy Merckx. And I agree. We, as cycling fans, are so, so lucky. But we’re just as lucky to be watching a man like Jonas Vingegaard, who just beat one-hundred-and-seventy-four of the world’s greatest bike riders on little more than emotion, determination, and guts.

Photo: A.S.O./ Billy Ceusters

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