Top 10 Tour de France Contenders for the Yellow Jersey

The Grand Départ of the 108th Tour de France will take place in Brest, Brittany, on 26 June, and the race is scheduled to finish on Sunday 18 July in Paris. The route includes a double ascent of Mount Ventoux and a lot of Pyrenean climbing in the final week. With just over a week to go before the start of the Tour de France, we analyse the form, results of the top contenders and their teams

Teams are due to arrive in Brest, on the western Brittany coast on Wednesday June 23 for the Grand Depart, with the Tour de France starting on Saturday June 26 with a road race stage to nearby Landernau.  

Top 10 Tour de France Contenders for the Yellow Jersey

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)

The reigning champion is the definite favourite.

The 22-year-old won his first Monument at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico and recently won the tour of Slovenia in his home country.

One thing for sure is that he will arrive at the Tour having done meticulous preparation.

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)

2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma)

Roglic lost the 2020 Tour de France on the fateful stage 20 time trial at La Planche des Belles Filles to countryman and friend Pogacar.

The Slovenian bounced back by winning the Vuelta a España.

Surprisingly the 31-year-old hasn’t ridden a lot of races this season, he won the Tour of the Basque Country and could have won Paris-Nice before crashing on the final stage crash.2nd at Flèche Wallonne, where Alaphilippe overtook him late on, was a good effort as well. 

Since then he has been training hard at altitude and on training camps, focussing his full efforts on the Yellow Jersey.

Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma)

3. Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers)

The official line is that Ineos Grenadiers will go into the race with a three-pronged attack of Geraint Thomas, Tao Geoghegan Hart and Richard Carapaz.

Unofficially it is expected that former Giro d’Italia winners Geoghegan Hart and Carapaz will be riding in support of 2018 Tour de France winner Thomas.

It has been a strong 2021 for Thomas so far, with the Welshman winning the Tour de Romandie and finishing third at both the Volta a Catalunya and Critérium du Dauphiné.

Thomas appears to be in his best form since he won the yellow jersey three years ago and will no doubt be the rider that Roglic and Pogacar are most fearful of.

Thomas may need to fight for superiority and the right to lead the team. Staying out of trouble is clearly a big goal and if he can avoid any issues. It would only take one piece of bad fortune for Geraint Thomas, which we know from experience can happen, for Richard Carapaz to be thrust into the outright leadership role.

Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers)

4. Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers)

Carapaz, who won the Giro d'Italia in 2019, won this year's Tour de Suisse after finishing fifth on the stage that featured a steep climb 15km from the finish line.

The result was enough for the Ecuadorian defend his 17-second lead over Colombian Rigoberto Uran, his closest rival in the race for the yellow jersey.

His recent form dictates that he's an overall favorite and Ace up Ineos Grenadier's sleeve.

When you also add Rohan Dennis and Michael Kwiatkowski to the mix, the Grenadiers possess exceptional squad depth that cannot be matched.

Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers)

5. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck–Quick-Step)

It has been 36 years since a French rider won the Tour de France, can the nation put a stop to the rut, or should it adjust its expectations?

Any French hopes for success lie with Julian Alaphilippe. The winner of the mountains jersey in 2018 surprised most of us by finishing 5th in 2019’s race. Despite taking an early stage win in 2020’s race and the yellow jersey with it, Alaphilippe couldn’t recreate the GC success from the previous year and finished 36th. It remains to be seen if the 2019 result was a Voeckler-esque one-off or if Alaphilippe can return to the top-10 in a Grand Tour.

Form-wise, Alaphilippe appears to be doing well in 2021. A stage win at Tirenno Adriatico and a customary win in the Ardennes at Fleche Wallonne. Plus 2nds at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Strade Bianche and 2nd Overall at the Tour de Provence at the start of 2021. The question marks will always be about the high mountain stages and how much time he will lose there to the natural climbers. He pulled off the TT of his life to stay in yellow during 2019’s race so that might not be a natural hinderance either.

Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck–Quick-Step)

6. Richie Porte (Ineos Grenadiers)

Porte finally reached the podium in last year’s race for Trek Segafredo. 

Porte took the Dauphiné and looked very solid in the climbs and the time trial with Thomas managing third place overall. Porte has said he will be returning the favour for Thomas at the Tour but time will tell if that's true.

Recent 2nd places in both the Volta Catalunya and the Tour de Romandie add weight to his results however Porte knows his role which should just be in helping Thomas and Carapaz.

Richie Porte (Ineos Grenadiers)

7. Rigoberto Uran (EF Education–Nippo)

The 33-year-old produced his most successful Tour de France campaign to date when he finished a close second to Chris Froome (Team Sky) at the 2017 Tour de France.

Rigoberto Urán's stage win and second overall placing at the Tour de Suisse has caused a rethink in EF-Education Nippo's strategy for the Tour de France with the American team now weighing up whether to put more of their resourses into a possible GC challenge or spread their efforts in bid to win stages.

With three top 10 placings in the Tour on his palmarès, the Colombian is EF Education-Nippo's best hope for a GC challenge.

Rigoberto Uran (EF Education–Nippo)

9. Miguel Ángel López (Movistar)

In his native Colombia, Lopez is called ‘Superman’ after fighting off knife-wielding thieves who attempted to steal his bike while on a training ride.

He returns to the Tour with his new team hoping to improve on his 6th-placed finish at last year’s race. On his day, Lopez climbs with the best. In fact, he climbs better than the best – just look at his performance on the Col de la Loze on Stage 17 of the 2020 Tour.

The problem for Lopez is that not only is Superman’s kryptonite individual time-trials (a poor performance at last year’s Tour TT on La Planche des Belles Filles saw him slip from 3rd to 6th on the penultimate day).

Miguel Ángel López (Movistar)

10. Enric Mas (Movistar)

Mas performed respectably last year, finishing 5th overall. 

If you watched the second series of ‘The Least Expected Day’, Movistar’s Netflix documentary series, you couldn't have helped but warming to Enric Mas. He is clearly a talented rider but one who perhaps lacks the confidence and self-belief to match his ability on the road.

If, for example, he believed in himself to the same extent as teammate Alejandro Valverde, you suspect he would be a completley different rider. But he doesn’t and because he rides for the travelling circus of Movistar, you know something is always likely to go wrong.

For Mas, another top 5 will be a success at this year’s Tour.

Enric Mas (Movistar)

Wild Cards

David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ)

The next French hope is young David Gaudu who has taken yet more big steps this season to fulfilling his potential. The 24-year-old won a dramatic stage of the Tour of the Basque Country and finished third at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He will share leadership duties with sprinter Arnaud Démare and won’t have numbers to rely on in the mountains, but he could definitely go under the radar and challenge for a podium.

Mark Padun (Bahrain Victorious)

Ukrainian rider Mark Padun (Bahrain Victorious) who won two stages back-to-back at the Dauphiné as well as the mountains jersey. 

Nairo Quintana  (Arkéa-Samsic)

The Colombian seems way off the pace and it would be very surprising if the former Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España winner was to mount a serious challenge at the yellow jersey. Still, though, it’s Quintana and when he is climbing like he can, there’s very few in the world who can match him.

Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe)

He makes a return after Giro d'Italia crash leading the Bora-Hansgrohe as Peter Sagan defends his Green points Jersey. Apart from three time trial wins, he has never won a road race, and while Egan Bernal showed in 2019 that you don’t need to win a stage to win the Tour, it seems a long shot that Kelderman could emulate Bernal’s tactics. Nonetheless, a podium shouldn’t be discounted. 

Jakob Fuglsang (Astana-Premier Tech) 

The 2021 Tour de France will be Jakob Fuglsang's ninth time racing at the Tour de France. Competing for the Astana Pro Team, he will be racing for the yellow jersey podium in the general classification competition. 

Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation)

Chris Froome winner of seven Grand Tours will line-up as Israel Start-Up Nation's road captain. His inclusion in the team marks a significant moment in his comeback from the injuries he sustained before a time trial stage at the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné. Froome said, "We have a strong contender in Michael Woods, and I look forward to giving my all for him and the team in the battle to Paris."

 
Tag: tourdefrance
 
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