Key Riders
Alpecin - Philipsen
10 Tour stage wins. He's definitely the top contender.
Alpecin will focus on sprints and stage hunting again this year.
Van der Poel's special launchpad is being installed.
Top candidate for the green jersey.
Soudal Quick-Step - Team Merlier
With Remco gone, GC will be tough, and they'll also aim for stage hunting with sprinters and punchers.
Two stage wins in last year's Tour.
Merlier has great individual ability but a weak train. Looks like he'll have to go it alone.
It would have been interesting to see him with Polmeur...
Lidl-Trek - Mads Pedersen
Jonathan Milan won two stages at the Giro and then crashed... He'll be participating in the Italian National Championships.
Mads Pedersen will be the main sprinter.
Two Tour stage wins. Can he hunt for stages again after three years?
The team is built around GC rider Ayuso, so the train will likely be weak.
NSN (formerly Arkéa) - Biniam Girmay
Green jersey in 2024 + protagonist of human drama... Won one, but showed his limits in the 2025 Tour.
Will he succeed this year?
Deceuninck - Olaf Kooij
He left DSM and boldly transferred because even if he went to the Tour, he wouldn't get support.
Kooij will make his Tour debut with Deceuninck!
It's hard to imagine him winning anything among such strong contenders, but we'll see.
Lotto - Arnaud De Lie
A young Belgian... Can't seem to break out of the promising rider category. Always hitting a wall in the WorldTour.
He'll be racing the Tour after a quick DNF at the Giro... Let's hope he does well!
Others and so on...
Who will win the most stages out of the six?
Flat stages can be boring, but the dopamine rush at the end is amazing. Personally, I'm really looking forward to it!
