Julien Moreau with AFP // Photo credits: Thomas SAMSON / AFP
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4:35 p.m., June 25, 2024
In search of a rare double after his triumph at the Giro, Tadej Pogačar enters the Tour de France as favorite against the outgoing double winner, Jonas Vingegaard, in uncertain form for this 111th edition with an exceptional cast. Primož Roglič, Carlos Rodriguez and Remco Evenepoel will also want to spoil the party. Here are the five favorites for the next Tour de France (June 29 – July 21).
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates)
The UAE team confirmed its eight riders for the Tour de France on Friday with Tadej Pogačar surrounded by an impressive guard to reconquer the Grande Boucle. The Briton Adam Yates, the Spaniards Juan Ayuso and Marc Soler, the Frenchman Pavel Sivakov, the Portuguese Joao Almeida, the Belgian Tim Wellens and the German Nils Politt will accompany the Slovenian in his double quest from June 29 to July 21.
The Slovenian has already completed 14 races since the start of the season, including the Tour of Italy, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Catalonia.
“This will already be my fifth Tour de France and I can’t wait. The preparation has gone very well since my victory at the Giro. We spent a lot of time at altitude training together. We can’t wait to get started and fight for victory,” he said in a statement.
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a bike)
© Marco Zac / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP
Jonas Vingegaard, outgoing double winner, will participate in the Tour de France which will start on June 29 from Florence, Italy, announced his team Visma-Lease a bike. The Dane, who has not appeared in the race since his heavy fall at the Tour of the Basque Country at the beginning of April, is one of the eight riders selected, just like the Belgian Wout Van Aert, who was also the victim of a serious accident in spring.
Before his fall in the Tour of the Basque Country, the Dane had won Tirreno-Adriatico and the general classification of the O Gran Camino. The Americans Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss, the Frenchman Christophe Laporte, the Slovenian Jan Tratnik, the Dutchman Wilco Kelderman and the Belgian Tiesj Benoot complete the team for the Tour which will arrive on July 21 in Nice.
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step)
© Thomas SAMSON / AFP
The 24-year-old rider is preparing to discover the Tour de France and will be able to count on a choice lieutenant in the mountains, the Basque Mikel Landa. To accompany Evenepoel, winner of the Vuelta in 2022, the 33-year-old Czech Jan Hirt, eighth in the Giro in May, was also selected within the team led by Patrick Lefevere.
The Belgian champion has already won a Grand Tour during his career: the Vuelta 2022. This season, the rider from the Soudal Quick-Step team won the Tour of the Algarve and he took second place in Paris-Nice “Good of course, I would like to have a good Tour and obtain good results, but we must not forget that these are my debut in this beautiful and difficult event which is not like the others, so the plan is to discover the race, take it day by day and see where it takes us,” said Remco Evenepoel, quoted by his team.
Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers)
© Thomas SAMSON / AFP
Spaniard Carlos Rodriguez and Colombian Egan Bernal will lead the Ineos team in the Tour de France. Fifth in the Grande Boucle last season, Rodriguez will still be the trump card of his team. Winner of the Tour de Romandie last May, Rodriguez, 23, will aim to finish on the podium this year. Geraint Thomas, who will participate for the 13th time, will this time be more in a supporting role. He will have his two compatriots Ben Turner and Tom Pidcock at his side.
The latter, who had unsuccessfully aimed for the general last year, returns with the ambition of winning a stage, as in 2022 at Alpe d’Huez, before turning towards his next big objective, the Paris Olympics , where he will defend his mountain bike title. The Spaniard Jonathan Castroviejo, the Belgian Laurens De Plus and the Pole Michal Kwiatkowski, stage winner in 2020 and 2023, complete the group chosen by Ineos.
Primož Roglič (BORA – hansgrohe)
© Thomas SAMSON / AFP
At 34 years old, Primož Roglič, this is surely the last time that the Slovenian will be the leader of a team at the start of a Grand Tour with the ambitions of a yellow jersey. For these three weeks, he should be accompanied by two excellent climbers: Jai Hindley and Aleksandr Vlasov. He should build on his current form with his recent performance at the Critérium du Dauphiné.
The Tour de France is the last Grand Tour missing from Primož Roglič’s record. The 34-year-old rider has already won the Tour of Italy in 2023 and the Tour of Spain three times (2019, 2020 and 2021).