Tour de France favorites: In the past four years, the winner of the Tour de France has always been Tadej Pogacar or Jonas Vingegaard. All experts are not expecting any surprises this year. Nevertheless, three main challengers are to be expected: Primoz Roglic, Carlos Rodriguez and Remco Evenepoel.
Primoz Roglic (Bora – hansgrohe)
He was brought in to win the Tour de France: Cousin Roglic. The Slovenian narrowly missed out on a major triumph in 2020, being overtaken by his compatriot Tadej Pogacar of all people. Since then, he has been chasing his big dream. He has already won the Vuelta a Espana three times, and last year he took the Giro d'Italia. But he is still missing the Tour de France. After there was no longer any room for him at Visma - Lease a Bike due to the presence of Jonas Vingegaard as captain, he switched to Bora - hansgrohe this season. Here they now hope to finally be able to finish the 3 Tour de France on the podium. Primoz Roglic is undoubtedly one of the Tour de France favorites. But his performances in recent months do not necessarily give hope for the big coup. He did win the Critérium du Dauphiné, but collapsed in the mountains on the last day and almost lost the yellow jersey. Pogacar and Vingegaard were not present. He was lagging behind in Paris-Nice and was unable to finish the Tour of the Basque Country. A place on the podium seems realistic, but that will be very difficult against the strong helpers in the UAE Team Emirates.
Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers)
At only 23 years old, Carlos Rodriguez one of the greatest GC talents in cycling. His star rose a year ago when he finished the Tour de France in fifth place and won a stage. After that, things went quiet again. Partly because he is not the type for media attention. But mainly because the top results failed to materialize. It was only when he finished the Tour of the Basque Country in second place and won the Tour de Romandie that he came back into focus. With three wins this year, he has shown that he is ready for the next step. He has a good team by his side anyway. If he takes the next step in the next three weeks, the podium is definitely within his reach. The top five seem almost certain if everything goes to plan for him. To challenge Pogacar and Vingegaard, however, he needs more than just one step forward. We probably won't see that until next year.
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal – Quick-Step)
If we look back about five years, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick-Step) as THE greatest all-round talent in cycling. Hardly any expert doubted that this Belgian would win numerous Grand Tours - including the Tour de France, of course. Now - many years later - Evenepoel is still only 24 years old. But he was overtaken by Pogacar and Vingegaard, who hardly anyone saw as being on par with or even above Remco at the time. There is no doubt that Remco Evenepoel has already won an incredible amount in his still young career. He triumphed at Liège - Bastogne - Liège, won stages at the Giro and the Vuelta, became time trial and road world champion and was victorious in an incredible number of one-week tours. And although he won the 2022 Vuelta a Espana, there are doubts about his GC suitability in major national tours. The Belgian always has at least one bad day, on which he loses several minutes and is ultimately out of the fight for the overall victory. World class in time trials, he repeatedly revealed his weaknesses in the high mountains. A place on the podium in his first Tour de France would therefore be a surprise. It is much more likely that he loses time and then wins the mountain jersey and several stages.