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)

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)

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

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.