tour de france russian riders

Russian cyclist changes to French nationality after request granted amid Ukraine war

Pavel Sivakov said that the switch was something he had wanted to do 'for some time' and that the invasion of Ukraine only accelerated those plans

• 11:13, 6 Mar 2022

A Russian cyclist has avoided having to race under a neutral flag after his request to switch nationalities was granted.

Pavel Sivakov always had plenty of options when it came to which nation to represent, after being born in Italy and moving to France when he was an infant.

The Tour de France rider used to compete for Russia , but is now able to race under the French flag after a request to the International Cycling Union (UCI).

The 24-year-old explained that he had fast-tracked a process that he had been considering "for some time" due to his opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine .

"I was born in Italy and moved to France when I was one year old," Sivakov said.

"France is where I grew up and was educated and where I fell in love with riding my bike which led me to racing. It feels like my home.

"I have wanted to become a French national for some time and had made the request to the UCI, but given what is happening in the Ukraine at the moment, I wanted to fast track this.

"I want to thank the UCI and the team at Ineos Grenadiers for supporting me with this process and helping make this a reality. To now have the opportunity to race as a French national in international events makes me incredibly happy.

"It would be a dream to race in Paris at the 2024 Olympics for France and this is something that the team have said they would fully support."

On the invasion, he added: "As I have previously said, I am totally against this war and all my thoughts are with the Ukrainian people.

"Like most people around the world right now, I hope for peace and a swift end to the suffering happening in the Ukraine."

The switch means he will now be considered a home athlete if he once again saddles up for the Tour de France.

Sivakov has taken part in the race once before, in 2020, when he finished 87th in the overall standings as a member of British team Ineos Grenadiers – formerly known as Team Sky.

His best result at a Grand Tour came on just his second attempt, as he finished ninth in his Giro d'Italia debut in 2019.

Sivakov has also experienced some success on UK shores, finishing fourth in the Tour of Britain that same year.

MORE ON Tour de France Tour of Britain Giro d'Italia Cycling Russia Ukraine war Team Sky

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Katusha plan all-Russian team for Tour de France

Pozzato to miss out on Grand Boucle

The Katusha line-up for the Tour de France is set to be composed solely of Russian riders. With Joaquim Rodriguez focused on the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España, and Filippo Pozzato seemingly irrevocably out of favour , the path was clear for team manager Andrei Tchmil to field a wholly Russian team.

Punctured team car ends Pozzato's Paris-Roubaix

Katusha hands over rider medical records to Italian investigators

Pozzato and Paolini dropped from Katusha Giro d’Italia squad

“For the first time in the history of Russian cycling, we will present a team at the Tour made up only of Russian riders,” Tchmil said, according to Biciciclismo . “Even the directeurs sportifs will be Russian.”

The final nine riders for the Tour team will only be decided the week before the race begins at the Russian road race championships, but the riders in contention will have a chance to shine throughout June.

“They are just preparing the Tour,” Tchmil said. “These riders will race the Tour of Luxembourg and then the Dauphiné before the national championships, when we’ll decide the nine to ride the Tour.”

Vladimir Karpets will lead the team’s overall challenge, while it seems likely that a Tour debut will be given to the impressive young sprinter Denis Galimzyanov. Alexandr Kolobnev is another man expected to feature in the final nine.

“I think it will be something to remember because Katusha wants us to be a block of riders made up just of Russian riders, which is very good for the sponsor and for the spectators,” Kolobnev said. “It will be special.”

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Aleksandr Vlasov will be aiming for Tour de France podium, BORA confirms

Aleksandr Vlasov will be leading BORA - hansgrohe , specially after the absence of Sam Bennett was confirmed. The Russian climber will be making his debut in the race, but will be heading in ambitious in the helm of the German team.

"...We have performed very well in stage races so far, we’re on a path of becoming a GC team and with the selection of riders for this Tour de France , we’re pushing forward on this path. Aleksandr Vlasov is our GC leader," team DS Rolf Aldag said in a press release. The Russian's ambitions into the Tour are relatively unknown due to his recent Covid-19 infection and also as it will be his debut in the Grand Boucle.

Sam Bennett out of Tour de France, Aleksandr Vlasov leads BORA - hansgrohe with multi-talented lineup

However Vlasov has given enough evidence over the last few years, and this season particularly that he will be in contention for the top places in the race: GC wins at the Tour de Romandie and Volta a Valencia, third at Itzulia Basque Country, fourth at UAE Tour and was leading the Tour de Suisse until he tested positive heading into the mountains. The 26-year old has several wins to his name this season, and will be looking to keep it up this July.

Ralph Denk has reinstated these ambitions: "Over the past couple of years, we’ve had three top-ten results in the Tour and now we’re aiming for a podium. Of course, it’s a tough goal but with the performance we’ve seen from Aleksandr Vlasov this season it’s a realistic goal..." he said.

Preview: Tour de France. World's best climbers and sprinters go head to head in a seasonal climax

Although BORA has focused more of it's climbing firepower towards the Giro and Vuelta lineup, it's Tour squad includes also Felix Grossschartner, Max Schachmann and Patrick Konrad. "We have a strong team with full support for him over every terrain. We want to show an active and attacking style of racing, focus on the GC and maybe even take a stage win. I’d be very happy on the Champs-Élysées if we achieve these goals," he concluded.

Column: The Tour de France 2022 design is a masterpiece... in what NOT to do

Ver essa foto no Instagram Uma publicação compartilhada por Aleksandr Vlasov (@aleksandr_vlasov)

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Tour de France teams and riders: complete startlist for the 2021 race

Every team and rider at the Tour de France

Alex Broadway/ASO

Colin Henrys

With a startlist littered with Tour de France icons and some of pro cycling’s best up-and-coming stars, the world’s biggest cycling race will certainly be living up to its billing once again.

Chris Froome and Vicenzo Nibali share 11 Grand Tour wins between them, while defending champion Tadej Pogacar and fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic represent some of the new era of potential greats on show.

Among the sprinters it is a similar story – Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel have won 70 Grand Tour stages between them, but Caleb Ewan will be looking to add to his tally.

Peter Sagan, as ever, will be among the green jersey contenders but Ewan will be keen to provide competition and Tour debutant Mathieu van der Poel is a rouleur with a reputation showing no sign of slowing.

Of the 184 riders on the startlist, 33 will be flying the home flag and there are 27 nationalities represented in total – with ten Brits and one Irishman among them.

You can find the full list of riders for the 2021 Tour de France below, but first here’s a quick look at the top contenders for this year’s maillot jaune .

Tour de France 2021 favourites

• Tadej Pogacar (UAE-Team Emirates)
• Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma)
• Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers)
• Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers)
• Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar Team)
• Richie Porte (INEOS Grenadiers)
• Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step)

Tour de France 2021 teams and riders

Uae team emirates.

Tadej Pogacar snatched victory at last year’s Tour de France to announce himself on the world stage in style.

Aged just 21, the Slovenian claimed the yellow jersey with victory on the penultimate stage and his winning form has showed no sign of slowing since.

Victories at the UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Tour of Slovenia are the mark of a man in superb form.

He can climb, he can put down the power in the time trial and he is backed by a strong and experienced UAE-Team Emirates line-up.

Former King of the Mountains Rafal Majka and 2013 world champion Rui Costa are among his domestiques, as is Italian Davide Formolo.

Marc Hischi, Rafal Majka, Brandon McNulty and Vegard Stake Laengen complete the line-up as they look to earn back-to-back Tour victories.

• Tadej Pogacar (SLO)
• Mikkel Bjerg (DEN)
• Rui Costa (POR)
• Davide Formolo (ITA)
• Marc Hirschi (SUI)
• Rafal Majka (POL)
• Brandon McNulty (USA)
• Vegard Stake Laengen (NOR)

Tour de France 2020: Winner (Tadej Pogacar), Youth classification (Tadej Pogacar), King of the Mountains (Tadej Pogacar), Three stage wins (Tadej Pogacar)

Pro wins 2021: 14

Team Jumbo-Visma

Primoz Roglic was cruelly denied victory last year, when he lost the yellow jersey on the penultimate stage, blown away by Tadej Pogacar’s stunning time trial.

Roglic had led since finishing second on stage nine, and he laid bare his form when he then went on to win Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Vuelta a Espana before the season was up.

He could not defend his Liege title this time around, but won three stages of Paris-Nice and claimed overall victory at the Tour of the Basque Country.

He is not the only Team Jumbo-Visma rider on the hunt for success either – he has a strong team backing him, that includes Steven Kruijswijk and Robert Gesink for the mountains.

Tony Martin will play a big role as domestique if there is a yellow jersey to defend too, and given Wout van Aert – a double stage winner last season – is among the contenders for stage one victory, that could be from the very first weekend.

• Primoz Roglic (SLO)
• Wout van Aert (BEL)
• Mike Teunissen (NED)
• Robert Gesink (NED)
• Jonas Vindegaard (DEN)
• Tony Martin (GER)
• Sepp Kuss (USA)
• Steven Kruijswijk (NED)

Tour de France 2020: Second (Primoz Roglic), Seventh (Tom Dumoulin), Three stage wins (Wout van Aert (2), Primoz Roglic)

Pro wins 2021: 20

INEOS Grenadiers

Since their first win, as Team Sky, in 2012 the team now known as INEOS Grenadiers have dominated this race with four riders contributing to seven wins in the last nine editions.

Egan Arley Bernal could not defend his title last year, but victory at the Giro d’Italia has whet the appetite for yet more INEOS success this season.

They arrive fresh from success at the Tour de Suisse (Richie Porte) and Criterium du Dauphine (Richard Carapaz) and both men join 2018 Tour winner Geraint Thomas in a fiercely-strong line-up.

Tao Geoghegan Hart is another former Grand Tour winner in their strong list – one of three Brits, with Thomas and Luke Rowe.

Michal Kwiatkowski, Jonathan Castroviejo and Dylan van Baarle also line-up. It is the sort of line-up that can dominate the peloton if the Grenadiers get a sniff of the yellow jersey.

The team boasts 27 victories this season in total, and they will be expected to add to that over the next few weeks.

• Richard Carapaz (ECU)
• Jonathan Castroviejo (ESP)
• Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBR)
• Michal Kwiatkowski (POL)
• Richie Porte (AUS)
• Luke Rowe (GBR)
• Geraint Thomas (GBR)
• Dylan van Baarle (NED)

Tour de France 2020: One stage win (Michal Kwiatkowski), 13 th overall (Richard Carapaz)

Pro wins 2021: 27

Astana-Premier Tech

Versatility and freedom to chase stage wins were the key words in Team Performance Manager Dmitriy Fofonov's revealing of Astana-Premier Tech's 2021 Tour de France team.

Newly-crowned Spanish road race champion Omar Fraile, and his compatriot and national time trial champ Ion Izagirre will be among those hunting for stage wins.

Astana had Miguel Angel Lopez finish sixth last year, but Fraile, Izagirre, Denmark's Jakob Fuglsang and, stage winner last year, Alexey Lutsenko will all be targeting success day-by-day this time around.

Lutsenko won the time trial stage of the Criterium du Dauphine ahead of this race and finished second overall to prove his form - he will be one to watch for stage wins, even if the team does shun any wider ambitions as a result.

• Alex Aranburu (ESP)
• Stefan de Bod (RSA)
• Omar Fraile (ESP)
• Jakob Fuglsang (DEN)
• Dmitriy Gruzdev (KAZ)
• Hugo Houle (CAN)
• Ion Izagirre (ESP)
• Alexey Lutzenko (KAZ)

Tour de France 2020: Sixth overall (Miguel Angel Lopez)

Pro wins 2021: eight

COFIDIS, Solutions Credits

In the previous two years, Guillaume Martin has finished 12th and 11th at the Tour de France and was crowned King of the Mountains at the Vuelta a Espana.

The 28-year-old Frenchman will now lead Cofidis again in this year's race, as they look to end a barren run of 12 years without a Tour stage win.

The long-standing team will pin their hopes in the mountains on Martin, who will have Spanish climbing pair Ruben Fernandez and Jesus Herrada working for him when the road heads up.

On the flatter stages, Christophe Laporte remains their contender for stage victories.

Cofidis are a fixture of the Tour de France, but success has eluded them far too often in recent memory. Martin has a big task on his hands to end that run, but he can at least target a strong GC finish and some valuable prize money as a result too.

• Guillaume Martin (FRA)
• Christophe Laporte (FRA)
• Jesus Herrada (ESP)
• Anthony Perez (FRA)
• Simon Geschke (GER)
• Ruben Fernandez (ESP)
• Pierre-Luc Perichon (FRA)
• Jelle Wallays (BEL)

Tour de France 2020: 11 th overall (Guillaume Martin)

Pro wins 2021: six

Trek-Segafredo

The only non-Team Sky rider to win the Tour de France between 2012 and 2020, Vincenzo Nibali joins forces with Bauke Mollema for the second consecutive Grand Tour this season.

Injury before and during the Giro d'Italia cost the veteran a shot at a sustained challenge, but he and Mollema will be hunting stage wins and taking each day as it comes regarding a GC challenge too.

Milan-San Remo winner Jasper Stuyven is another rider to look out for as he hunts for stage wins as part of a versatile attack of rouleurs that also features Mads Pedersen and Edward Theuns.

Strength in depth appears to have been the key criteria for this Trek-Segafredo team, and a balanced team for all terrain also includes Kenny Elissonde for the mountain stages and Latvian Toms Skujins as a man to look out for in the breakaways.

The first week could well shape their tactics overall, but even at 36 there should be nobody betting against Nibali winding the clock back on at least one day of this race.

• Julien Bernard (FRA)
• Kenny Elissonde (FRA)
• Bauke Mollema (NED)
• Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)
• Mads Pedersen (DEN)
• Toms Skujins (LTV)
• Jasper Stuyven (BEL)
• Edward Theuns (BEL)

Tour de France 2020: Third overall (Richie Porte)

Pro wins 2021: ten

Team Qhubeka-ASSOS

The pre-Tour headlines for Qhubeka-Assos' Tour de France squad have centred on one man who will not be there - namely Fabio Aru.

Unspecified physical problems suffered at the Italian national championships means Aru will not be on the Tour startline and Qhubeka-Assos' ambitions for the race have been shuffled.

Aru's overall form meant he was never going to be in overall contention, but the 2015 Vuelta a Espana winner and multiple Grand Tour stage winner's experience is a loss.

Instead, Simon Clarke serves as a hugely experienced road captain and the likes of Colombian climber Sergio Henao and Belgian time-trial specialist Victor Campenaerts will be chasing stage success.

After some incredible years at this race in their early days, Team Qhubeka-ASSOS - in former guises - has had a bit of a lean patch of late.

They will feature in plenty of breakaways, however, so expect the Qhubeka charity to get plenty of airtime.

• Simon Clarke (AUS)
• Michael Gogl (AUT)
• Victor Campenaerts (BEL)
• Max Walscheid (GER)
• Sean Bennett (USA)
• Nic Dlamini (RSA)
• Sergio Henao (COL)
• Carlos Barbero (ESP)

Tour de France 2020: 73 rd overall

Pro wins 2021: four

Team BikeExchange

Fresh from his third place at the Giro d'Italia, Simon Yates will switch his focus to stage wins for the 2021 Tour de France having been named in the Team BikeExchange line-up.

He and Esteban Chaves will be on the hunt for victory in the mountains, as the Brit looks to add to the two Tour stage wins he earned in 2019.

The 2018 Vuelta a Espana champion and his Colombian team-mate have 13 Grand Tour stage wins between them – though Chaves is still looking to get off the mark at the Tour de France.

He found some form with tenth place at the Tour de Suisse to add to his collection of top-ten results this season.

Michael Matthews, a former green jersey winner, is another option for stage wins, meanwhile - leading the team on the flatter stages and certainly capable of mixing it up over the slightly lumpier stuff too.

It is, all in all, a balanced and experienced line-up and it would be a surprise if they do not return from France without at least a small measure of success to their name.

• Luke Durbridge (AUS)
• Christopher Juul-Jensen (DEN)
• Luka Mezgec (SLO)
• Simon Yates (GB)
• Esteban Chaves (COL)
• Michael Matthews (AUS)
• Amund Grondahl Jansen (NOR)
• Lucas Hamilton (AUS)

Tour de France 2020: ninth overall (Adam Yates)

Pro wins 2021: seven

Bahrain-Victorious

Bahrain-Victorious have wide-ranging ambitions for the 2021 Tour de France, anchored on ever-improving Australian Jack Haig's GC ambitions.

Haig, 27, has finished seventh at Paris-Nice and fifth at the Criterium du Dauphine so far this season and will have Wout Poels among his top domestiques for this race.

Chris Froome's former Team Sky lieutenant will also be hunting stage wins according to DS Rolf Aldag who wants Bahrain-Victorious to be, well, victorious every single day at this race.

British Tour debutant Fred Wright, 22, will be one of those looking to play his part - the youngest member in a squad that otherwise packs a good level of Grand Tour experience.

• Pello Bilbao (ESP)
• Sonny Colbrelli (ITA)
• Jack Haig (AUS)
• Dylan Teuns (BEL)
• Wout Poels (NED)
• Matej Mohoric (SLO)
• Marco Haller (AUT)
• Fred Wright (GBR)

Tour de France 2020: fourth overall (Mikel Landa)

Pro wins 2021: 16

Ag2r Citroen Team

With Bob Jungels absent through injury, Ag2r Citroen Team still feature an experienced, versatile squad for the 2021 Tour de France.

Greg van Avermaet is one of the stand-out names - the reigning Olympic road race champion having pulled on the yellow jersey in both 2016 and 2018.

The first week looks well suited to Van Avermaet again, while Oliver Naesen is another Belgian that could be in content for the French-sponsored team in that week.

Nans Peters returns after claiming stage success last season, meanwhile.

Balancing Van Avermaet's experience, Ag2r Citroen also feature three Tour debutants - Ben O'Connor, Aurelien Paret-Peintre and Dorian Godon.

• Benoit Cosnefroy (FRA)
• Greg van Avermaet (BEL)
• Aurelien Paret-Peintre (FRA)
• Ben O’Connor (AUS)
• Nans Peters (FRA)
• Oliver Naesen (BEL)
• Michael Schar (SUI)
• Dorian Godon (FRA)

Tour de France 2020: Winner (Tadej Pogacar), Youth classification (Tadej Pogacar), King of the Mountains (Tadej Pogacar)

Pro wins 2021: 26 th overall (Mikael Cherel)

Movistar Team

Movistar are serial winners of the team classification at the Tour de France, but the Spanish team have found individual success has eluded them too often.

Realistically, the star riders that have passed through the team may feel they could - and perhaps should - have done more in years gone by.

But they remain contenders year after year, and flying the flag in 2021 will be Enric Mas - fifth last year - Marc Soler and Miguel Angel Lopez.

Alejandro Valverde lends his considerable experience to the team on the road, and Imanol Erviti and Carlos Verona are among the Spanish climbing stars who will look to crack the peloton in the mountains.

A podium finish is not beyond the realms of possibility for a team who may prefer their Dark Horse status. One thing is certain, it would be dangerous to write off a team with climbing prowess to match the best of them.

• Alejandro Valverde (ESP)
• Carlos Verona (ESP)
• Enric Mas (ESP)
• Imanol Erviti (ESP)
• Ivan Garcia Cortina (ESP)
• Jorge Arcas (ESP)
• Marc Soler (ESP)
• Miguel Angel Lopez (COL)

Tour de France 2020: Fifth overall (Enric Mas), Team Classification winners

Pro wins 2021: 11

BORA-hansgrohe

A balanced BORA-hansgrohe team are sure to enjoy plenty of time at the sharp end of stages at this year's Tour de France.

Peter Sagan is their big-name star, as the rouleur's rouleur looks to swap his newly-reclaimed Slovakian national champion's jersey for yet another Tour de France green jersey.

He topped the points classification at the Giro d'Italia last month to add to the seven points classification titles he has claimed at the Tour de France too.

His stage win at the Giro was the 18th Grand Tour stage of his career, but he is not the only BORA-hansgrohe to look out for at the 2021 Tour de France.

Wilco Kelderman is their top climber, and Emanuel Buchmann finished fourth overall in this race in 2019 to prove his credentials too.

Kelderman has enjoyed top-ten finishes at the Volta a Catalunya, Tour de Romandie and Criterium du Dauphine to hone his form this season.

A pdoum finish at last year's Giro d'Italia was a reminder of what the 30-year-old can do, and the Dutchman will be keen to prove there is more than one string to BORA-hansgrohe's bow in this race.

• Daniel Oss (ITA)
• Lukas Postlberger (AUT)
• Ide Schelling (NED)
• Wilco Kelderman (NED)
• Peter Sagan (SVK)
• Nils Politt (GER)
• Emanuel Buchmann (GER)
• Patrick Konrad (AUT)

Tour de France 2020: 33 rd overall

Pro wins 2021: 13

Lotto-Soudal

Caleb Ewan leads Lotto-Soudal's sprinting charge and the team management have left little doubt that he will be the man in charge at this race too.

The Australian has five stage wins in the last two editions of this race and looks the top contender for the bunch gallops in this race too.

A top sprinter in his own right, he also boasts a strong lead-out train and the pure focus of his team for this race - if he racks up the stage wins, the green jersey will become a target too.

Beyond Ewan, Thomas de Gendt and Philippe Gilbert lend considerable experience to this team and will almost certainly be looking for stage wins throughout the three weeks.

De Gendt is a fixture of the breakaway on the most brutal of days... and there are plenty of those in the offing this year.

• Caleb Ewan (AUS)
• Jasper de Buyst (BEL)
• Tosh van der Sande (BEL)
• Thomas de Gendt (BEL)
• Roger Kluge (GER)
• Philippe Gilbert (BEL)
• Harry Sweeny (AUS)
• Brent van Moer (BEL)

Tour de France 2020: 52 nd overall

Deceuninck-QuickStep

A late call-up in place of injured Sam Bennett - last year's green jersey winner - has presented Mark Cavendish with the chance to enjoy what may well prove to be a final hurrah at this race.

Deceuninck-QuickStep's decision to resign the Manx Missile has already been repaid by five victories so far this season and the 30-time Tour stage winner may yet have one last trick up his sleeve on the biggest occasion.

Cavendish has Michael Morkov for support in the sprints, but the team's focus is split with Julian Alaphilippe the main leader.

Alaphilippe has won the yellow jersey on 16 occasions in total, and the first two stages could present him with a chance to add to that tally.

Two long time trials suit him well too, as he looks to improve on his career-best fifth place overall in 2019.

Alaphilippe will be the team's focus, but between him and Cavendish there could still be plenty of headlines to write.

• Julian Alaphillipe (FRA)
• Kasper Asgreen (DEN)
• Davide Ballerini (ITA)
• Mattia Cattaneo (ITA)
• Mark Cavendish (GBR)
• Tim DeClercq (BEL)
• Dries Devenyns (BEL)
• Michael Morkov (DEN)

Tour de France 2020: Points classification (Sam Bennett), 36 th overall

Pro wins 2021: 32

EF Education-Nippo

Tour de Suisse runner-up Rigoberto Uran is one of two Colombian climbers in the EF Education-Nippo team for the 2021 Tour de France and he remains a rider that can never be written off.

Uran was second in this race in 2017, and his time trial success at the Tour de Suisse, that helped him to that second place, was a reminder of how this year's TDF course could suit him.

The 34-year-old may soon be passing the baton to younger compatriot Sergio Higuita but his knack of returning to fore just as everyone has dismissed as a contender means that time has not come yet.

Higuita himself will be a key ally in the mountains and an alternative for stage wins if the team's attention shifts.

Elsewhere, a balanced team will support the two Colombians and keep the EF Education-Nippo flag flying on the transition days too.

• Sergio Higuita (COL)
• Rigoberto Uran (COL)
• Magnus Cort (DEN)
• Neilson Powless (USA)
• Stefan Bissegger (SUI)
• Michael Valgren (DEN)
• Ruben Guerreiro (POR)
• Jonas Rutsch (GER)

Tour de France 2020: Eighth overall (Rigoberto Uran)

Groupama-FDJ

David Gaudu and Arnaud Demare will hope to fly the home flag for French cycling fans as they share the lead on a dual-focussed Groupama-FDJ roster for the 2021 Tour de France.

Gaudu, 24, leads the team's GC challenge in the absence of Thibaut Pinot and his success at last season's Vuelta a Espana - winning two stages - has showed his capabilities.

Demare, meanwhile, arrives on the back of a strong season and realistically looks Caleb Ewan's biggest sprinting rival in this race.

A first Tour start since 2018, having focussed on - and enjoyed success at - the Giro d'Italia in the previous two seasons follows a campaign which has already brought seven victories.

A full lead-out train boasting the power of Ignatas Konovalovas, Miles Scotson and Stefan Kung and wing-man Jacopo Guarnieri shows where Groupama-FDJ's primary focus lies.

Gaudu is an option for the mountains, but Demare and sprint stage wins are the main goal.

• Bruno Armirail (FRA)
• Arnaud Demare (FRA)
• David Gaudu (FRA)
• Jacopo Guarnieri (ITA)
• Ignatas Konovalovas (LTU)
• Stefan Kung (SUI)
• Valentin Madouas (FRA)
• Miles Scotson (AUS)

Tour de France 2020: 24 th overall (Sebastien Reichenbach)

Pro wins 2021: 19

Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert Materiaux

Back at the Tour de France, Intermarche-Wanty Gobert Materiaux are looking for time in the breakaway but they have options for different terrain in their eight-man squad.

Louis Meintjes will be their man in the mountains, Jan Bakelants over rolling terrain and the Van Poppels, Danny being led out by Boy, are their sprint contenders.

The team claimed a stage win at the Giro d'Italia last month, and the motivation is there for Tavo van der Hoorn's team-mates to follow suit this year.

The latter's victory was the team's first as a WorldTour team, and they certainly have a versatile enough squad to be in the mix consistently in this year's Tour de France too.

• Jan Bakelants (BEL)
• Jonas Koch (GER)
• Louis Meintjes (RSA)
• Loic Vliegen (BEL)
• Danny van Poppel (NED)
• Boy van Poppel (NED)
• Georg Zimmermann (GER)
• Lorenzo Rota (ITA)

Tour de France 2020: N/A

Pro wins 2021: two

Israel Start-Up Nation

Israel Start-Up Nation make their second Tour de France appearance and, as with last year's race, they have the big names but could well have little to show for it.

Andre Greipel has two wins to his name this season, but his last Tour success was a long time ago - similar to former team-mate and long-standing rival Mark Cavendish.

Chris Froome, meanwhile, is of course a four-time Tour de France winner but his form this season has showed that those days are behind him.

Canadian climber Michael Woods and Irish all-rounder Dan Martin could be the better shouts for stage wins and a strong overall finish.

Martin took a stage at the Giro d'Italia and will be keen for more of the same.

Elsewhere, Israeli time-trial champion Omer Goldstein will wear the national jersey against the clock and will want to give a good showing.

• Rick Zabel (GER)
• Andre Greipel (GER)
• Chris Froome (GBR)
• Omer Goldstein (ISR)
• Reto Hollenstein (SUI)
• Guillaume Boivin (CAN)
• Dan Martin (IRL)
• Michael Woods (CAN)

Tour de France 2020: 41 st overall

Team DSM has undergone several name and sponsor changes, and the outfit are no longer the team they once were.

But where Marcel Kittel and Tom Dumoulin lit up the Tour d France for the team's previous guides, they should not be written off in 2021 either.

Powerhouse sprinters and Grand Tour contenders they are not, but there are riders like Tiesj Benoot who know what it takes to get to the sharp end of a race.

Dutchman Cees Bol took the team's only win so far this season at Paris-Nice, meanwhile.

• Soren Kragh Andersen (DEN)
• Tiesj Benoot (BEL)
• Cees Bol (NED)
• Mark Donovan (GBR)
• Nils Eekhoff (NED)
• Joris Nieuwenhuis (NED)
• Casper Pedersen (DEN)
• Jasha Sutterlin (GER)

Tour de France 2020: 54 th overall, one stage win (Marc Hirschi)

Pro wins 2021: one

Alpecin-Fenix

All eyes are on Tour de France debutant Mathieu van der Poel as he targets the yellow jersey on the first stage of the 2021 race.

The Dutchman has made a seamless transition from cyclo-cross domination to Classics success on the road and he heads a sprinter-packed Alpecin-Fenix squad for this race.

Beyond the first stage, Van der Poel could also prove a contender for the green jersey as he looks to best Peter Sagan and make this is a maiden Tour to remember.

For his team, also at the Tour for the first time, stage wins are clearly the target with a team built to take something from the rolling and flatter stages.

• Petr Vakoc (CZE)
• Kristian Sbaragli (ITA)
• Tim Merlier (BEL)
• Xandro Meurisse (BEL)
• Mathieu van der Poel (NED)
• Silvan Dillier (SUI)
• Jasper Philipsen (BEL)
• Jonas Rickaert (BEL)

Pro wins 2021: 17

Team TotalEnergies

Four of team TotalEnergies' five wins this season arrived in an eight-day period in May.

At the 2021 Tour de France, the goal will be breakaways and stage wins where the opportunity present as they look to take advantage of their airtime.

Edvald Boasson Hagen has prowess on the biggest stage and a huge engine, while Pierre Latour will be one to watch when the mountain heads skywards.

It is a balanced team, full of opportunists, and when the breakaways are let off the leash in the final week, there could be opportunities.

• Pierre Latour (FRA)
• Anthony Turgis (FRA)
• Victor de la Parte (ESP)
• Cristian Rodriguez (ESP)
• Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR)
• Julien Simon (FRA)
• Fabien Doubey (FRA)
• Jeremy Cabot (FRA)

Tour de France 2020: 31 st overall

Pro wins 2021: five

Team Arkea-Samsic

Team Arkea-Samsic are led by three riders who, just a few years ago, seemed to have the world at their cleated feet.

Warren Barguil and Nairo Quintana have both won the Tour de France's polka dot jersey and the Colombian has claimed both the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana.

Their stars have faded overt time, however, and with a balanced Tour route - and a lot of time trialling - awaiting, stage wins in the mountain look the better bet than a yellow jersey challenge.

The third of those team leaders is Nacer Bouhanni, a man who looked to set to carry France's sprinting hopes at one time.

He too has never lived up to expectations on the biggest stage, however, and it could be British duo Connor Swift and Dan McLay who stand more chance of earning something on the flatter stages.

• Warren Barguil (FRA)
• Nacer Bouhanni (FRA)
• Nairo Quintana (COL)
• Elie Gesbert (FRA)
• Connor Swift (GBR)
• Anthony Delaplace (FRA)
• Dan McLay (GBR)
• Clement Russo (FRA)

Tour de France 2020: 14 th overall

B&B Hotels p/b KTM

With an all-French team - three of whom share the same first name - B&B Hotels p/b KTM arrive at the Tour de France with one prime goal in mind.

And that goal is to get up the road and earn their sponsors some air time, making each day's break and contesting for victories with the likes of Pierre Rolland and Bryan Coquard where the opportunity presents itself.

This season, their only successes have come in the Tour du Rwanda - Rolland earning one of them.

He will be one to watch in the mountains, and he can never be confidently written off - but realistically the team's goal is airtime and breakaways and little else is expected.

• Pierre Rolland (FRA)
• Quentin Pacher (FRA)
• Maxime Chevalier (FRA)
• Franck Bonnamour (FRA)
• Cyril Barthe (FRA)
• Cyril Gautier (FRA)
• Cyril Lemoine (FRA)
• Bryan Coquard (FRA)

Tour de France 2020: 18 th overall (Pierre Rolland)

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'There is no reason not to talk about it' - Is the Tour de France's silence on the Ukraine war a mistake?

The race has so far not made a public statement condemning the war

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There has been a glaring omission in the first week of the Tour de France.

For all the high-octane racing and phenomenally-sized crowds, there has been no mention to the fact that the deadliest war on European soil this century is still taking place just 1,700 direct kilometres from where the race began in Copenhagen.

Almost five months have passed since Russia, unprovoked, invaded Ukraine, and the horror and shock that was present at the war's onset has subsided. In spite of tens of thousands of military personnel and civilians losing their lives, cycling has kept quiet since the initial escalation, doing nothing since it stripped the rights of Russian and Belarusian teams, amongst other measures.

Now, as the world sits down to watch the biggest bike race of all, silence. Cycling’s put the war to the back of its collective mind, even against the backdrop of the death of two cycling coaches from Ukraine, one at the beginning of the war and one in May. 

Cycling Weekly understands, meanwhile, that the heavily-sanctioned Russian oligarch Igor Makarov remains on the UCI's management committee, in spite of pressure to remove him. CW has asked the governing body multiple times for clarification on why he is still continuing in his role, but as of yet has not received a response.

On stage four of the Tour, there was a minute’s applause for the victims of the Copenhagen shopping centre attack last Sunday, but should it, in front of a worldwide audience, do a similar gesture opposing the war?

“There is no reason not to talk about it, especially while it’s still going on,” Toms Skujins told Cycling Weekly, the Trek-Segafredo rider having been vocal about the war since its inception. “It doesn’t need to be every day, but we should highlight it when we can.

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“There’s definitely things we [as riders and a race] should do and it’d be great if we could have some sort of [stance]. If the war had started now, for sure we’d do something about it, but now it’s drifted to the back of people’s minds and it’s not as urgent for them anymore which is unfortunate," says the rider from Latvia, which shares a boarder with Russia.

“If we can remind politicians that we still care, think and worry about it, it gives them an incentive to do something about it. If people stop talking about the war, governments will think no-one cares about it anymore and they’ll focus on other things.”

Competing under a neutral flag, Russian rider Aleksandr Vlasov is leading Bora-Hansgrohe’s general classification ambitions in the race, while Belarusian rider Aleksandr Riabushenko is making his Tour debut for Astana.

Cycling Weekly asked Vlasov if he would support the race taking a stance showing its support against the war, to which the 26-year-old said: "Yeah, if they organise something, why not?" 

Riabushenko, meanwhile, was reluctant to discuss the war, but did confirm that his family are unable to come and watch him by the roadside because of visa restrictions on his fellow compatriots due to sanctions.

Latvian Toms Skujins reads about the war's development every day. He even had friends in Latvia who got backpacks ready and withdrew cash when the war began for fear of Russia invading his own country.

Asked if he would approach Vlasov and Riabushenko to take part in a message showing support for Ukraine, Skujins responded: “Good question. I’m not very confrontational so it would be hard for me, but maybe that is something I should consider.”

CW has spoken to several riders in recent months with connections to Russia and its allies, all of whom have expressed a desire to be kept out of the news for fear of consequences for themselves and even their families back home.

Is any potential stance complicated by the duo's presence in the race? “It probably is, yeah,” added Skujins, who later said that he would bring up the subject with the CPA and Riders Union to try and bring about a move. “It would be interesting to see if we took a stance what would happen. How would those two riders respond?

“It’s hard to say how connected they are to their country, and they haven’t really spoken out about the issues so I am guessing that they are trying to keep both doors open. I would have hoped they would have spoken out a bit. But, they might get forced into one direction or the other. It’s not easy for them, either, especially if they are really against it. 

“You have to remember that these people riding in the peloton do have families. We have seen what the Russian government can do to their own people with deportations and stuff. That’s scary, and we don’t want to throw anyone under the bus, or say something that might affect their families or friends that are back there.”

Skujins’ fellow Latvian, Israel-PremierTech’s Krists Neilands, shared his dejection, too. “It’s hard to believe that in the 21st century this kind of thing is happening in Europe. We have to talk about it. It’s super-close to my country, I see the news every day, and it’s so sad what’s going on.”

Cycling Weekly attempted to ask the Tour’s race director Christian Prudhomme ahead of stage five if there were any plans to take a position, but Prudhomme said that “as you know, there are 2,000 of you journalists on the race and I can’t answer every question. You need to speak with Fabrice [the race organiser’s press officer].” 

Upon asking ASO, a spokesperson said: “No-one else has even asked this question.” By the time of publication, ASO had yet to provide any official statement. 

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A freelance sports journalist and podcaster, you'll mostly find Chris's byline attached to news scoops, profile interviews and feature writing across a variety of different publications. He has been writing regularly for Cycling Weekly since 2013.

Previously a ski, hiking and cycling guide in a number of places, but mostly in the Canadian Rockies and Spanish Pyrenees, he almost certainly holds the record for the most number of interviews conducted from snowy mountains.

He lives in Valencia, Spain.

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The Team-by-Team Guide to Who Will Win the 2022 Tour de France

From Ag2r to UAE, here are all the ways the 22 teams in this year’s edition will stuff up a chance for victory.

Someone’s gotta win the 2022 Tour de France, right? But that means 175 guys, and 21 teams, won’t. It turns out the Tour is really hard to win. You’ve gotta get everything right for 21 days: no major crashes or injuries; no bonks or bad days; and of course no badly timed mechanical failures except inside three kilometers to go on flat stages, where mechanicals and mishaps do get mulligans.

And not every team in the Tour is here to win it. They understand that the math of ultimate victory just kind of sucks. So they have other objectives: stage wins, other jersey competitions, or just getting in the break. That doesn’t make for a boring race. In fact, it can make it even crazier as some overall contender’s best laid plans get put on their ear by a team that doesn’t even give a damn about Paris. Here are all 22 teams in this year’s race, what they’re here for, and why despite months of training and prep, they’re still gonna manage to ball it up.

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Ineos grenadiers.

Top Riders : Dani Martinez, Geraint Thomas, Adam Yates

Why They’re Here : To bring back the glory days

What To Watch For: Triple threat! Start with Thomas, the 2018 Tour winner who’s freshly back on good form; Yates, fourth at last year’s Tour of Spain; and Martinez, who had his best spring ever, capped by a win at Itzulia Basque Country. Bench? Super deep: from young talents Tom Pidcock and Ethan Hayter to rouleurs like Filippo Ganna and Dylan van Baarle. With the biggest budget in the WorldTour, these guys come to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and they’re all outta bubblegum.

Why They’ll Lose : Unfortunately they may be all outta kick ass too. Ineos is bike racing’s equivalent of an ‘80s super group: went triple platinum, had its own display at Tower Records, sold-out stadium shows everywhere. Now they’re opening for Winger at HairNation in Cleveland. A triple threat GC strategy is what you do when you don’t have a true leader, and they pretty much never work. Thomas is 36, that 2018 Tour win a golden, glorious outlier. Yates? No one is afraid of a Yates. Martinez is intriguing but has exactly one high overall finish in a Grand Tour to his name. Super group? Maybe a really good cover band.

Jumbo-Visma

Top Riders : Primož Roglič, Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert

Why They’re Here : Revenge for Omi and Opi

What To Watch For : With all the hype around Rog v. Pog, it’s a little astounding that the two top stage racers in the sport have only ever faced off to the finish in two multi-day events, the first being Pog’s come-from-behind stunner in the 2020 Tour. Last year, of course, Roglič was all primed to avenge that crazy loss until he ran into (literally) the infamous fan holding the Opi-Omi sign on Stage One and abandoned later with injuries. That, of course, did open the door for Vingegaard’s debutante ball and van Aert’s Ventoux heroics. More recently, Jumbo was looking good, Billy Ray, with a 1-2 finish by Rog and Jonas at the Criterium du Dauphiné and a pile of stage wins by van Aert.

Why They’ll Lose : Roglič has three straight Vuelta a España titles but Tour Troubles live rent-free in his head. Short of major trouble early, team brass will hold Vingegaard back, and he’s a Good Boy so he’ll comply. Elsewhere, van Aert picked up a mysterious knee injury in training camp, and the whole Tour de Suisse team had to bail with COVID. Just the kind of relaxing few weeks you want pre-Tour.

UAE Team Emirates

Top Riders : All about Tadej Pogačar

Why They’re Here : Win No. 3

What To Watch For : Pog’s first win was via surprise; in taking the lead only in the Stage 20 TT, his team was never tested. Last season it was and passed. Barely. But this offseason was like the scene from The Matrix Reloaded where Neo fights three Agents and stops for a moment to observe, “Hmm. Upgrades.” UAE picked up a bunch of new climber-support guys that significantly boosts team depth. They’re made, and paid, to defend.

Why They’ll Lose : I mean, probably not? But luck has a funny way of evening things out, and the first week of this year’s race holds plenty of chances for the bad kind. Stage 2’s crosswind potential recalls 2020, when Pog lost time on Stage 7 in a similar situation. Stage 5 has cobbles. Roubaix cobbles. Pog has never raced them. He’s a fine bike handler and had fun at the Ronde van Vlaanderen last spring. But Roubaix cobbles are…different.

Outside GC Contenders

Outside of the top three teams, there are several others that have a legitimate shot at a yellow jersey. All have flaws that the Big 3 don’t: they lack depth, or have unproved leaders, or some other issue. Everything has to go right for one of them to get the upset win. But never say never.

Ag2r-Citroën

Top Riders : Ben O’Connor

Why They’re Here : To get on the Tour podium

What To Watch For : A lot of observers wrote off O’Connor’s fourth-place finish last year as a fluke, since it was sparked by a winning break on Stage 9 that gave him big time on the chase. But that ignores the 26-year-old Aussie’s steady rise as a stage racer. He was the best not-Jumbo guy at the Dauphiné, for example. Not only can he climb, he’s durable, with just two DNFs in stage races the past two and a half seasons.

Why They’ll Lose : Three things hold O’Connor back. One: Ineos, Jumbo, and UAE would take Ag2r apart if O’Connor has to defend yellow. Second, almost zero experience on cobbles: his last race on them was six years ago, on Flanders cobbles, not the Roubaix kind. Sure, he reconned the stage, but with Ag2r leaving former Paris-Roubaix winner Greg van Avermaet home, O’Connor loses an incomparable cobbles pilot for a crucial stage where he’s openly praying for dry weather . Last, Rog and Pog don’t fear O’Connor in any TT, much less the 40km monster at the end of this race.

Bora-Hansgrohe

Top Riders : Aleksandr Vlasov

Why They’re Here : To add to that Grand Tour win streak

What To Watch For : Peter who? Bora has moved on from the Sagan era to become maybe the odds-on fave to challenge the UAE-Jumbo-Ineos triumvirate in stage racing (see: Jai Hindley, 2022 Giro d’Italia). Next up: Vlasov, who was scary good at the Tour de Suisse. With climbing support from Max Schachmann, Patrick Konrad, and Lennard Kämna, they could be a sleeper threat.

Why They’ll Lose : In Grand Tours, Vlasov’s either top 10 or a DNF, no in-betweens. After getting COVID at Suisse, his form is a question mark, bold, in 48-point type. And Vlasov—a Russian—in yellow would be a PR disaster for a sport that’s been almost capriciously inconsistent with its response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. If he takes the lead, the press conferences could be more vicious than the road.

Bahrain Victorious

Top Riders : Jack Haig, Matej Mohorič, Damiano Caruso

Why They’re Here : A sneaky yellow jersey push?

What To Watch For : Bahrain’s my other pick for an outside challenge to Pogačar’s third title. Usually they’re stage hunters at the Tour, and damn good ones too: three last year alone. And they usually have not one, but two riders up high in the overall in Grand Tours. Here it’ll be the Caruso-Haig pair, backed by Dylan Teuns. And there’s always Mohorič for stages if things go pear-shaped early.

Why They’ll Lose : Bahrain can’t close the deal in a GT. Never has. “The road will decide” is a dumb strategy in week three of a Grand Tour, as each co-leader rides for himself. That dynamic could easily play out here, with 34-year-old Caruso, always the lieutenant, looking for that one breakthrough result to cap his career, and 28-year-old Haig looking to confirm that he’s the team’s immediate future. Add to that a pre-Tour police raid , and it’s worth wondering whether Bahrain cracks up well before Paris.

Groupama-FDJ

Top Riders : Thibaut Pinot, David Gaudu

Why They’re Here : A fresh strategy for success?

What To Watch For : Who doesn’t cheer for Pinot? One of France’s best stage racers in a generation, and a disarmingly honest, refreshingly down-to-earth human (his Instagram features pictures of him with his goats as much as racing). And just in time, he’s looking like a threat, with a stage win at the Tour de Suisse. Gaudu got another at the Dauphiné, and they have Valentin Madouas and Michael Storer for support. Could this be Thibaut’s year?

Why They’ll Lose : Nope, it could not. No one has a more complicated relationship with the Tour than Pinot, who’s had more than his fair share of heartache; who could forget that wrenching DNF in 2019 from a freak knee injury, just as he looked ready to rip the race apart? Pinot’s a pure climber, so week one and the final TT will be his undoing. This lineup would be far better off focusing on stage wins, and the team’s been cagey about whether its goals are GC or stages. Good plan.

Top Riders : Romain Bardet

Why They’re Here : A mulligan from the Giro

What To Watch For : Bardet, a serious Grand Tours rider by any measure, was sitting fourth overall at the Giro when illness knocked him out near the end of the second week. The Tour is a second chance, and the form he had at the Giro, combined with the break from not having to go deep in the arduous third week there, could make him a serious threat here.

Why They’ll Lose : Bardet’s best Grand Tour results are behind him. He sucks at flat time trials. DSM isn’t deep enough to support him, partly because they keep losing good riders due to their inflexible management style. To paraphrase Tolstoy, all dysfunctional teams are unhappy in their own way, and DSM—which is leaving Soren Kragh Andersen, one of its best stage hunters, home because he’s switching teams next year—is a particularly miserable outfit.

Surefire Stage Winners

Not every team is here to chase the podium in Paris. Many teams are hunting stage wins, the coin of the realm for non-GC relevance at the Tour. We’ve divided them into two groups. The first consists of the teams that are almost guaranteed to win a stage. In fact, their Tour will be a disappointment if they don’t.

BikeExchange-Jayco

Top Riders : Dylan Groenewegen, Michael Matthews

Why They’re Here : To knock off as many Ws as possible

What To Watch For : The Groenewegen-Matthews tandem has seven Tour stage wins between them, plus Matthews’ green jersey in 2017. They’re the best shots for a stage win, and both have shown encouraging form lately. Past that, Nick Schultz is an outside shot for a climbing stage.

Why They’ll Lose : Their best rider, Simon Yates, is staying home after a mixed Giro campaign. Groenewegen looked to be a breakout star after his 2019 Tour but hasn’t been the same rider since getting DQ’d at the 2020 Tour of Poland for his role in the crash that almost ended Fabio Jakobsen’s career. Matthews is, and remains, a kind of mercurial mess: great talent, constantly top 5 or top 10, but rarely a winner at the Tour, where his last stage win was in 2017.

Intermarché-Wanty

Top Riders : Alexander Kristoff

Why They’re Here : Arrgh! It’s a pirate’s life for us!

What To Watch For : The most recent addition to the WorldTour ranks, Intermarché was supposed to just take up some space in the pack: get in the early break, vie for top fives in sprints, but generally be wallpaper. They didn’t get the memo: 13 wins already this year, including two Giro stages and Gent-Wevelgem. The center is sprinter Kristoff, a four-time Tour stage winner who can Classics a bit too. And then there’s breakaway specialist Taco van der Hoorn, who we love for his never-say-die attitude and because, whenever he’s in the break, we get to think about tacos for hours on end.

Why They’ll Lose : It was a great spring, but reversion to the mean is a bitch. There is no race harsher and more sharp-elbowed than the Tour, and without top riders Biniam Girmay and Jan Hirt (both of whom did the Giro), they’re pretty thin for the biggest race in the world. What about Louis Meintjes? What about him, indeed: likely racing defensively for another 12th place overall.

Alpecin-Deceuninck

Top Riders : Mathieu van der Poel, Jasper Philipsen

Why They’re Here : Sprints, baby

What To Watch For : Alpecin will give Quick-Step a run for best sprint team this Tour. That starts with Mathieu van der Poel, one of the most phenomenal, unclassifiable riders racing today. Van der Poel can win sprints, can win hilly courses, can handle a bike so beautifully it makes Danny MacAskill cry. He’s here for stages, not the green jersey, so he’ll be aggressive. Philipsen is a pure field sprinter. Can’t climb so much as a ladder, but point him in a straight line and there are few who can beat him.

Why They’ll Lose : Two sprinters? That’s a recipe for a mess. If Alpecin is smart, they’ll back Philipsen in sprints and van der Poel will go for breakaways and the Roubaix stage. But for all his talents and the hype, van der Poel has weaknesses, especially tactics. Philipsen is still searching for that breakout win/season that establishes him as one of the premier speedsters in the pack.

Trek-Segafredo

Top Riders : Bauke Mollema, Mads Pedersen, Jasper Stuyven

Why They’re Here : To win on the hardest of days

What To Watch For : Trek is a deep, experienced team of vets, and has no illusions about going for GC. Mollema just missed stage wins several times at the Giro, but last year’s win on the Tour’s Stage 14 was a virtuoso performance of strength and tactics on a wickedly hard day. That’s Trek’s sweet spot. Whether it’s medium mountain stages for Mollema, bad weather and long grinds for 2019 World Champion Pedersen, or cobbles and crosswinds for classics specialist Stuyven, they’re made for days when other guys just want to get to the finish.

Why They’ll Lose : It’s unknown how well Mollema will go in his second full GT this season. Pedersen is at his best on very long days: 200km plus, lumpy profile, and there simply aren’t many of those at this year’s Tour. Stuyven has always seemed One Big Win from a breakout. But when he gets them, like last year’s Milano-Sanremo, the streak never comes. At 30, he is who he is: talented but not transformative.

Quick-Step-Alpha Vinyl

Top Riders : Fabio Jakobsen, Kasper Asgreen

Why They’re Here : Stage wins galore

What To Watch For : Quick-Step is that friend who always marches to her own beat. They haven’t mounted a real GC attempt at the Tour in years, and they’re not starting now. They’re built for stage wins, starting with sprinter Jakobsen and the best leadout in bike racing, Michael Mørkøv. They’ve won at least one stage every year since 2012, and it’s the surest bet in the Tour that streak continues.

Why They’ll Lose : They’re limping into the Tour, almost literally. Classics star Kasper Asgreen is banged up from a Tour de Suisse crash. World Champion Julian Alaphilippe isn’t here at all, thanks to crash injuries. Plus there’s weird vibes: Yves Lampaert was disqualified from the Tour of Belgium for physically blocking another rider racing for the overall win. And how do you not bring Mark Cavendish to the Tour? If there’s any karma for those two outrages, QS will get goose-egged this year.

Wild Cards and Stage Hunters

One of the unifying factors among these teams is they don’t win that much at the WorldTour. Another is they’re typically among the lower-budget teams, unable to sign the big-name riders who would give them those headline victories. A third: several of them are fighting possible relegation from the sport’s top level. A Tour stage is far from assured, but would also help a lot in that competition.

Top Riders : Enric Mas, Carlos Verona

Why They’re Here : All about avoiding disaster

What To Watch For : As anyone who’s watched their Netflix documentary series The Most Unexpected Day can attest, no one does drama like Movistar. There’s always something going on and this year it’s relegation. New UCI rules will drop the two lowest-point teams out of the 2023 WorldTour, and Movistar—with a four-decade history in the sport—is on the bubble. So look for them to race with a certain desperation. Their best hope is Mas, a top climber. But Verona is in excellent form, and young American rider Matteo Jorgenson bears watching in his first Tour.

Why They’ll Lose : Mas was looking strong at the Dauphiné, but a bad crash knocked him out. Several of their top riders, like Alejandro Valverde, aren’t racing the Tour, which limits their potential. Movistar has never been a sprint team, so they’re mostly confined to breakaway hopes. Movistar has never been big on team cohesion, and if success doesn’t come in the first half of the race, the second could be a slog.

Arkea-Samsic

Top Riders : Nairo Quintana, Warren Barguil

Why They’re Here : To the mountains they must go

What To Watch For : Arkea needs to pick opportunities wisely. Its best shots will be with climbers Quintana and Barguil in the mountains. Both have a track record of success at the Grand Tours, and although Quintana is no longer the GC rider he was 5-10 years ago, he’s also not a guy you let build a big lead before a final climb.

Why They’ll Lose : As is his style the past few years, Quintana started the season hot and then fell off. Back through 2020, he hasn’t won a single race after May. The past 3-4 years Barguil has focused on GC at the Tour, which he really shouldn’t do, because it means he rides defensively when he should be attacking. There are a couple of other outside stage shots on Arkea, like the Classics rider Connor Swift. But they need to race smart, and instead, I expect to see them in every early break, no matter the chances.

Total Energies

Top Riders : Peter Sagan

Why They’re Here : Sagz and breaks

What To Watch For : Sagan’s move from Bora to Total Energies over the offseason basically re-made the team. Sagz doesn’t travel light, bringing three of his Bora teammates (including bestie Daniel Oss) and Specialized as a sponsor. For that, Sagan has given them a stage win at the recent Tour de Suisse, and hopes to add to his 12 Tour stages. Anthony Turgis, second at Milano-Sanremo, is maybe the most underrated Classics rider in the pack and could be a threat for the Roubaix stage.

Why They’ll Lose : If Sagan was supposed to raise TE’s game, it hasn’t worked out so far. Instead, he DNF’d out of Suisse with his third bout of COVID after reportedly fighting off long COVID from his second round with the disease. He hasn’t won a Tour stage in his last two outings. Turgis never seems to quite get over the hump with a big result. This is not a terribly deep team and if Sagan, their center, is not on good form they’ll struggle to adapt.

Lotto-Soudal

Top Riders : Caleb Ewan, Tim Wellens

Why They’re Here : Sprints and breaks

What To Watch For : Ewan, a five-time Tour stage winner, would like a mulligan for his unfortunate crash on Stage 1 of the Giro as he was fighting it out for the win. Wellens, a deeply experienced vet, was excellent at the Belgium Tour, losing the overall only due to foul play by Quick-Step. And in Florian Vermeersch and Philippe Gilbert they have two very good Classics riders, albeit at opposite ends of the age/experience spectrum.

Why They’ll Lose : Lotto’s leadout simply isn’t on par with Quick-Step or Alpecin. Ewan will be forced to freelance. He’s also usually an early DNF in Grand Tours. If he strikes out early, that might be it. For all of Wellens’ experience he attacks at weirdly inopportune moments (called “Wellensing”). Gilbert has a fabulous palmares but hasn’t added much to it the past few years. And Vermeersch, the breakout revelation of last year’s Paris-Roubaix, is almost anonymous this year, including a terrible Classics season.

B&B Hotels-KTM

Top Riders : Pierre Rolland

Why They’re Here : So you’re sayin’ there’s a chance!

What To Watch For : Among “wild cards,” Alpecin gets an automatic invite for leading the sport’s second division. TotalEnergies gets in because Sagan. That leaves B&B, which is in because they’re French. Their best shot is clearly Rolland, three times a top-10 finisher at the Tour and the team’s only Tour stage winner. Rolland, an old school race-by-feel guy, is definitely feeling it right now, barely missing a stage win at the Dauphiné and taking home the mountains jersey. He’s a solid pick for a win on one of those lumpy transitional courses, and there are several chances, including Stages 8 and 9, and 13 and 14.

Why They’ll Lose : Rolland is 35. In 16 seasons, he’s won 12 races, and just once in the last five seasons. Those GC campaigns were a long time ago now. And there’s a lot of pressure on him. This is a thin team, thanks to running on a meager budget compared to WorldTour teams. A stage win would be a fantastic triumph, but the team hasn’t won anything near this level in its six-year existence. Don’t bet on a breakthrough here.

Top Riders : Guillaume Martin, Bryan Coquard

Why They’re Here : To break a long winless streak

What To Watch For : After racing the full Giro d’Italia, Martin is likely at the Tour searching for stage wins rather than the overall. That’s a smart strategy for the peloton’s smartest rider (with a master’s in philosophy, he’s the only WorldTour rider we know of with an advanced degree). A number of medium mountain days are well-suited to him. Coquard, a kind of all-around sprinter/classics guy, could be one to watch for the first week.

Why They’ll Lose : Martin has a knack for getting in breaks that gain a lot of time. But he also sometimes uses his strength at odd, inopportune times. It shows in the results: just seven wins in seven seasons, none on the WorldTour. He’s a good climber, but a stage win will require luck, not just legs. Coquard is a conventionally successful racer with 47 wins, but also none on the WorldTour. Cofidis hasn’t won a Tour stage since 2008, despite being in the race every year. It’s the longest dry streak of any team here, and chances are it continues this Tour.

EF Education First-EasyPost

Top Riders: Rigoberto Uran

Why They’re Here : To get in the break almost every day

What To Watch For : There’s no harder team to puzzle out this year than EF. Uran, a former Grand Tour podium finisher, could be a GC threat. But more likely he's going for stage wins. The roster is built to compete on almost any day: Uran for the big mountains. Ruben Guerreiro for the medium ones. Magnus Cort and Alberto Bettiol for the lumpy transitional stuff. All of them could have success.

Why They’ll Lose : EF had an uneven lead-in to the Tour, with half its roster at Tour de Suisse going out with COVID (including Uran and Bettiol). Guerreiro won the recent Ventoux Challenge, a promising result, but against lesser competition than he'll face here. Cort, maybe the team’s best stage-win hope, hasn’t had the kind of season he hoped for so far. Watch American Neilson Powless, 4th overall at Suisse. With EF on the relegation bubble, they’ll race hard, but as we’ve said elsewhere, desperation often isn’t the best motivation for a victory.

Israel-Premier Tech

Top Riders : Michael Woods, Jakob Fuglsang

Why They’re Here : They got automatic entry. Somehow.

What To Watch For : Another WorldTour team on the relegation bubble, Israel-Premier Tech comes in search of results that will boost them to an assured spot in next year’s top tier of teams. Their best bets are Fuglsang, who turned in a strong Tour de Suisse performance (albeit against a COVID-decimated field) and Woods, who won a stage and the overall at the recent Route d’Occitanie.

Why They’ll Lose : There’s no team that’s mismanaged its roster and budget like IPT, sinking big money into riders whose best results are behind them. Just two riders here are under 30 and most of the rest are closer to 40. Four-time former Tour winner Chris Froome has never recovered from that awful 2019 crash that broke his femur. Woods and Fuglsang have both won lesser races this year, but it remains to be seen if they have what it takes against Tour-level competition.

Top Riders : Alexey Lutsenko

Why They’re Here : To rekindle past glories of Vino 4 Ever!

What To Watch For: Once upon a time, Astana was a feared GC team. Vincenzo Nibali at his mid-decade peak, or the heady Alberto Contador years, these guys were a badass bunch. These days they don’t merit much concern. Maybe Lutsenko get a mountain stage. Maybe Gianni Moscon makes news for something other than being a dick. Maybe I’ll wake up a billionaire tomorrow.

Why They’ll Lose : Because Astana is Team Hot Mess. Lutsenko? Wake me when he’s a legit top-5 threat. Moscon’s barely been seen since flatting out of the Paris-Roubaix lead last fall. And with near-constant issues paying staff and riders, and reported criminal investigations about fraud and money laundering, it’s honestly worth wondering how long this team survives, win or no.

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Tour de France 2022: Preview, schedule and riders to watch

As Tadej Pogacar goes for a hat-trick of victories, here's everything you need to know about this year's edition of Le Tour, which starts on 1 July in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The second Grand Tour of the 2022 men's road cycling season, the 109th Tour de France , begins on Friday 1 July in Copenhagen, Denmark, and will end as usual in Paris on Sunday 24 July.

Tokyo 2020 medallists Tadej Pogacar , Primoz Roglic and Wout van Aert headline the race that will cover a total of over 3,300km across 21 stages. There are five summit finishes, two time trials and six flat stages.

Slovenia's Pogacar is looking to claim the winner's yellow jersey for the third consecutive year, matching a feat most recently achieved by four-time champion Chris Froome (2015, 2016, 2017).

Following a postponement from last year due to a schedule clash with the Euro 2020 football tournament, Denmark will become the 10th country to host the Grand Depart. The 2022 route will also go into Belgium (Stage 6) and Switzerland (Stages 8 and 9), making it the first time since 2017 that four different countries feature in the same edition.

Some 176 riders will take part, eight for each of the 22 teams. That's one fewer team than in the 2021 edition.

The last day of the men's Grand Boucle will coincide with the start of the historic eight-stage inaugural Tour de France Femmes , which replaces the La Course one-day women's race.

Below you can find everything you need to know about one of the world's most gruelling endurance events this year.

Tour de France 2022 General Classification men to watch

Tadej Pogacar: The Olympic road race bronze medallist comes into the 2022 Grand Boucle as the overwhelming favourite. The Slovenian has won every stage race he has taken part in this season (UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour of Slovenia) and is going for a hat-trick of victories on the Tour at just 23 years of age.

Primoz Roglic: The Tokyo 2020 time trial gold medallist came agonisingly close to the GC win in 2020, while he had to abandon the race last year following a crash. The former ski jumper seems to have recovered from a knee injury that affected the first part of his season and is fresh from an overall win at the Criterium du Dauphine.

Daniel Martinez: With 2019 winner Egan Bernal still recovering from a horrific training accident, his fellow Colombian is ready to be the leader of Ineos Grenadiers after taking the Tour of the Basque Country this spring. The British team has won seven of the Tour's last 10 editions and Martinez could share the leadership with 2018 champion Geraint Thomas , who recently won the Tour de Suisse.

Jonas Vingegaard : The 25-year-old Dane finished as a surprise runner-up in 2021, and this season with two second places at the Tirreno-Adriatico and Dauphine has shown he's ready to step up if his Jumbo-Visma teammate Roglic is not fully fit.

Aleksandr Vlasov: Following Jai Hindley 's success at the Giro d'Italia, Bora-Hansgrohe's hopes of winning their second Grand Tour this year lie on the shoulders of the Russian rider riding under a neutral flag. Vlasov took impressive overall victories at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Tour de Romandie, but he was forced to abandon the Tour of Suisse for Covid when he was leader.

Other key riders at Tour de France 2022

Green jersey.

Last year's points competition winner Mark Cavendish hasn't been selected by his team Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl (he's been named as a first-reserve rider) and that means that the 37-year-old Manxman will have to wait before being able to surpass the legendary Eddy Merckx for number of stage wins (both are tied on 34).

The Belgian team will be led by Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen , who is hoping to take advantage of the sprint opportunities. Australian Caleb Ewan of Lotto-Soudal and Netherlands' Dylan Groenewegen of the Team Bike Exchange-Jayco also fancy their chances.

The course includes several hilly stages and that might favour puncheurs such as record seven-time green jersey winner Peter Sagan , who recently was back to winning ways at the Tour de Suisse before withdrawing due to a positive Covid test. The three-time world champion made a quick recovery to take his eighth Slovakian national title.

Other contenders for the green jersey will be multi-talented riders Mathieu van der Poel , who wore the leader's pink jersey at the Giro for the first three stages, and Wout van Aert , who took the points classification at both the Criterium du Dauphine and Paris-Nice this season.

Polka dot jersey

Pogacar secured the king of the mountains classification at the last two editions, and in the history of the Tour only four riders have won it more than twice (the record belongs to Richard Virenque with seven).

The Slovenian talisman will probably be challenged by some of the other GC contenders (Roglic, Vlasov, Vingegaard), as well as by Frenchmen Thibaut Pinot , who recently took the queen stage of the Tour de Suisse, and 2019 polka dot winner Romain Bardet , who was forced to leave the last Giro after suffering from stomach issues.

Tour 2022 route and important stages

The 2022 Tour de France begins with a technical 13km time trial along the streets of Copenhagen that will suit the discipline's specialists such as double reigning world champion Filippo Ganna , Stefan Bissegger of Switzerland (EF Education-EasyPost) and two-time world medallist Van Aert.

After two further stages in Denmark, the race will resume in France on Tuesday 5 July and a day later on Stage 5 cobbles will make their return for the first time since 2018. Week one is highlighted by the summit finish on the Super Planche des Belles Filles, with the following two stages foraying into Switzerland, including a finish at the Olympic Stadium in Lausanne .

During the second week the peloton heads deeper into the Alps with two straight gruelling mountain stages. On stage 11 the riders will climb the Col du Telegraphe and Col du Galibier (the highest point of the race at 2,642m) before finishing on the top of the Col du Granon; stage 12 on Bastille Day will be equally testing and will feature a summit finish on the Alpe d'Huez for the first time in five years.

The Tour will then move across the Massif Central towards the Pyrenees with the final rest day in Carcassonne. Two more back-to-back summit finishes on stage 17 (Peyragudes) and 18 (Hautacam) will offer the final chance to specialist climbers to gain ground in the GC before a 40km time trial on stage 20.

The final stage ending in Paris will see sprinters lock horns for one last time on this edition along the Champs-Elysees.

Day-by-day route of 2022 Tour de France

Fri 1 July: Stage 1 – Copenhagen-Copenhagen (time trial, 13.2 km)

Sat 2 July: Stage 2 – Roskilde-Nyborg (202.5 km)

Sun 3 July: Stage 3 – Vejle-Sonderborg (182 km)

Mon 4 July: Transfer Day

Tue 5 July: Stage 4 – Dunkerque-Calais (171.5 km)

Wed 6 July: Stage 5 – Lille Metropole-Arenburg Porte du Hainaut (157 km)

Thu 7 July: Stage 6 – Binche-Longwhy (220km)

Fri 8 July: Stage 7 – Tomblaine-La Super Planche de Belle Filles (176.5 km)

Sat 9 July: Stage 8 – Dole-Lausanne (186.5km)

Sunday 10 July: Stage 9 – Aigle-Chatel les Portes du Soleil (193km)

Monday 11 July: Rest Day

Tuesday 12 July: Stage 10 – Morzine Les Portes du Soleil-Megeve (148.5km)

Wednesday 13 July: Stage 11 – Albertville-Col du Granon Serre Chevalier (152km)

Thursday 14 July: Stage 12 – Briancon-Alpe d’Huez (165.5km)

Friday 15 July: Stage 13 – Le Bourg d’Oisans-Saint Etienne (193km)

Saturday 16 July: Stage 14 – Saint Etienne-Mende (192.5km)

Sunday 17 July: Stage 15 – Rodez-Carcassonne (202.5km)

Monday 18 July: Rest Day

Tuesday 19 July: Stage 16 – Carcassonne-Foix (178,5km)

Wednesday 20 July: Stage 17 – Saint-Gaudens-Peyragudes (130km)

Thursday 21 July: Stage 18 – Lourdes-Hautacam (143.5km)

Friday 22 July: Stage 19 – Castelnau-Magnoac – Cahors (188.5km)

Saturday 23 July: Stage 20 – Lacapelle-Marival - Rocamadour (time trial, 40.7km)

Sunday 24 July: Stage 21 – Paris La Defence Arena – Paris Champs Elysees (116km)

How to watch the 2022 Tour de France

The race will be shown live in 190 countries and here is a list of the official broadcast partners across different territories.

Belgium – RTBF

Czech Republic – Ceska Televise

Europe – Eurosport

France – France TV Sport and Eurosport France

Germany – ARD

Italy – RAI Sport

Ireland – TG4

Luxembourg – RTL

The Netherlands – NOS

Norway – TV2

Portugal – RTP

Slovakia – RTVS

Slovenia – RTV SLOVENIJA

Spain – RTVE

Switzerland – SRG SSR

The United Kingdom – ITV

Wales – S4C

Canada – Flobikes

Colombia – Caracol TV

Latin America and Caribbean – ESPN

South America – TV5 Monde

The United States of America – NBC Sports and TV5 Monde

Asia Pacific

Australia – SBS

China – CCTV and Zhibo TV

Japan – J Sports

New Zealand – Sky Sports

Southeast Asia – Eurosport and GCN

Middle East and Africa

The Middle East and North Africa – BeIN Sports and TV5 Monde

Sub-Saharan Africa – Supersport and TV5 Monde

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Unveiling the High-Octane Riders Set to Dominate the Sprints at the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia

[table-of-contents] stripped

As summer grows ever closer, our focus shifts to the emblematic jerseys of the Grand Tours : the maglia rosa , the maillot jaune , and the maillot rojo —and rightly so. After all, we watch bike races in large part to see who’s going to win, especially when we have such riches as we do these days, with some of the most talented GC riders in generations battling it out on the long course of a Grand Tour.

But what about the green and purple jerseys , those awarded to the leaders and winners of the points classifications, often, though not always, noted sprinters?

These are men and women capable of making unfathomable watts, often after four, five, and sometimes six-plus hours of racing, who are held at bay all day, only to unleash their greatest skills for barely a few hundred meters. They’re often the ones who give us the biggest thrills and the narrowest victories (or defeats).

While we focus on the speed and raw power of sprinters, one thing that’s often overlooked is how well they race; how the best sprinters are often the most patient riders, waiting until the perfect moment to launch their attacks. Theirs is often a game of cat-and-mouse, a strategic battle as much as a power-based one. Given the blazing speed at which these riders can sprint, it’s easy to forget that they’re some of the savviest riders in the peloton.

So, who are they? Let’s take a deeper look at the riders going for those green jerseys and points competitions at the Giro d’Italia , Tour de France , and Vuelta a España this summer.

Men’s Top Sprinters

Jasper philipsen – alpecin-deceuninck.

The young Belgian, once derided as “Jasper the Disaster,” is the best sprinter in the world right now. Possessing the perfect combination of strength, racing know-how, and the patience required to win a bunch sprint, he has to be the favorite heading into any stage suited to sprinters. After a second-place finish at Roubaix , the reigning Tour de France green jersey will head into this year’s Grande Boucle as the heavy favorite to repeat.

Mads Pedersen – Lidl-Trek

Unlike most others on this list, Mads Pedersen is hardly a pure sprinter. Rather, the one-day specialist has shown that he’s most at home when launching attacks from a long way out. In fact, just a few weeks ago, he did something most people didn’t think was possible when he stayed with Mathieu van der Poel for some fifty kilometers in Ghent-Wevelgem , only to outsprint the Dutch superstar in the closing meters. There isn’t a team in the men’s peloton looking quite as strong as Lidl-Trek is right now, so expect Mads to compete for at least a few bunch sprint wins in his scheduled Tour and Vuelta appearances.

Tim Merlier – Soudal-Quick-Step

By the metric of the modern peloton, Tim Merlier is getting a bit long in the tooth. The 31-year-old from Flanders only has two Grand Tour stage wins to his name: one in the Giro and one in the Tour . But, as most of Merlier’s early career was focused on cyclocross racing, he very well could just be coming into his prime. In the last three seasons, Merlier has won the Belgian National Road Race and Brugge-De Panne, and, from 2022 to this year, three-peated in Nokere Koerse. Maybe, like a great sprinter does, he’s waiting until the perfect moment to launch.

Sprinters with something to prove

Mark cavendish – astana qazaqstan.

In 2024, Cav is sitting on the precipice between these two categories. The Manx Missile was coaxed out of retirement not once but twice with the promise of nabbing Eddy Merckx’s longstanding record of 34 Tour de France stage wins. And while his early-season returns have been anything but stunning, we’re talking about the greatest sprinter of all time here. And so, for that very reason, we have to consider Cav, a two-time Tour de France green jersey winner, in the upper echelon here.

Dylan Groenewegen – Jayco AlUla

Groenewegen has five Tour de France stage wins. But four of them came before 2020 and one in 2022. Much of that drought likely has to do with the nine-month ban he received from the UCI after it was determined he caused the crash that put Fabio Jakobsen in an induced coma for two days. Still, Groenewegen has shown form early this season with a ninth-place finish in Ghent-Wevelgem and a few strong stages in Paris-Nice and the UAE Tour.

Kaden Groves – Alpecin-Deceuninck

Groves, the four-time Vuelta a España stage winner and reigning green jersey champion of that race, will likely contest again for several of that race’s sprint stages. Groves has shown a predilection for hilly stages that tend to thin the herd over the course of the day, stages that are becoming increasingly common in the modern Grand Tour.

Arnaud Démare – Arkéa–B&B Hotels

Though he didn’t get any last year, Arnaud Démare has won ten Grand Tour stages: eight in the Giro and two in the Tour . He’s also a two-time points champion in the Giro. And though his spring campaign has been nothing to write home about, he’s an expert at positioning when the bunch really starts charging. Given as much, he should have more than a few opportunities to outsprint the bunch in this summer’s Tour.

Fabio Jakobsen – dsm firmenich PostNL

Like a few others on this list, Jakobsen’s results don’t necessarily match his strength. Easily one of the fastest sprinters in the peloton, Jakobsen will definitely find his way to the bunch in this year’s Giro and Tour, where he’ll try to add to his palmarès, which already counts five Vuelta stage wins. Of course, he hasn’t gotten one of those since 2021, so you either think he’s washed or he’s due.

Dark Horses

Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) - Outside of Mark Cavendish, Sam Bennett is the most decorated racer on this list. His palmarès includes five stage wins at the Vuelta , three at the Giro , and two at the Tour . He was also the Tour’s 2020 green jersey. And though his last two seasons have been hardly spectacular, it’s easy to predict that Sam Bennett could be in the mix for stage wins, especially after he was left off AG2R’s Tour roster last year.

Caleb Ewan (Jayco AlUla) - The man who was once a sure-fire bet to take a Grand Tour sprint stage—he’s won ten in his career—has fallen to the bottom of this pack simply because he hasn’t been able to nab a stage win since the 2021 Giro d’Italia . Of course, he’s still one of the strongest sprinters on Earth and always a threat to take a win, which, over the last three years, he’s been ever so close to. Despite his recent cold streak, Ewan is truly one of the riders you can never, ever count out.

Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) - After a historic stage win in the 2022 Giro d’Italia and a third-place finish behind Jasper Phillipsen and Mark Cavendish in stage 7 of last’s Tour de France, the Eritrean rider showed a lot of promise as a Grand Tour sprinter. Now confirmed for the Giro, we hope to see Girmay bring on the heat to the favorites.

Alberto Dainese (Tudor Pro Cycling) - While still early in his professional career, Dainese has already demonstrated his potential as a top-level sprinter and is definitely one to watch. In 2023, the Italian sprinter won two Giro stages and one Vuelta stage.

Women’s Top Sprinters

On the women’s side of the coin, there’s far less separation between the heavy favorites, the maybe-they-could, and the sprinters who might steal a stage here or there. And much of that has to do with the fact that there’s much more parity in general in the women’s WorldTour (which is why we should all be watching a lot more women’s races!). But there is still the cream of the crop and everyone else.

Lotte Kopecky – SD Worx-Protime

You could easily argue that Lotte Kopecky is the strongest bike racer in the world, regardless of gender. Her ability to sustain efforts and grind her opponents into dust behind her is matched only by the likes of Mathieu van der Poel . As she heads into this summer as the reigning Tour de France points champion, all eyes will be on the 28-year-old to rack up more stage wins.

Lorena Wiebes – SD Worx-Protime

It’s no secret that SD Worx is sitting on an embarrassment of riches right now. This is evidenced by the fact that Lotte Kopecky is racing on the same team as Lorena Wiebes , perhaps the strongest pure sprinter in the women’s peloton. The 25-year-old Dutchwoman has won Ronde van Drenthe four years in a row and just added to her palmarès with a Gent-Wevelgem victory last weekend. In a heads-up sprint, Wiebes is as tough as out there is.

Elisa Balsamo – Lidl-Trek

With wins at Brugge-De Panne and Trofeo Alfredo Binda and second-place finishes at Paris-Roubaix , Ronde van Drenthe, and Ghent-Wevelgem , the Italian one-day specialist is having a world-class spring campaign. She’s had a bit of success in stage races, nabbing a pair of wins at the 2022 Giro Donne and another pair at 2023’s Setmana Ciclista Valenciana. But at just 26 years old, Balsamo could be on the precipice of a breakout summer.

Charlotte Kool – dsm firmenich PostNL

At just 24 years old, Charlotte Kool seems to be hitting her prime. She won her first Grand Tour stage in last year’s Vuelta and was fighting for wins in Brugge-De Panne and Ghent-Wevelgem, where she finished second and fourth, respectively. She won the points classification in last year’s UAE Tour and should rack up plenty of points over the course of the summer.

Emma Norsgaard – Movistar

Though Norsgaard’s spring has been inauspicious at best, she’s always a tough out when it comes to sprints. With a pair of stage wins to her name (a Giro stage in 2021 and a Tour stage in 2023), she knows how to win from the bunch. She just needs to find her way to the front and put herself in a position to compete. If she can get there, there’s no doubt she’s got the legs.

Marianne Vos – Visma-Lease a Bike

So long as there’s a bike race, and so long as Marianne Vos is in that bike race, it’s just plain stupid to count her out. To list her palmarès would take all of the space this story has, so just accept the fact that she’s likely to be there at the end, whether the stage calls for a breakaway, a punchy climb, or a bunch sprint. And though she’s one of the women’s peloton’s elder stateswomen at age 36, with recent wins at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Dwars door Vlaanderen , she’s still proving week after week that she can race with—and beat—the best.

Elisa Longo Borghini – Lidl-Trek

Between Mads Pedersen , Elisa Balsamo, and Longo Borghini, Lidl-Trek’s cup runneth over with one-day talent. But to win one-day races, you need to be able to create and sustain attacks, and there are few better in the women’s bunch at that than Longo Borghini. Hardly a pure sprinter, she’ll need to use her well-honed racing acumen if she’s going to take a stage win.

Chloé Dygert – Canyon//SRAM

Dygert is back. After suffering a training setback late last year, stemming from an injury sustained earlier in 2023, Dygert returned to the peloton with a sixth-place finish in Brugge-De Panne. And while she’s known more for her time-trialing acumen than her pure sprint ability, she can put down and sustain boatloads of power. If she and her teammates can put her in the right position, look for the American star to steal a stage here or there.

Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) - This is only Consonni’s second year at the WorldTour level, but she’s shown in recent times that she has the legs and the know-how to go elbow-to-elbow with the best of the bunch. Her best result is arguably a third-place finish in the points classification in this year’s UAE Tour. Look for her to steal a stage win or two (or three) as the summer progresses.

Rachele Barbieri (dsm firmenich PostNL) - For all of the success Rachele Barbieri has enjoyed on the track, she’s had little on the road. Her best finishes in major races are a pair of second-place finishes in stages in the Giro and UAE Tour and two fourth-place finishes in Tour stages. However, anyone who can make the kind of power Babieri is capable of making can and should not be counted out. Look for her to snag a sleeper win at some point this year.

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Tour de France won’t finish in Paris for first time in more than a century because of the Olympics

This photo provided by the Tour de France organizer ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation) shows the roadmap of the men’s 2024 Tour de France cycling race. The race will start in Florence, Italy, on June 29, 2024, to end in Nice, southern France on July 21, 2024. (ASO via AP)

This photo provided by the Tour de France organizer ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation) shows the roadmap of the women’s 2024 Tour de France cycling race. The race will start in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on Aug. 12 2024 to end in Alps d’Huez, French Alps, on Aug. 18, 2024. (ASO via AP)

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PARIS (AP) — The final stage of next year’s Tour de France will be held outside Paris for the first time since 1905 because of a clash with the Olympics, moving instead to the French Riviera.

Because of security and logistical reasons, the French capital won’t have its traditional Tour finish on the Champs-Elysees. The race will instead conclude in Nice on July 21. Just five days later, Paris will open the Olympics.

The race will start in Italy for the first time with a stage that includes more than 3,600 meters of climbing. High mountains will be on the 2024 schedule as soon as the fourth day in a race that features two individual time trials and four summit finishes.

There are a total of seven mountain stages on the program, across four mountain ranges, according to the route released Wednesday.

The race will kick off in the Italian city of Florence on June 29 and will take riders to Rimini through a series of hills and climbs in the regions of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. That tricky start could set the scene for the first skirmishes between the main contenders.

Riders will first cross the Alps during Stage 4, when they will tackle the 2,642-meter Col du Galibier.

“The Tour peloton has never climbed so high, so early,” Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said.

And it will just be just a taste of what’s to come since the total vertical gain of the 111th edition of the Tour reaches 52,230 meters.

The next big moment for two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and his rivals will be Stage 7 for the first time trial in the Bourgogne vineyards. The first rest day will then come after a stage in Champagne presenting several sectors on white gravel roads for a total of 32 kilometers that usually provide for spectacular racing in the dust.

Tour riders will then head south to the Massif Central and the Pyrenees, then return to the Alps for a pair of massive stages with hilltop finishes, at the Isola 2000 ski resort then the Col de la Couillole, a 15.7-kilometer (9.7-mile) ascent at an average gradient of 7.1%.

There should be suspense right until the very end because the last stage, traditionally a victory parade in Paris for the race leader until the final sprint takes shape, will be a 34-kilometer (21.1-mile) time trial between Monaco and Nice.

“Everyone remembers the last occasion the Tour finished with a time trial, when Greg LeMond stripped the yellow jersey from the shoulders of Laurent Fignon on the Champs-Elysees in 1989, by just eight seconds,” Prudhommne said. “Thirty-five years later, we can but dream of a similar duel.”

There are eight flat stages for the sprinters, leaving plenty of opportunities for Mark Cavendish to try to become the outright record-holder for most career stage wins at the sport’s biggest race.

The route for the third edition of the women’s Tour will take the peloton from the Dutch city of Rotterdam, starting Aug. 12, to the Alpe d’Huez resort. The race will feature eight stages and a total of 946 kilometers.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports

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The youngest and oldest riders at the Tour de France

Twenty-two teams and 176 riders lined up for the 2022 Tour de France. We look at the youngest and oldest riders at the race and their relative place in the history books

It was 1904 when Henri Cornet won the Tour de France aged just 19. Since then, the ages of winners have seemed to converge on a median age of around 28. But, things seem to have been changing...

With young winners like Tadej Pogacar and Egan Bernal, you could be excused for seeing a trend for a newer, younger Tour de France.

Yet, older riders have also been faring well at the Grand Boucle in recent years. So what does the real breakdown of riders by age look like? How young is too young, and how old is too old?

Oldest riders at the 2022 Tour de France

You can never have too much experience, right?

Last year, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) completed the Tour de France at the age of 41. He very nearly became the race's oldest winner too, finishing second to Sepp Kuss on the mountain stage to Andorra.

-  Tour de France 2022 route: everything you need to know about the 109th edition - Tour de France standings: the latest results from the race - Tour de France favourites: who will win this year's yellow jersey?

The oldest ever Tour de France stage winner was Pino Cerami, who won stage nine of the 1963 Tour de France aged 41 years and 65 days. On stage three last year, Valverde was the exact age that Cerami was when he won in Pau in 1963.

In 2022 though Valverde has chosen to skip the Tour de France in favour of riding the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España in his final season before retirement, leaving the door open for another rider to take on the mantle of the Tour's oldest competitor.

Philippe Gilbert is the oldest rider at the 2022 Tour (Image: James Startt)

That man this year is Philippe Gilbert (Lotto-Soudal), who turns 40 on stage four of the race (July 5), and will be hoping to sign off from his 12th and final Tour de France with a stage win. 

Frenchman Cyril Lemoine (B&B Hotels - KTM) is the second oldest rider in 2022 at 39, while Movistar's Imanol Erviti is third at a spritely 38.

• Philippe Gilbert - 39 years and 361 days (when race began) <
• Cyril Lemoine - 39 years and 120 days
• Imanol Erviti - 38 years and 228 days
• Luis León Sánchez - 38 years and 219 days
• Maciej Bodnar - 37 years and 116 days

Youngest riders at the 2022 Tour de France

Last year Britain's Fred Wright took the crown of youngest rider at 22 years and 14 days, but this year that age would only just crack the top-three. 

Quinn Simmons is the youngest rider at the 2022 Tour de France (Getty Images)

The next youngest rider is California's Kevin Vermaerke (Team DSM) at 21 years and 258 days, while another Californian, Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) is the fifth youngest, celebrating his 23rd birthday on the day of the Grand Départ).

Britain's Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) is the third youngest rider, making his Tour debut at the age of 22 years 336 days.

Defending champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) has slipped out of the top-10 for the first time in his three Tour appearances, languishing in 12th at the wise old age of 23 years and 283 days.

• Quinn Simmons - 21 years and 54 days (when race began)
• Kevin Vermaerke - 21 years and 258 days
• Tom Pidcock - 22 years and 336 days
• Matis Louvel - 22 years and 347 days
• Matteo Jorgenson - 23 years and zero days

No-one at the Tour this year will have the opportunity to be crowned its youngest ever stage winner however. The youngest ever stage winner at the Tour de France was Fabio Battesini, who was just 19 years and 134 days old when he won a stage at the 1931 edition.

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Tour de France

The power numbers at this year’s tour de france are the highest in the modern era of cycling, in this column, we dive into the power numbers of the world’s best riders at the tour de france..

Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! >","name":"in-content-cta","type":"link"}}'>Download the app .

We are only nine stages into the Tour de France, and five mountainous stages have already blown the GC to shreds. After countless attacks, breakaways, satellite riders, bonus seconds, and mountain top finishes, only 17 seconds separate Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar in the fight for the yellow jersey.

Read also: Power Analysis: Tour de France – Pogačar, Vingegaard, and Victor Lafay

Two of those stages flipped the original script, which saw 2022 Tour de France winner Vingegaard take over a minute on Pogačar on stage 5 to Laruns. We are in for a show in the next two weeks of racing, which includes the Grand Colombier, Col de Joux Plane, and Col de la Loze.

The power numbers from this year’s Tour de France are the highest in the modern era of cycling. 7w/kg for 20 minutes is the new standard for GC contenders, and many of these performances come after 3500 kJs of work, at 1000-2000 meters above sea level, and in 30+°C (86+°F) temperatures.

Unlike 2022, Vingegaard didn’t wait long to play his cards and attack Pogačar. Stage 5 from Pau to Laruns included the Col du Soudet (15.2km at 7%), Col d’Ichere (4.2km at 6.2%), and the Col de Marie Blanque (7.8km at 8.4%) whose final 4.8km average 10.5%.

A massive breakaway stayed away for the stage win while Jumbo-Visma laid the battleground for Vingegaard. When the Dane launched off Sepp Kuss’ wheel, Pogačar didn’t even respond. Vingegaard did one of the best climbing performances of his career on the steepest slopes of the Col de Marie Blanque, pushing nearly 7w/kg for over 20 minutes. The reigning Tour Champion continued pushing over the top of the climb to the finish line in Laruns where he took one minute and four seconds on Pogačar.

While we don’t have Vingegaard’s power data, we can make an educated guess based on other riders’ power data and times on the Col de Marie Blanque. In 2020, a 21-year-old Pogačar climbed the Col de Marie Blanque over a minute and a half slower than Vingegaard’s 2023 time, but still won stage 9 of the 2020 Tour ahead of Primož Roglič and Marc Hirschi.

Pogačar – Col de Marie Blanque in the 2020 Tour de France Time: 24:28 Average Power: 428w (6.4w/kg) Final 2.5km: 9:23 at 458w (6.9w/kg)

Vingegaard (2023): 22’ 56” at ~6.9w/kg

Many wrote off the 2023 Tour after Vingegaard’s stage 5 performance, citing Pogačar’s ongoing wrist recovery as the reason for his subpar performance. But the Slovenian struck back less than 24 hours later on the Cauterets-Cambasque (final 5.3km at 7.5%).

Before Pogačar’s winning attack, Jumbo-Visma had blown the race apart 40km earlier on the Col du Tourmalet (17km at 7.4%). Long, high-altitude climbs are typically Pogačar’s weakness, and Jumbo-Visma thought they might be able to crack the Slovenian for the second day in a row.

Vingegaard launched off of Kuss’ wheel again with 4.7km to the top of the Tourmalet, but Pogačar stayed glued to his wheel. Both riders did ~6.8w/kg for over 13 minutes, but neither rider cracked on the legendary climb. The final 4.8km of the Tourmalet climbs from 1700m to 2100m, so these power numbers are even more impressive when you consider the high altitude.

The closest rider to Vingegaard and Pogačar with power data was Steff Cras, who pushed nearly 6w/kg for 15 minutes but still lost two minutes to the leading pair.

Pogačar – Final 4.7km of the Tourmalet Time: 13:19 Estimated Average Power: ~449w (6.8w/kg)

Steff Cras: 15’ 19” at 360w (5.6w/kg)

After a long descent and rolling uphill, the final slopes of the Cote de Cauterets began. Vingegaard attacked on the 10% section of the climb and continued to pace with Pogačar in his wheel. But to almost everyone’s surprise, Pogačar attacked and dropped Vingegaard, soaring to the stage win and taking 28 seconds back on the defending Tour champion.

This result was shocking because Vingegaard clearly wasn’t at his best when you look at the power data. Pogačar did roughly 6.7w/kg for 13 minutes on the Cote de Cauterets, while Vingegaard only managed 6.6w/kg.

Michał Kwiatkowski had been caught from the breakaway, and he was the only rider who could stay in the wheels of Vingegaard and Pogačar for the first part of the Cote de Cauterets. The former world champion was pushing 6.5w/kg in the draft before finally succumbing to the ferocious pace.

Kwiatkowski – Cote de Cauterets Time: 16:22 Average Power: 342w (5.2w/kg) First 1.3km with Vingegaard and Pogačar: 4’ at 430w (6.5w/kg)

Pogačar : 13:00 at ~6.7w/kg Vingegaard: 13:24 at ~6.6w/kg

Just 24 hours previous, Vingegaard pushed ~6.9w/kg for nearly 23 minutes on the Col de Marie Blanque. Thus, the Cote de Cauterets was a disappointing performance. This could be a sign of Vingegaard’s inconsistency. Or perhaps he peaked too early in this year’s Tour de France. The next 12 stages will reveal the answer.

The last test before the Tour’s first rest day was the Puy du Dôme (final 4.5km at 11.5%), a ridiculously steep climb to the top of a dormant volcano outside Clermont-Ferrand. Mike Woods won the stage from the breakaway after overcoming a 2-minute deficit to Matteo Jorgenson in the final 4km. The Canadian pushed nearly 6w/kg for 15 minutes after more than 3800 kJs of work in the break.

14 minutes later, the GC group hit the steepest slopes of the Puy du Dôme, and Jumbo-Visma lined it out for the yellow jersey wearer, Vingegaard. However, neither Vingegaard nor Pogačar seemed confident in their legs when the pace slowed after Sepp Kuss’ final pull. Pogačar waited until 1.3km to go to launch his attack, going out of the saddle for nearly 30 seconds and gapping Vingegaard.

The Dane stayed strong, and Pogačar’s gap didn’t waver until the final 200 meters. Vingegaard only ceded eight seconds to Pogačar by the line, which meant that he took a 17-second GC lead into the Tour’s first rest day.

Woods was two minutes and five seconds slower than Pogačar in the final 4.5km of the Puy du Dôme, despite pushing nearly 6w/kg.

Woods – Puy du Dôme (final 4.3km) Time: 16:51 Average Power: 369w (5.9w/kg)

Pogačar: 14:46 at ~6.9w/kg Vingegaard : 14:54 at ~6.8w/kg

After the first nine stages of the Tour, a handful of bonus seconds and meters separates Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar. Most of the mountain stages have been won and lost in 15-20 minute performances, and Vingegaard’s effort up the Col de Marie Blanque remains the biggest outlier (22’ 56” at ~6.9w/kg).

We know that Vingegaard and Pogačar can do 6.9w/kg for 15 minutes at the end of a five-hour Tour de France stage. But can they do it stage after stage, week after week, for 12 more days? Heat and high altitude have a history of causing cracks in Pogačar, whereas Vingegaard has already shown a bit of inconsistency on consecutive mountain stages. The 2023 Tour de France Champion is anyone’s guess.

*** Power Analysis data courtesy of Strava

Strava sauce extension

Tadej Pogačar 

Michał Kwiatkowski

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