It’s that time of year again – the Tour de France is inching ever closer, and excitement is building for the biggest cycling event of the year.
Of course, much of the pre-race discussion has been about the fate of the yellow jersey. It promises to be another attacking, aggressive and high-quality showdown, as the same star names who competed last year return to headline once again.
But one of the beautiful things about the Tour is the many subplots that also contribute to the narrative of the race. Every stage has drama, every team has ambitions, and every classification is hotly fought for, in a way that no other race can match.
Let’s stick our neck out and predict who we think the standout riders of this year’s race will be.
Yellow jersey winner
The exact same quartet that attracted so much hype this time last year will again line-up with their eye on the yellow jersey, only this time the contest between them is being deemed as much more one-sided. That’s because of everything Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) has achieved these past 12 months, soaring ahead of the rest as comfortably the best rider in the world, and exhibiting an air of invincibility that makes it hard to envision anyone — even those as strong as these opponents — defeating him.
Still, there are reasons to believe that the others might push him closer this time around. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) mercifully goes into this race with a clean bill of health, in stark contrast to his injury-compromised run-in to last year’s race. And though he was no match for Pogačar at the Critérium du Dauphiné, the Dane has said he’s confident that he can close the gap on the longer climbs and overall duration of the Tour de France, while it shouldn’t be forgotten how comprehensively he defeated him in both 2022 and 2023.
Pogačar goes into the Tour as the clear favourite
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) is another year older and another year wiser, and hopes to build on his third-place finish on debut last year and compete with the other two. Sure, he too was well off Pogačar’s pace at the Dauphiné; but that was also the case last year, when he actually finished lower in that race (seventh, compared with fourth this time) before peaking for the Tour. And though Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) has barely been talked about, going under the radar having not raced since abandoning the Giro d’Italia, he did look as good…