Jafet's 2025 Tour de France preview
General Classification (Overall)
This year’s Tour de France has the potential to be a firework filled fiasco, or just-another-day for a certain Slovenian superhero. If Tadej Pogacar’s season ended today, most would still consider it to be a success. Tadej has won almost every race that he has showed up to this year, conquering the Spring Classics and the early season races. You can count the number of cyclists racing in this year’s Tour de France peloton who have beat him this year on one hand, and have a few fingers left. However, it’s undeniable that Tadej has his eyes set on the biggest race of the cycling calendar, so don’t expect Tadej to show up complacent and unprepared.
Tadej is not the only generational talent who has their eyes set on the maillot jaune. Danish dynamo Jonas Vingegaard is hungry for vengeance after an injury laden season and a disappointing but still impressive performance at last year’s Tour de France. Jonas has been unlucky and crashed early this season, with very few race days compared to Tadej leading up to this year’s Tour. However, it would be foolish to discredit Jonas, as he’s been the only other cyclist capable of staying close to the dominant Tadej so far.
Slovenia has been not only blessed with one great Tour de France contender, but two. Experienced veteran Primoz Roglic is also looking to win his first maillot jaune, even though it seems like his best seasons may be behind him. Last year’s Vuelta winner crashed out hard at this year’s Giro, with more crashes than stage victories. Although recent performances might make some discard Primoz, few cyclists in history have been more sucessful in Grand Tours than Primoz.
To call Remco Evenepoel a rookie is a bit misleading, but it is only Remco’s second time at the Tour de France. An impressive podium at last year’s race finally silenced the doubters, if there were any. Remco seems to be the best of the rest, whereas Jonas and Tadej are on another level. What makes Remco special is his personality and racing style — aggressive, fast, and fun. Let’s see what Remco has in store for us this year.
Sprinters (Green Jersey)
Sprinters at this year’s Tour de France have to be versatile and be capable of climbing decently well. A couple of sprinters to keep your eye on during the first two weeks are Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek, dynamic duo Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin–Deceuninck, and Tim Merlier of Remco’s Soudal-Quickstep.
Americans
A few Americans to keep your eyes on: super-domestiques Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss of Visma, Quinn Simmons of Lidl-Trek, and Neilson Powless of EF Education First. The American most likely to win a stage in my eyes is Matteo or Neilson, while the other two most likely will be supporting their teams and fighting for breakaways. Neilson outsprinted living legend Wout van Aert earlier this season, and Matteo won his second Paris-Nice after Jonas abandoned the race.
Team Classification
The best overall team has to be Tadej’s UAE Team Emirates. However, dodgy tactics at this year’s Giro by the strategists of UAE may raise some concerns, but it would be difficult to believe Tadej does not choose his own race strategy and tactics. Joao Almeida, Adam Yates, and Marc Soler are the honorable mentions for a top 10 finish in the race.
Summary
The favorite overall is without a doubt Tadej Pogacar, but keep an eye out for the polka dot jersey competition as there are some excellent climbers showing up to this race who will not be focused completely on general classification in weeks 2 and 3. The green jersey competition will be fun to watch as well, as last year’s Biniam Girmay looks a bit cold leading into the race, hopefully meaning good competition amongst the sprinters. Finally, the young rider competition will be fun to watch as well, as both 24-year-old Florian Lipowitz and 18-year-old Paul Seixas had strong showings earlier in the season.
Can’t wait for the next few weeks!