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What to know about the 2023 tour de france: route, teams, rules, prize money.

Since 1903, the Tour de France has encaptured the beauty, rigor and passion of cycling. The race that embarked over a century ago, however, bears many differences to the 2023 Tour de France we will see shortly.

The Tour de France has catapulted to popularity since its early days, becoming the pinnacle of the sport of cycling and inspiring riders for generations to come. The 110th Tour de France is mere weeks away, with NBC and Peacock providing full coverage of the thrilling event. See below for everything you need to know about the highly anticipated 2023 Tour de France.

RELATED: Tadej Pogačar, Jai Hindley among cyclists to watch at 2023 Tour de France

When is the 2023 Tour de France?

The 2023 Tour de France will take place from July 1-23. The riders will embark on the first stage in Bilbao on Saturday, July 1, with coverage on NBC Sports and Peacock from start to finish.

As the riders venture along the difficult course, the race will find its finish as it has since 1975, on the street of Champs-Élysées in Paris.

What is the Tour de France schedule and route?

How long is this year’s route.

This year’s Tour route is a total of 3,404 km (2,115 miles) that is spread out over a span of three weeks. The riders will complete one stage per day, with two rest days on July 10 (between stages 9 and 10) and July 17 (between stages 15 and 16).

What are the rules of the Tour de France?

While the Tour de France is an event known well by most, fully understanding how the race works can sometimes pose a challenge.

The Tour de France is a team race, featuring a total of 198 cyclists from 22 different teams competing over a span of 21 days. Across these 21 days, riders will complete 21 stages: 6 flat, 6 hilly, 8 mountain and 1 individual time trial.

This year’s race will be the first year since 2015 that the Tour has only one individual time trial rather than two, with just 14 miles of time trial racing on the route.

Each stage winner receives €11,000, with every rider in the top 20 from each stage receiving a cash prize as well.

While the general classification champion of the Tour de France is the rider wearing the yellow jersey as the race concludes, there are numerous accolades to be granted to cyclists throughout the race and at the Tour’s end.

Aside from the yellow jersey, the most notable of these accolades are the green, polka-dot and white jerseys. These achievements all hold different meanings and are accompanied with a cash prize. It is possible for one rider to earn numerous jerseys at the conclusion of the Tour, such as last year’s winner Jonas Vingegaard, who took home both the yellow and polka-dot jerseys.

RELATED: 2023 Tour de France Jerseys: What do the yellow, green, white and polka dot jerseys mean?

What does the winner receive?

Throughout the years, the prize awarded to the winner of the Tour de France has varied. The first Tour de France ever staged in 1903 granted a prize of 20,000 francs, which amounts to approximately $22,280.

For 2023, a grand total of €2,308,200 is on offer ($2,526,735). This number, however, is not all given to one rider, but rather split among top general classification riders, stage winners, top sprinters and winners of other minor awards.

The largest share of the prize is granted to the winner of the maillot jaune (general classification), who will take home €500,000. The runner-up receives €200,000, third gets €100,000 and fourth is awarded €70,000.

If a rider is donning the green jersey ( maillot vert), however, the prize is divided as follows:

Other prizes are granted to riders, such as those wearing the “King of the Mountains” jersey and the white jersey, along with the cyclist dubbed “Most Aggressive Rider”. Numerous other small prizes will be distributed throughout the tour.

One of the most sought after prizes, however, is the team award. The team who wins the Tour de France is the group that contains the three fastest cumulative finishers on each stage. The amount granted to each team on the podium is as follows:

Last year’s winner was the group hailing from Denmark in Team Jumbo-Visma.

How many teams are in the Tour?

22 teams will make up the peloton of the Tour de France. Of these teams are the 18 UCI WorldTeams that received an automatic invite and four UCI ProTeams.

UCI WorldTeams

• AG2R Citroën Team (Fra)
• Alpecin Deceuninck (Bel)
• Astana Qazaqstan Team (Kaz)
• Bora-Hansgrohe (Ger)
• EF Education-Easypost (Usa)
• Groupama-FDJ (Fra)
• Ineos Grenadiers (Gbr)
• Intermarché-Circus-Wanty (Bel)
• Jumbo-Visma (Ned)
• Movistar Team (Esp)
• Soudal Quick-Step (Bel)
• Team Arkea-Samsic (Fra)
• Team Bahrain Victorious (Brn)
• Team Cofidis (Fra)
• Team DSM (Ned)
• Team Jayco AlUla (Aus)
• Trek-Segafredo (Usa)
• UAE Team Emirates (Uae)

UCI ProTeams

• Lotto Dstny (Bel)
• TotalEnergies (Fra)
• Israel-Premier Tech (Isr)
• Uno-X Pro Cycling Team (Nor)

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Tour de France 2023: full team-by-team guide

Our in-depth look at every team, the main riders to watch and the cast of characters racing through France this summer

• Stage-by-stage guide to this year’s Tour de France

Ag2R-Citroën

Veteran French Tour battlers notorious for wearing brown shorts. Their Australian climber Ben O’Connor had a nightmare in 2022, ripping a muscle in a crash, but O’Connor is back on form this season so they need a repeat of his 2021 feats, with Paret-Peintre and Cosnefroy likely to target hilly stages.

Team Stan Dewulf, Clément Berthet, Felix Gall, Aurélien Paret-Peintre, Ben O’Connor, Benoît Cosnefroy, Oliver Naesen, Nans Peters

Main man Ben O’Connor – Aussie mountain man still out to prove 2021’s fourth overall was not a fluke

Alpecin-Deceuninck

From a relatively small cyclo-cross squad this cannily managed Dutch team has grown into a force to be reckoned with, mainly due to the presence of Mathieu van der Poel, the most charismatic racer in the bunch, but also because the team has recruited wisely around him. At the Tour they focus on Jasper Philipsen for the sprints and perhaps the green points jersey, with VdP targeting everything bar the high mountains; he will be a favourite on stage one’s short steep hills. Van der Poel took a long rest after his Classics campaign which seems to have paid off given his form in late June.

Team Silvain Dillier, Michael Gogl, Søren Kragh Andersen, Mathieu van der Poel, Quinten Hermans, Jasper Philipsen, Jonas Rickaert, Ramon Sinkeldam

Main man Mathieu van der Poel – flying this year, with two major Classic wins and a dominant display in the Tour of Belgium: expect fireworks.

Arkea-Samsic

This Breton-centred squad don’t have enough firepower to thrive in cycling’s most competitive milieu. Leader Warren Barguil was the future once but now looks like just another plucky contender. They will put riders in the daily daring moves but it’s hard to foresee a great deal more.

Team Warren Barguil, Clément Champoussin, Simone Guglielmi, Anthony Delaplace, Luca Mozzato, Jenthe Biermans, Matîs Louvel, Laurent Pichon

Main man Warren Barguil. “Wawa” was King of the Mountains and double stage winner in 2017, but there’s only so long you can live off past glories.

Astana Qazaqstan

Kakakhstan’s finest have changed tack by hiring Mark Cavendish; a stage win for the Manxman is the obvious target but there’s not a lot of sprint support here apart from Cees Bol, with Moscon for the grunt work beforehand. To hedge their bets, Federov and Lutsenko will target mountain stages.

Team Mark Cavendish, Aleksei Lutsenko, Cees Bol, David de la Cruz, Yevgeniy Federov, Luis Leon Sanchez, Gianni Moscon, Harold Tejada

Main man Mark Cavendish – the greatest sprinter of all needs one Tour stage win for the absolute record but it won’t be simple given the dearth of sprint stages.

Bahrain Victorious

Likely to be scarred mentally by the shocking death of Gino Mäder in the Tour of Switzerland, but if that tragedy brings them together, most of the riders look to be coming to form and they have a raft of chances to be “victorious” with new British champion Wright, Poels, Bilbao and Mohoric.

Team Niklas Arndt, Phil Bauhaus, Jack Haig, Pello Bilbao, Fred Wright, Mikel Landa, Matej Mohoric, Wout Poels

Main man Mikel Landa – the Basque climber is a cult figure due to his enigmatic, tragic mien; he could make the top five or fall apart. That’s “Landismo”.

Bora-Hansgrohe

Multiple opportunities for Germany’s finest, who pulled an excellently crafted Giro d’Italia win out of the bag last year with Australian climber Jai Hindley – quite the progression since their humble beginnings as team NetApp more than 10 years ago. Once again there is no place for the sprinter Sam Bennett, who has not ridden the Tour since winning two stages and the points prize in 2020. Around Hindley there’s plenty of climbing strength with Konrad, Buchman and Higuita plus a 2022 stage winner in Jungels, and a sprinter who can look after himself in Meeus.

Team Emanuel Buchman, Marco Haller, Jai Hindley, Bob Jungels, Patrick Konrad, Nils Politt, Jordi Meeus, Danny van Poppel, plus one to be named by Friday 30 June

Main man Jai Hindley. Fourth in the recent Criterium du Dauphiné bodes well but can he step up into cycling’s most hostile environment?

A team of options and caveats. Zingle, Martin, Lafay, Izaguirre and Geschke can hope for an opportunistic stage win, while Coquard is competitive in a small group finish. But they will struggle to rival the heavyweights so will probably end up with the French fallback: the daily suicide break.

Team Bryan Coquard, Simon Geschke, Ion Izaguirre, Victor Lafay, Guillaume Martin, Anthony Perez, Alexis Renard, Axel Zingle

Main man: Guillaume Martin – a cerebral climber who has written a book on philosophy; he could scrape into the top 10 overall but that looks like his limit.

DSM-Firmenich

This squad doesn’t have the biggest budget but it has a knack of landing key wins when it matters. They split neatly into a climbing half around the evergreen Romain Bardet, and Degenkolb, Edmondson and Eeckhoff in the sprint half in support of Sam Welsford – one of the surprises of this season.

Team Nils Eeckhoff, John Degenkolb, Kevin Vermaerke, Alex Edmondson, Sam Welsford, Matthew Dinham, Chris Hamilton, Romain Bardet.

Main man Romain Bardet. No longer the force he was when he finished second in the 2016 Tour but still capable of a solid top 10 overall.

EF Education-Easypost

The American team that loves to act the kooky underdogs but the facts belie this. They had a great Tour in 2022 thanks to Magnus Cort’s stage win; this year they had notched up 20 race wins by late June. The Olympic champion Carapaz, Bettiol, Uran and Powless could all land a stage.

Team Richard Carapaz, Rigoberto Uran, Neilson Powless, Alberto Bettiol, Esteban Chaves, Magnus Cort, James Shaw, Andrey Amador

Main man Magnus Cort – behind the (sponsored) fighter pilot moustache is a ruthless stage hunter chasing his 10th Grand Tour stage win.

Groupama-FDJ

In their 27th Tour, as usual it’s going to be fly or flop, with a bit more pressure after leader David Gaudu’s spat with sprinter Arnaud Démare sidelined this proven winner. Much loved Thibaut Pinot starts his final Tour; expect tears aplenty, hopefully on the Champs Elysées rather than before.

Team David Gaudu, Kevin Geniets, Stefan Küng, Olivier Le Gac, Valentin Madouas, Quentin Pacher, Thibaut Pinot, Lars Van den Berg

Main man David Gaudu – is France’s best hope for a podium finish but can he bear the weight of a nation?

Ineos Grenadiers

Once upon a time, the squad reputed to be the richest in cycling were the ones to beat in the Tour, but they have lost direction since Chris Froome’s departure and Egan Bernal’s horrific crash in 2022, and are now scrabbling to keep up with Jumbo and UAE. That’s reflected in a victory haul this season of around half that of the Big Two. A lot hangs on Tom Pidcock, winner at l’Alpe d’Huez last year; with Bernal struggling to return to his best, this line-up prompts a mild chin stroke rather than a sense of shock and awe.

Team Dani Martínez, Tom Pidcock, Michal Kwiatkowski, Jonathan Castroviejo, Carlos Rodriguez, Egan Bernal, Omar Fraile, Ben Turner

Main man Tom Pidcock. Super talented and a terrifyingly good bike handler, the 23-year-old Yorkshireman needs to build on a great 2022 race.

Intermarché-Circus-Wanty

Seamless progress for the Walloon team since their Tour debut in 2018. No Belgians in their squad which won’t go down well at home, but they have a real stage win hope in Girmay, a potential top 10 finisher in Meintjes and wildcards such as Calmejane, Costa and Teunissen.

Team Lilian Calmejane, Rui Costa, Biniam Girmay, Louis Meintjes, Adrien Petit, Dion Smith, Mike Teunissen, Georg Zimmerman.

Main man Biniam Girmay – after landing a sprint stage of the Giro last year, the Eritrean is a good bet to become the first black African Tour stage winner.

Israel-PremierTech

With only five wins this year, they need to buck that trend with climber Woods, the punchy Teuns, sprinter Strong or all-rounder Clarke. They will have to box clever, because none of these is the very best at their speciality. No place for Chris Froome after his poor start to 2023.

Team Guillaume Boivin, Simon Clarke, Hugo Houle, Krists Neilands, Nick Schultz, Corbin Strong, Dylan Teuns, Michael Woods

Main man Michael Woods – 36 years old and a four-minute miler in the past, the Canadian is a decent outside bet on any steep uphill finish.

Jayco-AlUla

All in for sprinter Groenewegen and climber Yates. Yates has had a lean 2023, but he’s notched up 10 Grand Tour stages since 2018 and will have plenty of chances in a very hard Tour. Harper and Craddock support him in the mountains; Mezgec will deliver Groenewegen in the sprints.

Lawson Craddock, Luke Durbridge, Dylan Groenewegen, Chris Harper, Chris Juul-Jensen, Luka Mezgec, Elmar Reinders, Simon Yates

Main man Dylan Groenewegen. Looking for his sixth career Tour stage win, the Dutchman has had a strong season with half a dozen wins to his name already.

Jumbo-Visma

One of the two “superteams” in the race; there are times when Jumbo seem to win when, how and where they want. Here it’s all in for Vingegaard with Küss, Van Baarle and Kelderman his mountain support crew. The biggest asset is Wout van Aert, the most powerful all-rounder in cycling, who could probably hope to win half a dozen stages if he was the team leader. What’s disconcerting is that Jumbo put out a strong squad to win this year’s Giro with Primoz Roglic, and they can afford to leave all of them out of the Tour including the Slovene.

Team Wilco Kelderman, Dylan van Baarle, Wout van Aert, Tiesj Benoot, Christopher Laporte, Nathan van Hooydonck, Sep Küss, Jonas Vingegaard

Main man Jonas Vingegaard – wraith-like Dane who had the climbing legs to break Tadej Pogacar when it mattered last year, but the second Tour win never comes easy

There’s plenty of value for money here. It’s all about stage wins. The 2019 world champion Mads Pedersen is the best bet, but Skjelmose took the recent Tour of Switzerland while Ciccone landed stages in Catalonia and the Dauphiné. They boast three newly crowned national champions in Skjelmose, Kirsch and Simmons.

Giulio Ciccone, Tony Gallopin, Alex Kirsch, Juan Pedro Lopez, Mads Pedersen, Quinn Simmons, Mattias Skjelmose, Jesper Stuyven

Main man Mads Pedersen – he has stage wins at the Giro and Paris-Nice to his name this year, and will have a good chance on the hillier days at the Tour

Lotto-Dstny

Relegated to the second division last season, Belgium’s oldest team put most of their eggs in a basket labelled Caleb Ewan. Most of the team will be dedicated to ensuring he is in the right place at sprint finishes; strongmen Vermeersch and Campenaerts may be let off the leash on the non-sprint days.

Team Caleb Ewan, Jasper de Buyst, Jacopo Guarnieri, Florian Vermeersch, Frederik Frison, Victor Campenaerts, Pascal Eenkhorn, Maxim van Gils

Main man Caleb Ewan – five Tour stages to his name so far, one more would make Lotto’s Tour.

There’s a mid-table look to cycling’s oldest team, a far cry from when Miguel Indurain won five Tours in a row. Mas can target the podium, and Jorgensen is one of the most exciting prospects in the sport, but the fact he’s rumoured to be moving on in 2024 speaks volumes.

Team Alex Aranburu, Ruben Guerreiro, Gorka Izaguirre, Matteo Jorgensen, Enric Mas, Gregor Mühlberger, Neilson Oliveira, Antonio Pedrero

Main man Enric Mas – often the bridesmaid never the bride, the Spaniard is one of the big group targeting third place behind the Big Two while aiming for better if they falter.

Soudal-Quickstep

Belgian winning machine have converted themselves to a Grand Tour team led by Remco Evenepoel, who sits this one out. Here it’s about fidgety Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe and sprinter Fabio Jakobsen. “Juju” is under pressure from manager Patrick Lefevère and needs to find his former magic touch, while Jakobsen needs to at least repeat his stage win of last year; his five victories this year suggest that’s on the cards with the support of top lead-out man Mørkøv. Asgreen, Lampaert and Cavagna will support Alaphilippe in the hills and go in the breaks when he’s having a recovery day.

Team Julian Alaphilippe, Yves Lampaert, Tim Decelercq, Dries Devenyns, Fabio Jakobsen, Kasper Asgreen, Michael Mørkøv, Remi Cavagna

Main man Julian Alaphilippe – double world champion endured a torrid 2022 but has won twice this year and will be a favourite for stage one.

TotalEnergies

Once a reservoir of developing French talent, now a home for stars past their sell-by dates such as Boasson-Hagen, Oss and Sagan, while French riders Turgis and Latour are no longer cutting edge. Between them they will deliver various near misses, while a stage win would be a miracle.

Team Edvald Boasson-Hagen, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Steff Cras, Valentin Ferron, Pierre Latour, Daniel Oss, Peter Sagan, Anthony Turgis

Main man Peter Sagan. Once a mega star, the multiple world champion, Tour stage winner and record points winner is now on his farewell Tour.

UAE Team Emirates

Cycling’s other “super team”, with a wealth of strong men to rival Jumbo-Visma in support of double Tour winner Tadej Pogacar, who had taken on another dimension this year with his wins in the Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold and Flèche Wallonne before his untimely crash in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Behind “Pog”, Adam Yates has hit form in the Critérium du Dauphiné and won the Tour de Romandie back in May, so should prove a decent understudy. After illness ripped through their ranks in last year’s Tour, arguably contributing to Pogacar’s defeat to Vingegaard, every cough, sniffle and minor headache will be viewed with suspicion.

Team Mikkel Bjerg, Felix Grossschartner, Vejgard Stake Langen, Rafal Majka, Tadej Pogacar, Marc Soler, Matteo Trentin, Adam Yates

Main man Tadej Pogacar – cycling’s biggest winner is targeting a third Tour; wins in his national road and time trial titles suggests the form has returned after a hiatus to nurse a broken wrist.

Invited to their first Tour, the Norwegian squad have a solid reputation for developing new talent and making the most of their resources. They bring a promising line-up fronted by veteran sprinter Kristoff, climbers Johanneson and Traeen, a strong all rounder in Waerenschold, plus the gritty Rasmus Tiller at the helm.

Team Jonas Abrahamsen, Torsten Traeen, Søren Waerenschold, Anton Charmig, Jonas Gregaard, Rasmus Tiller, Tobias Halland Johannesen, Alexander Kristoff

Main man Alexander Kristoff – is long in the tooth but could still snag a stage win; in a team of Tour debutants his experience will be crucial.

Changes can be made until Friday 30 June. Team line-ups correct at time of publication

• Tour de France 2023
• Tour de France

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Tour de France 2023 team guide: Start list, star riders for Jumbo-Visma, UAE Team Emirates, Ineos and all 22 teams

Updated 30/06/2023 at 21:12 GMT

Our Tour de France 2023 preview series continues with a team guide looking at each of the 22 teams and weighing up their options, targets and best riders ahead of the 110th edition of the race. Felix Lowe also asks the important question on the tip of everyone’s tongues: what French thing would each of the participating teams be? Stream the 2023 Tour de France live and on-demand on discovery+.

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Pogacar and Vollering star in top 10 riders of 2023 - but who gets top spot?

01/01/2024 at 11:01

• Tour de France stage guide as Pogacar and Vingegaard chase yellow

UCI WorldTeams

Ag2r citroen.

• Ben O’Connor
• Oliver Naisen
• Benoit Cosnefroy
• Nans Peters
• Felix Gall*
• Aurelien Paret-Peintre
• Stan Dewulf
• Clement Berthet*

ALPECIN-DECEUNINCK

• Mathieu van der Poel
• Soren Kragh Andersen
• Quinten Hermans
• Michael Gogl
• Jonas Rickaert
• Jasper Philipsen*
• Ramon Sinkeldam
• Silvan Dillier

'I feel like a new person' - Van der Poel 'confident' going into 2023 Tour de France

ASTANA QAZAQSTAN

• Alexey Lutsenko
• Gianni Moscon
• Yevgeniy Fedorov*
• Mark Cavendish
• David de la Cruz
• Luis Leon Sanchez
• Harold Tejada

'It’s going to be a fairytale!' – Cavendish wins Stage 21 after help from Thomas

BAHRAIN-VICTORIOUS

• Mikel Landa
• Matej Mohoric
• Pello Bilbao
• Fred Wright*
• Nikias Arndt
• Phil Bauhaus

BORA-HANSGROHE

• Emanuel Buchmann
• Marco Haller
• Jai Hindley
• Bob Jungels
• Jordi Meeus*
• Patrick Konrad
• Nils Politt
• Danny van Poppel
• Guillaume Martin
• Anthony Perez
• Ion Izagirre
• Simon Geschke
• Bryan Coquard
• Alexis Renard*
• Axel Zingle*
• Victor Lafay

EF EDUCATION-EASYPOST

• Richard Carapaz
• Alberto Bettiol
• Rigoberto Uran
• Neilson Powless
• Esteban Chaves
• Magnus Cort
• Andrey Amador

GROUPAMA-FDJ

• David Gaudu
• Valentin Madouas
• Thibaut Pinot
• Lars van den Berg*
• Olivier Le Gac
• Stefan Kung
• Quentin Pacher
• Kevin Geniets

INEOS GRENADIERS

• Egan Bernal
• Michal Kwiatkowski
• Carlos Rodriguez*
• Daniel Martinez
• Thomas Pidcock*
• Jonathan Castroviejo
• Ben Turner*
• Omar Fraile

‘Heart in your mouth’ – Pidcock flies past rivals at terrifying speeds on descent

INTERMARCHE-CIRCUS-WANTY

• Louis Meintjes
• Georg Zimmermann
• Mike Teunissen
• Adrien Petit
• Biniam Girmay*
• Lilian Calmejane

JUMBO-VISMA

• Jonas Vingegaard
• Wilco Kelderman
• Wout van Aert
• Tiesj Benoot
• Dylan van Baarle
• Christophe Laporte
• Nathan van Hooydonck

So then... can Wout van Aert win yellow?

• Giulio Ciccone
• Tony Gallopin
• Mattias Skjelmose*
• Jasper Stuyven
• Juan Pedro Lopez
• Mads Pedersen
• Alex Kirsch
• Quinn Simmons*
• Matteo Jorgenson*
• Ruben Guerreiro
• Nelson Oliveira
• Gorka Izagirre
• Gregor Muhlberger
• Antonio Pedrero
• Alex Aranburu

SOUDAL QUICK-STEP

• Julian Alaphilippe
• Kasper Asgreen
• Yves Lampaert
• Remi Cavagna
• Tim Declercq
• Michael Morkov
• Fabio Jakobsen
• Dries Devenyns

TEAM ARKEA SAMSIC

• Warren Barguil
• Clement Champoussin*
• Anthony Delaplace
• Laurent Pichon
• Simon Guglielmi
• Jenthe Biermans
• Luca Mozzato*
• Matis Louvel*

TEAM DSM-FIRMENICH

• Romain Bardet
• John Degenkolb
• Matthew Dinham*
• Alexander Edmondson
• Nils Eekhoff*
• Chris Hamilton
• Kevin Vermaerke
• Sam Welsford

TEAM JAYCO ALULA

• Simon Yates
• Dylan Groenewegen
• Luka Mezgec
• Elmar Reinders
• Lawson Craddock
• Luke Durbridge
• Chris Harper
• Christopher Juul-Jensen

UAE TEAM EMIRATES

• Tadej Pogacar*
• Vegard Stake Laengen
• Felix Grossschartner
• Mikkel Bjerg*
• Rafal Majka
• Matteo Trentin

‘Wow’ – Vingegaard allows Pogacar to catch up after crash in ‘incredible’ gesture

UCI ProTeams

Israel-premier tech.

• Michael Woods
• Dylan Teuns
• Nick Schultz
• Krists Neilands
• Simon Clarke
• Guillaume Boivin
• Corbin Strong

LOTTO DSTNY

• Victor Campenaerts
• Jasper De Buyst
• Pascal Eenkhoorn
• Frederik Frison
• Jacopo Guarnieri
• Florian Vermeersch*
• Maxim van Gils*

TOTALENERGIES

• Peter Sagan
• Edvald Boasson Hagen
• Pierre Latour
• Anthony Turgis
• Mathieu Burgaudeau
• Valentin Ferron*

UNO-X PRO CYCLING TEAM

• Alexander Kristoff
• Torstein Traeen
• Soren Waerenskjold*
• Jonas Abrahamsen
• Anthon Charmig*
• Jonas Gregaard
• Tobias Johannessen
• Rasmus Tiller

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18/10/2023 at 12:09

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27/07/2023 at 14:07

Vingegaard has 'little way to go' before Merckx comparisons – McEwen

25/07/2023 at 16:44

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How does a Tour de France team work?

From the domestiques to the massage therapists, every Tour de France team is made up of a million moving parts, any one of which could derail months of work.

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It takes much more than one supremely talented skinny man to win the Tour de France . That man matters, certainly, but Chris Froome would probably not be a four-time overall yellow jersey winner if he also didn’t have the best, most well-funded team in the sport surrounding him. (Maybe two or three times in that case — give or take a salbutamol inhaler).

It’s easy to lose sight of the importance of teammates in cycling. The Tour goes out of its way to make itself seem like an individual competition, giving the race leader a bright yellow jersey that can be seen from helicopters and propping him up on a podium after each stage to wave flowers and a plush lion at the cameras.

But don’t fooled. Cycling is about much more than pure physical effort. Yellow jersey contenders need teammates to make sure they use their energy as efficiently as possible while climbing some of the biggest mountains in the world. And in perhaps no other sport are the support staff — the team directors, soigneurs, mechanics, and chefs — so critically important to the mission, too.

Every Tour de France team is an intricate machine that could collapse if any part of it fails.

Teams are made up of eight riders who do everything together

Race, eat, recover, and repeat, for 21 stages and nearly 2,100 miles over 23 days. It should be noted that not all riders are the same. There are 22 teams in the Tour de France, each organized under a sponsor. The sponsors tend to be banks, energy companies, and bicycle companies.

Here’s a brief explanation of the most common types of riders you will see on the road.

The yellow jersey contender: The competition for the yellow jersey is based on the leader of the general classification, which ranks all 176 riders by time. The riders on top of the general classification at the end of the Tour tend to be strong climbers and time trialists, because mountain and time trial stages usually create the biggest time gaps. Teams can have multiple yellow jersey contenders — like Movistar this year with Nairo Quintana, Mikel Landa, and Alejandro Valverde — or one clear boss — like Team Sky and four-time Tour winner Chris Froome.

Teams like Sky are rigidly mechanical and deadly. They come into the Tour with a plan and follow it to the letter. Teams like Movistar function much more loosely, seemingly making up the gameplan on the fly.

The domestique: A domestique is essentially a helper rider, someone who sacrifices his chances to climb up the general classification or win a stage so that a teammate can succeed. Domestiques will often gather water bottles from team cars to pass out among teammates, or ride in front of a team leader to cut the wind for him, or even give up his bicycle if the team leader suffers a mechanical problem.

Depending on the type of stage, anyone — including the yellow jersey contender — could act as a domestique. For example, on a flat stage when there isn’t much time to gain, a pure climber might do domestique duties so that sprinters who are capable of winning the stage can focus on riding their fastest. When the terrain gets bumpier, those roles reverse.

The sprinter: Many casual fans understand the importance of the yellow jersey, but nearly as prestigious among riders is the green jersey, which is awarded to the rider who earns the most points from stage wins and intermediate sprints. These riders tend to be the fastest riders in terms of pure speed, because the biggest chunk of Tour de France stages take place on relatively flat land.

Other important types of riders include the puncheur — all-around riders who are best at courses that are not too steep, and not too flat — and the time trial specialist — also a good all-around rider and valuable domestique , but particularly well-suited for riding alone against the clock. The best yellow jersey contenders — Chris Froome, particularly — are often great time trialists.

Again, the important thing to note is that, at certain points during the Tour, any of these riders could act as a domestique . Everyone has to make sacrifices for the good of the team.

The key to any tactic on the road is drafting

Every move is based the fact that it is much easier to ride behind someone than in front of someone. Scientists don’t quite agree on the extent, but the effect of sitting on another rider’s wheel is a 27 percent to 50 percent reduction in wind drag . That’s why when you watch the Tour de France, you’ll often see the best riders sitting third or fourth wheel within a line of seven of their teammates.

The long leadout trains are most easily seen on the flat stages, when teams will work hard to move their sprinters to the front of the peloton — the big bunch of 100-plus riders sticking close together — and keep his legs fresh before he bursts forward to challenge for the stage victory. Teamwork is perhaps most critical in the mountains, however. When Team Sky takes to the Alps, expect to see riders like Geraint Thomas, Egan Bernal, and Wout Poels near Chris Froome at all times, doing as much work as they can for their team leader for as long as their legs will hold out.

Riders like Thomas are often called superdomestiques for being yellow jersey-caliber riders who nonetheless are willing to sacrifice for a team leader.

Having a teammate or two on difficult climbs is often what makes a great rider a champion. For the last several years, for example, Thomas has acted essentially as Froome’s guard dog. Whenever a rival would try to attack by accelerating from Froome up a steep slope, Thomas would chase and take Froome with him on his wheel, keeping the attacks at bay while insuring that Froome doesn’t have to expend more energy than necessary.

A great team can also go to the front of the peloton and drive the pace relentlessly high, snuffing out any idea of an attack before it begins. Not only is Sky ridiculously talented top to bottom, it is also incredibly well coordinated, sharing the energy load as equitably as possible and driving all of their rivals mad.

But no team can be great without proper support staff

In 2014, I spoke to a member of BMC Racing’s staff , and this is what the team brought to support its nine riders:

Minimum 17 staff: four soigneurs , four mechanics, a general manager, two race directors; a cook, a press officer, a hospitality manager, a technical director, a doctor and a photographer. 10 vehicles: one truck, one bus, one sprinter, one van and six cars. 27 road bikes, 18 time trial bikes and 80 pairs of wheels. 2,000 bottles 400 musettes 1,000 energy bars 1,500 gel packs The kit per each rider, which includes the following: four bibs, four short sleeve jerseys, two long sleeve thermal jerseys, two short sleeve thermal jerseys, three knee/leg/arm warmers, two wind vests, two rain jackets, five pairs of socks, two helmets, two aero helmets, 10 cycling caps, three pairs of gloves

Just like a domestique rider is expected to do everything for the team leader, a soigneur is someone who takes care of all the little things behind the scenes. Technically, soigneurs are massage therapists, but they will also pack the day’s musettes — bags that contain food, water, and energy drinks — that riders will grab as they ride through designated portions of every stage. If a rider misses a feed zone, his body could give out at a critical juncture of the race.

Then there are the mechanics. They get up early to make sure every rider’s bike is properly tuned, and pack the roofs of their support vehicles so that if an important riders suffers a mechanical problem, his replacement ride will be the most easily accessible. The mechanics can often salvage a bad day. On Stage 9 of this year’s Tour, for example, Frenchman Romain Bardet suffered three punctured tires on the cobblestones, and yet was able to minimize his time lost because AG2R La Mondiale’s mechanics were quick to give him a new wheel when he needed it.

Communication among everyone is critical during each stage

A system of radios makes everything go:

Race radio: A one-way feed run by Tour de France organizers. Team cars are stuck behind cyclists with limited visibility, so they rely on race radio to relay information about which riders have been involved in crashes or are pulling away from the peloton. Race radio gives clearance to team cars to break procession order and speed ahead to aid their riders. Car-to-car radio: A channel open to only the two team cars on the course. Amidst so much chaos, the two race directors must be in constant contact, communicating who will help which riders, and whether to pull over and swap rider-specific equipment based on which rider is in which part of the peloton. Car-to-rider radio: A channel that puts race directors directly in the ears of team riders. This communication line has been open since the mid-90s, though some want to abolish it, claiming that it has eliminated spontaneity during stages in favor of robotic coordination and tactics. Riders like it, however, and teams insist that the radio is used almost entirely for communicating times and potential hazards ahead, and that little collusion takes place.

Each team has two cars. All of the cars follow the peloton according to the team rankings, from best to worst, meaning that currently the top-ranked team, Quick-Step Floors, has the No. 1 and No. 23 cars in the procession, and the worst-ranked team, Cofidis, has the No. 22 and No. 44 cars.

Positioning is important, because any car near the front will be able to get to a down rider much more quickly. The positioning of the vehicles also incentivizes teams to get into breakaways. If a domestique pulls far enough ahead of the peloton, a team car is given a go-ahead to break procession order and drive up near its rider. Doing so might help the team’s yellow jersey hopeful later if he has a problem or desperately needs a water bottle as the breakaway is roped in and the vehicle is asked to rejoin the procession.

From the chefs dedicated to giving riders the perfect mix of simple carbs, proteins, and probiotics to recover from yet another grueling stage, to the communications director who keeps the atmosphere loose on the team bus for three stress-packed weeks, a Tour de France team is made up of dozens of moving parts, any of which could be the difference between success and failure.

If everything goes right, all that’s left for anyone to do is hope that the top guy doesn’t screw it all up

That’s the point of it all, really: to eliminate all possible complications until all that’s left is hope that your meal ticket — your one amazing rider who you’ve dedicated months of preparation for — can win the whole thing on his own, with, say, an incredible solo effort up to La Pierre-St. Martin , or a strangling performance on the cobblestones of Northern France .

And if that meal ticket bonks, or worse, crashes out of the Tour yet again , then all that effort will, cruelly, have been for naught.

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EF Education-Cannondale one of five Tour de France Femmes wildcards

T he organisers of the Tour de France Femmes confirmed the seven teams that will be joining the 15 Women's WorldTour squads in this year's race.

Cofidis and Tashkent City earned automatic invitations under UCI rules as the top UCI Continental Women's teams in 2023.

That leaves five open wildcard invitations, which went to French teams Arkea-B&B Hotels and St. Michel-Mavic-Auber93, US team EF Education-Cannondale, the Belgian squad Lotto Dstny Ladies, and the Spanish team Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi.

The Tour de France Femmes begins in Rotterdam on August 12 and runs through August 18, with a finish on l'Alpe d'Huez.

It will be the second appearance for Cofidis and the third for Arkea-B&B Hotels and St. Michel-Mavic-Auber93.

Ion Lazkano, sports manager of Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi said it was a "huge prize" for the team.

"For us to be in the Tour de France is the maximum we can aspire to in sporting terms," Lazkano said in a press release. "After all, it is the race par excellence, where everyone wants to be present and where all the media attention is focused. For both the team and the project, it is a huge prize to be in the best race in the world.

"I also believe that it reflects the work that is being done from the offices to the road, since being on a stage of this caliber is the consequence of all this and represents the consolidation of the project and the structure that we form."

Lotto Dstny were also thrilled to get the invitation, writing on social media, "We are very excited to announce that Lotto Dstny Ladies will be one of the 22 teams at the start of Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, See you in Rotterdam on August 12th!"

EF Education-Cannondale were more succinct, posting several exclamation points and in all-caps "We are going to the Tour".

Teams for the 2024 Tour de France Femmes

• AG Insurance-Soudal Team
• Canyon-Sram Racing
• Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team
• Fenix-Deceuninck
• Human Powered Health
• Liv-AlUla-Jayco
• Movistar Team
• Team DSM-firmenich PostNL
• Team SD Worx-Protime
• Team Visma | Lease a Bike
• UAE Team ADQ
• Uno-X Mobility
• Cofidis Women Team
• Tashkent City Women Professional Cycling Team
• Arkea-B&B Hotels Women
• EF Education-Cannondale
• Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi
• Lotto Dstny Ladies
• St Michel-Mavic-Auber93

Tour de France: Team-by-team ratings

Our comprehensive analysis of every squad's Tour de France performance

Tour de France team ranking

After the 2020 Tour de France drew to a close in Paris on Sunday, we've all had enough time to digest the events of the past three weeks, the ins and outs, ups and down of Le Grand Boucle.

We've pored through 21 days of action to find the most memorable moments of the race, we've analysed the top 10 GC riders, checked out the prize money rankings , and we've pulled apart the peloton to find the winners and losers of the Tour.

But what about the teams themselves? With 21 stages and four jerseys up for grabs, it would've been a big ask for all 22 squads to leave France with a concrete prize. And so it proved – a select few rose to the top, others disappointed, while bad luck or a simple lack of resources saw some teams come away with very little to show for 3,484km of hard work.

8 memorable moments from the 2020 Tour de France Rating the Tour de France top 10 Philippa York's Tour de France winners and losers Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates top Tour de France prize earners

It's our final piece of analysis of this strange, delayed edition of the Tour de France. After all, the races are coming thick and fast with the Road World Championships coming up and the Classics and Giro d'Italia on the horizon, too.

Read on for our 2020 Tour de France team ratings.

AG2R La Mondiale – ★★★☆☆

Best GC: Mickaël Cherel – 26th at 1:40:51

Top results: Nans Peters – winner on stage 8

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Summary: With team leader Romain Bardet going into the race – his last Tour before leaving for Sunweb – proclaiming a goal of targeting stage wins, coming away from the race with one in the bag looks a good result for AG2R.

Bardet wasn't responsible for it though; instead it was teammate Nans Peters celebrating as he prevailed from the break on a hard day to Loudenvielle, adding to his stage win at last year's Giro.

While supposed co-leader Pierree Latour was anonymous before leaving the race injured, Bardet looked a real GC threat before his own withdrawal due to concussion after stage 13. He lay fourth overall heading into that stage, and who knows what might have been later on. Another highlight was Benoît Cosnefroy's two-week stint in the polka dot jersey, even if he couldn't sustain the challenge through the final week as stronger climbers came to the fore. (DO)

Arkéa-Samsic – ★½☆☆☆

Best GC: Warren Barguil – 14th at 31:04

Top results: Nairo Quintana – fourth on stage 4

Summary: Simply put, a Tour team built around their star addition for 2020, Nairo Quintana, had nothing to offer when the Colombian's GC bid collapsed after he was injured in a crash on stage 13. He had looked good up to that point, scoring a fourth place on Orcières-Merlettee early on, but it's another case of 'what might have been'.

Warren Barguil quietly (almost silently) rode to 14th overall, half an hour ahead of Quintana. The Frenchman scored the team's only other top 10 placing with sixth on stage 16.

We have to mention the scandal that has erupted around the team since the end of the Tour, with details emerging of a stage 17 police raid and subsequent investigation. Those involved are innocent until proven guilty, of course, but the news only adds to what ended up a very disappointing campaign. (DO)

Astana Pro Team – ★★★★☆

Best GC: Miguel Ángel López – sixth at 6:47

Top results: Alexey Lutsenko – winner on stage 6 ; Miguel Ángel López – winner on stage 17

Summary: On the face of it, Miguel Ángel López's sixth place looks a decent result for the Tour debutant – and it is – but falling from third to sixth on La Planche des Belles Filles was not how he or Astana will have wanted to end what was a very good Tour for the Kazakhstani outfit. 

Alexey Lutsenko grabbed a stage win from the break on Mont Aigoual to ensure the race was a success no matter where López ended up, and the Colombian only looked to get stronger as the race went on, too.

His highlight came on the Col de la Loze, storming to victory on the toughest climb of the Tour as a battle for yellow played out behind him. In the end, a third Grand Tour podium wasn't to be for him, but nevertheless Astana can be very happy with their three week's work. (DO)

B&B Hotels-Vital Concept – ★½☆☆☆

Best GC: Pierre Rolland – 18th at 1:08:26

Top results: Pierre Rolland – second on stage 12

Summary: Three years after their creation, Jérôme Pineau's team made their debut at the Tour de France, and gave a good account of themselves. They were unable to come away with a dream stage win, but Bryan Coquard came close with third on the crosswind stage to Lavaur, a day that apparently gave a lot of confidence to the team as a whole.

From then on, they mucked in with chasing down breaks on the sprint days and animated many of the other days. 'Attaque de Pierre Rolland' is a catchphrase formed over years of commentators’ bingo, and the Frenchman was true to his aggressive, scattergun approach at this Tour, and looked on the verge of mounting a KOM challenge in the Alps.

Kévin Reza also played a leading role in the peloton's anti-racism demonstration on the final day. Next year's Tour starts in the team's native Brittany and they'll be confident they’ve done enough to be invited back. (PF)

Bahrain McLaren – ★★★½☆

Best GC: Mikel Landa – fourth at 5:58; Damiano Caruso – tenth at 14:03

Top results: Mikel Landa – fifth on stage 9

Summary: Like 2019 when Vincenzo Nibali won the race's penultimate stage, Bahrain McLaren's Tour was salvaged late on as new Grand Tour leader Mikel Landa ascended the ranks of the top 10 to finish fourth overall in Paris.

The Spaniard, who led the new-look team and matched his previous best result , looked iffy on some stages and best of the rest behind the Slovenians on others, and ultimately jumped up to fourth in the most unexpected way – a time trial.

Elsewhere, it was a quieter campaign for the team, with Wout Poels breaking a rib on day one and Pello Bilbao making the break on a couple of occasions. Damiano Caruso's tenth place – his best at a Tour de France after a very strong final week – was the icing on the cake of what can be considered a successful race for the team. (DO)

Bora-Hansgrohe – ★★★☆☆

Best GC: Lennard Kämna – 33rd at 2:15:39

Top results: Lennard Kämna – winner on stage 16

Summary: Lennard Kämna's stage victory at Villard-de-Lans saved what would otherwise had been a disappointing Tour for the German team, winning from the break after overpowering Richard Carapaz 20km from the line.

It was still a good race in the grand scheme of things, though, in the build-up, Bora-Hansgrohe would have been aiming for the green jersey with Peter Sagan as well as a GC bid with Emanuel Buchmann.

Buchmann, injured in a crash at the Critérium Dauphiné, never reached his best form, while Sagan wasn't close to top form either, his best finish third place on two stages, and ultimately he was easily bested by Sam Bennett in the battle for green. The team did well to battle for stage wins too, with Kämna's breakaway victory meaning they at least salvaged something from the race. (DO)

CCC Team – ★★☆☆☆

Best GC: Simon Geschke – 48th at 2:44:27

Top results: Greg Van Avermaet – third on stage 6

Summary: If this was the team's final Tour de France, it was a slightly limp way to bow out. Matteo Trentin was active in the green jersey battle but was never really a threat for it. When it came to stage wins, Greg Van Avermaet and Ilnur Zakarin came close, the latter let down by his descending skills , while the team was active in numerous breakaways, too.

Van Avermaet and Trentin were both in the decisive move on stage 19 but questions over communication – first raised when Trentin signed over the winter – resurfaced as they came away empty-handed, with Van Avermaet apparently unaware of the tactic of Trentin attacking, which ultimately served only to lay Søren Kragh Andersen's path to victory.

A collective highlight was their joining forces with Bora-Hansgrohe on stage 14 to distance the sprinters but with Van Avermaet and Trentin in your team, you expect a better return. (PF)

Cofidis – ★★½☆☆

Best GC: Guillaume Martin – 11th at 16:58

Top results: Jesús Herrada – second on stage 6

Summary: A mixed bag for Cofidis, who will surely come away from the Tour with a sense of disappointment. Back as a WorldTour outfit, Elia Viviani was signed at some expense to help end their 12-year run without a stage win at the race. Fourth at Île de Ré was his best result, however, while Jesús Herrada came closest to victory on Mont Aigoual.

Instead, the team's leading light was Guillaume Martin, who backed up a great Dauphiné with a statement of his GC credentials. He was third overall up until stage 13, when he plummeted to 12th . He ended up 11th, continuing his line of progression in the Tour (23rd, 21st, 12th, 11th), but left a slightly disappointing taste as the ambition would have been a top 10, if not before the race then certainly after the first week.

Still, Martin was widely talked about in the early phases of the race, and finished it as the top Frenchman, giving plenty of exposure to the French team and a good deal of optimism for the future. (PF)

Deceuninck-QuickStep – ★★★★½

Best GC: Julian Alaphilippe – 36th at 2:19:11

Top results: Sam Bennett – green jersey, won stages 10 and 21 ; Julian Alaphilippe – winner on stage 2 , three days in yellow

Summary: Another good Tour for the Belgian team, with three stage wins, the green jersey , and a spell in yellow. They put a lot of resources behind Sam Bennett's green jersey bid, and they were rewarded, ending their old foe Peter Sagan's long run as the winner of the points classification.

Bennett's curious inferiority complex was maybe not entirely lifted but he proved himself worthy of what is still comfortably the best sprint set-up in the peloton, with Michael Mørkøv once again underlining his credentials as the best lead-out man in the world.

Julian Alaphilippe won a scintillating stage in Nice and pulled on the yellow jersey once again, and from that early point, his race automatically qualified as a success. However, after last year, the Frenchman is judged by different standards to everyone else, and the rest of his Tour was a slight disappointment.

Firstly, he lost yellow in a sloppy fashion, with an illegal feed , and after that, he infiltrated almost every breakaway going but came up short every time. He maybe could have picked his battles a little better but it was clear this wasn't the sparkling Alaphilippe of 2019, and he appeared human again by the final week. (PF)

EF Pro Cycling – ★★★★☆

Best GC: Rigoberto Urán – eighth at 8:02

Top results: Daniel Martínez – winner on stage 13

Summary: The American squad headed to the Tour with three Colombians ready to do battle in the mountains, but that triple threat never really came into being. Rigoberto Urán was – somewhat surprisingly – one of only two Colombians to make the top 10 in Paris, his eighth a nice result after his career-threatening injury sustained at the Vuelta a España a year ago

It was a very quiet eighth though, even if he battled to podium contention heading into the final week. A struggle on the Col de la Loze and a less-than-ideal time trial meant that didn't come to pass, however.

Daniel Martínez added some flair to EF's Tour with a wonderful stage win on the Puy Mary. The Dauphiné winner boosted his stock further as he outfoxed Bora-Hansgrohe duo Max Schachmann and Lennard Kämna to take the team's first Tour win since 2017. Ultimately, a successful race for EF. (DO)

Groupama-FDJ – ★½☆☆☆

Best GC: Sébastien Reichenbach – 24th at 1:39:27

Top results: Sébastien Reichenbach – third on stage 16

Summary: A Tour to forget for the French team, with their mercurial leader Thibaut Pinot left with another soul-searching task and another year wondering if the stars will ever align . Pinot finished the race, and only dropped out of GC contention on the first day in the Pyrenees, but his Tour was effectively over on the first day, when he crashed in Nice and someone rode into his back.

It was a similar story for the promising David Gaudu, who was unable to make an impact in his leader's absence and had to abandon on stage 16.

Valentin Madouas was a spritely presence, Stefan Küng took his opportunity for breakaways, and Sébastien Reichenbach was third on stage 16, but the mood will have been subdued in Paris. It can be attributed to simple bad luck, but there may be a touch of regret at leaving out the in-form Arnaud Démare in order to go all-in for Pinot. (PF)

Ineos Grenadiers – ★★★☆☆

Best GC: Richard Carapaz – 13th at 25:53

Top results: Michał Kwiatkowski – winner on stage 18

Summary: The 2020 Tour de France was a bruising experience and something of a wake-up call for the British team. Given the astronomical standards they've set themselves with seven victories in the eight previous Tours, anything less is automatically deemed a huge disappointment , if not outright failure.

Egan Bernal came into the race with doubts over his back, and his capitulation on stage 15 had already been signposted. It led to a tide of questioning, from team selection to training methods. Even before that, Ineos, after dominating the Tour for so long, were largely relegated from the front of the bunch as Jumbo-Visma stamped their newfound authority.

On a collective level, they now have competition, and also on an individual, with the rise of Tadej Pogačar sure to be a concern to the team who thought they possessed the rider of the next decade.

After Bernal's abandon, the team did re-set and managed to salvage something from the race. Richard Carapaz lit up the Alps with his incessant attacks but it was Michał Kwiatkowski whose name was put to a stage win, crossing the line arm-in-arm with Carapaz in one of the most enduring images of the Tour.

It was a great moment for the rider who has sacrificed so much of his own potential for those previous yellow jerseys, and a show of team pride, but it will do little to deflect from the reality that Dave Brailsford will have to go back to the drawing board. (PF)

Israel Start-Up Nation – ★☆☆☆☆

Best GC: Dan Martin – 41st at 2:30:25

Top results: Hugo Hofstetter – fourth on stage 5

Summary: The Tour de France debutants had a tough time in France, despite turning up with a pretty solid squad in Nice. Dan Martin was the team's biggest signing for 2020, but was unlucky to fracture his sacrum at the Dauphiné and couldn't add to his two stage victories – as was the aim, rather than a GC bid, this year.

They were active in breaks with Krists Neilands, Ben Hermans and Guy Niv, but with only so many stages up for grabs it was always going to be tough going to get that bit of luck and prevail.

Sprinters André Greipel and Hugo Hofstetter grabbed a handful of top 10 finishes between them, with the Frenchman coming off better. The race would've been a good learning experience for the team, and they'll be back next year with more big names – Froome, Woods, Impey – and greater expectations. (DO)

Jumbo-Visma – ★★★★½

Best GC: Primož Roglič – second at 0:59; Tom Dumoulin – seventh at 7:48

Top results: Primož Roglič – winner on stage 4 , 11 days in yellow; Wout van Aert – winner on stages 5 and 7

Summary: The Dutch squad enjoyed a near-perfect Tour, only for it to fall apart on the penultimate day of the race as an incredible ride from Tadej Pogačar shockingly dispatched of Primož Roglič with ease.

The image of Tom Dumoulin and Wout van Aert staring at the big screen on La Planches des Belles Filles in shock at what was unfolding will be one of the enduring images of the Tour, but there were plenty of positives beyond the GC loss.

Roglič – impervious in the race lead for half the race – took a stage win on day four, while Wout van Aert, who looks the best all-rounder in the sport and probably the top rider of 2020, sprinted to two wins while also serving as a domestique deep into the mountains.

Tom Dumoulin's improving form is a plus, too. The Dutchman looked close to his best at times after almost a year of injury and illness , and his seventh-place – despite putting himself to work for Roglič – will be a reason for additional cheer. (DO)

Lotto Soudal – ★★★½☆

Best GC: Thomas De Gendt – 52nd at 2:51:56

Top results: Caleb Ewan – winner of stages 3 and 11

Summary: Two stage wins, courtesy of Caleb Ewan , represents a decent enough return, but it was a tough Tour for the Belgian team. The race started out in disastrous fashion, as they lost Philippe Gilbert and John Degenkolb on a crash-ridden opening day in Nice.

That not only hampered their sprint lead-out but left them looking very much one-dimensional, as Gilbert would have been eyeing up a number of breakaway opportunities on the hilly route. Thomas De Gendt wasn't his usual self, and in the second half of the race the team was largely reduced to a cluster of riders shepherding Ewan through the mountains.

With the Giro d'Italia starting in less than two weeks, it was a huge effort to make just to arrive boxed-in on the Champs-Élysées, and that might have left a slightly sour taste. Ewan's two stage wins – the first a sensational weaving sprint – were a drop from his three last year, but none of his rivals won more. (PF)

Mitchelton-Scott – ★★½☆☆

Best GC: Adam Yates – ninth at 9:25

Top results: Adam Yates – four days in yellow; Luka Mezgec – second on stages 14 and 19

Summary: A quieter than usual presence at the Tour, Mitchelton-Scott's race was all about Adam Yates, and to a lesser extent sprinter Luka Mezgec. The Briton spent four days in yellow in the first week, but didn't look like a genuine GC challenger, eventually falling to ninth after the time trial.

Yates talked of stage wins before the race, but after his time in yellow seemed determined to stay in the top 10 fight rather than letting go and trying for a win. His third place on stage 2 was the closest he came to that. 

Mezgec, meanwhile, mixed it up in the sprints but wasn't at the level of the stage contenders. Two second-place finishes came when he proved quickest from reduced groups behind Søren Kragh Andersen. The rest of the squad were less active – a far cry from the comparative feast of four stage wins in 2019. (DO)

Movistar – ★★★½☆

Best GC: Enric Mas – fifth at 6:07

Top results: Team classification; Carlos Verona – third on stage 8

Summary: Technically, Movistar were, once again, the best team in the Tour de France, but we all know that's not true. Their targeting of the teams classification – at times at the expense of other ideas – has become a source of amusement, but they stayed true to themselves and all took to the podium in Paris for the fifth time in six years.

With Enric Mas finishing fifth overall, it wasn't actually a bad Tour for the Spanish team, their first of the post-Landa-Quintana-Carapaz era. You'd be forgiven for thinking Mas had only arrived in France in the final week – he didn't have a good start to the race and was 12th overall after the first week, but went on to place fifth on the Grand Colombier, sixth on the Col de la Loze, and fifth from the GC group in La Roche-sur-Foron. Finally, a strong time trial took him into the final top five.

Beyond Mas, Movistar had a quiet race, with Marc Soler infiltrating a few breakaways and Alejandro Valverde staying in and around the GC picture to finish 12th. Mas' final-week resurgence saved Movistar's Tour and altered their perspective. There must have been worries at the halfway mark, but Mas, who had three pairs of shoes to fill and a burden of expectation as 'the next big thing in Spain', does appear to offer a solid future for the team. (PF)

NTT Pro Cycling – ★☆☆☆☆

Best GC: Michael Valgren – 73rd at 3:41:45

Top results: Edvald Boasson Hagen – second on stage 7

Summary: Yes, NTT really were at the Tour de France this year. European champion Giacomo Nizzolo was their main man after looking rejuvenated so far in 2020, but was forced out of the race in the Pyrenees with a knee injury.

The Italian's best result was a rather distant third place behind Caleb Ewan's magical sprint in Sisteron, while teammate Edvald Boasson Hagen went one better in the crosswinds of stage 7, though he wasn't close to Wout van Aert at the finish in Lavaur. That second might elevate themselves above the other 'one-starers' but NTT brought so little else to the race.

The second half of the race saw Michael Gogl make the break of the day twice and Walscheid once, but the fact that we had to scour race reports to confirm this should tell you how well those went. NTT ended the race with five riders in Paris; you have to wonder if things would have turned out much differently had they started with that many. (DO)

Team Sunweb – ★★★★★

Best GC: Marc Hirschi – 54th at 2:54:34

Top results: Marc Hirschi – winner on stage 12 , combativity prize; Søren Kragh Andersen – winner on stages 14 and 19

Summary: If you told me before the Tour that I'd be writing this, there's no way I'd have believed you, but Sunweb were arguably the best team at the 2020 Tour de France. They may not have won the most stages or done anything on GC, but in terms of racing as one collective unit, they were outstanding.

Søren Kragh Andersen won two stages and Marc Hirschi one, and on each occasion they played the numbers game to great effect. Hischi was sensational on his debut Tour and could have had more, but Sunweb's successes were largely down to timing and tactics. Perhaps they stand out because so many had written them off. They'd lost Tom Dumoulin last winter and left Wilco Kelderman and Sam Oomen for the Giro, leaving no GC leader.

Even then, they declined to bring their top stage hunter and former green jersey, Michael Matthews, who is being sent to the Giro and so will also miss the Classics before leaving for Mitchelton-Scott. The ethos at Sunweb very much prizes the collective over the individual. It's a somewhat polarising approach, with Dumoulin and Matthews the latest in a long and alarming list of riders breaking their contracts, but at the Tour de France we saw its merits. (PF)

Total Direct Énergie – ★☆☆☆☆

Best GC: Romain Sicard – 31st at 2:13:02

Top results: Anthony Turgis – ninth on stage 1; Fabien Grellier – one day in polka dots

Summary: The final squad among the one-star crew. Total Direct Énergie had one of the weakest squads at the Tour and it was therefore no surprise to see them struggle. They'll have been looking towards Niccolò Bonifazio and Lilian Calmejane for a result, but the Italian's tenth place on stage 3 was the best either could manage.

Instead, the team were visible in breakaways, and, after stage 1, in the polka dot jersey for a day courtesy of Fabien Grellier's efforts in Nice. The likes of Mathieu Burgaudeau, Jérôme Cousin and Romain Sicard were in numerous breaks through the rest of the race.

They put up a good fight and got their name out there, which, sometimes, is the best you can say about the minnows at cycling's biggest race. (DO)

Trek-Segafredo – ★★★★½

Best GC: Richie Porte – third at 3:30

Top results: Mads Pedersen – second on stages 1 and 21; Toms Skujinš – second on stage 8

Summary: Richie Porte said his third place finish felt like a victory , and that'll be the case for the team as a whole, who would have ripped your arm off for a spot on the Paris podium ahead of the race.

It was a blow to lose Bauke Mollema through a crash on stage 13, but Porte picked up the mantle and got stronger and stronger, culminating in a brilliant penultimate-day time trial. The team made a big blunder in the crosswinds on stage 7, with Porte and Mollema both losing time, but thereafter they shepherded Porte well, with strong protection coming from none other than the world champion Mads Pedersen.

The Dane sprinted to second place on the first and last day, underlining his ability but also raising question marks over whether it was worth rotating the sprint leadership between him, Jasper Stuyven and Edward Theuns. (PF)

UAE Team Emirates – ★★★★★

Best GC: Tadej Pogačar – winner at 87:20:05

Top results: Tadej Pogačar – yellow, polka dot, white jerseys, winner of stages 9 , 15 and 20 ; Alexander Kristoff – winner on stage 1

Summary: When funding from UAE's second largest Emirate, Abu Dhabi, came in to take on the former Lampre-Merida team in 2017, the aim was to become one of the very top teams, and now they have their first Tour de France victory.

Tadej Pogačar was simply extraordinary in winning three stages, three jerseys, becoming the second youngest Tour winner of all time and one of only eight debutant champions. After Alexander Kristoff's stage win in Nice, the team had the yellow jersey on the first day and the last day, and the champagne will have flowed.

However, it must be said Pogačar's victory was more a display of individual brilliance than a collective effort. Fabio Aru abandoned early amid a tirade of unnecessary criticism from his management, and Davide Formolo left with a broken collarbone.

David De la Cruz had an impressive ride on the Col de la Loze, where his turn exploded the yellow jersey group, but Pogačar didn't have anything like the support Roglič had at Jumbo-Visma, underlined by his losses in the stage 7 crosswinds. Pogačar showed he didn't really need a team , but they'll surely be looking to strengthen around a rider who could dominate this generation. (PF)

★★★ ★★ – Team Sunweb, UAE Team Emirates

★★★ ★½ – Deceuninck-QuickStep, Jumbo-Visma, Trek-Segafredo

★★★ ★☆ – Astana Pro Team, EF Pro Cycling

★★★½☆ – Bahrain McLaren, Lotto Soudal, Movistar

★★★ ☆☆ – AG2R La Mondiale, Bora-Hansgrohe, Ineos Grenadiers

★★½☆☆ – Cofidis, Mitchelton-Scott

★★☆☆☆ – CCC Team

★½☆☆☆ – Arkéa-Samsic, B&B Hotels-Vital Concept, Groupama-FDJ 

★☆☆☆☆ – Israel Start-Up Nation, NTT Pro Cycling, Total Direct Énergie

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Patrick is an NCTJ-trained journalist, and former deputy editor of Cyclingnews, who has seven years’ experience covering professional cycling. He has a modern languages degree from Durham University and has been able to put it to some use in what is a multi-lingual sport, with a particular focus on French and Spanish-speaking riders. Away from cycling, Patrick spends most of his time playing or watching other forms of sport - football, tennis, trail running, darts, to name a few, but he draws the line at rugby.

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https://www.barrons.com/news/team-uae-prodigy-ayuso-takes-tour-de-romandie-lead-71423f1b

• FROM AFP NEWS

Team UAE Prodigy Ayuso Takes Tour De Romandie Lead

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American rider Brandon McNulty won the Tour de Romandie third stage individual time-trial on Friday as his UAE Emirates teammate Juan Ayuso took the overall lead.

Ahead of Saturday's decisive Queen stage in the high mountains McNulty was fortunate to cover the 15.5km course before the rain arrived.

"Yeah it's my first win here so I'm very happy, I had a good day and was lucky to go before the bad weather," said the American.

Belgian rookie Thibau Nys the overnight leader finished way down the field after his exertions Thursday in an all day escape took their toll.

The yellow jersey was taken by the 21-year-old Spaniard Ayuso who appears perfectly suited to go on and win the Tour in the mountains as the UAE prodigy continues to emerge from the shadow of the team's top rider Tadej Pogacar.

Ilan Van Wilder is second at seven seconds and Alexandr Vlasov third at 10sec, with Carlos Rodriguez and Lenny Martinez rounding out the top five.

Ayuso said at the start he was hoping to "take time back before Saturday" and he achieved that, taking all the time back and then some.

"I suffered, but I took some risks and I'm in a good position to defend the jersey now," he said after the stage.

Another up-and-coming all-rounder Frenchman Martinez was 16th on the day but was delighted with his overall fifth at 23sec, and his prospects given his 52kg weight and the mountain stage ahead.

"That was a good day's work, yes we lost time to McNulty but he raced in the dry. I put in a good shift and I'm looking forwards to tomorrow," said the 20-year-old FDJ man.

Saturday's run to Leysin features five climbs and two of them are category ascents including the final 14 kilometres long ascent to the finish line averaging six percent.

The top three across the line also gain time bonuses Saturday.

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