Last week’s heatwave that gripped continental Europe may have moved on, but for the professional peloton, it was replaced by an even more stifling environment: the Tour de France pressure cooker. Not that many riders would have relished racing in 40°C, but certainly there will be a considerable number of teams left frustrated by their showings during a different kind of weather condition, as the previous days’ scorching temperatures gave way to blustery conditions ripe for crosswind action.
Crosswinds get both cycling fans excited and sports directors nervous. For the general classification men, often weighing less than the big Classics riders, crosswinds can wreak havoc on overall ambitions. However, for some of them — with the right teammates around them — windy conditions can be used to their advantage. When constructing a Tour de France GC squad, team managers fret over getting the balance of domestiques right; enough climbers to provide support in the Alps and Pyrenees while maintaining enough brunt and brawn to boss the opening week of chaos.
See the full results: Tour de France 2025 standings
This is where Visma-Lease a Bike has thrived in Grand Tours before and today was a prime example. When they announced their Tour squad, the balance of personnel in the squad was apparent. Now on stage one, it's even more obvious why. In the polarised world of social media, their leader Jonas Vingegaard has been scorned as someone who doesn’t attack compared to his arch rival Tadej Pogačar. Stage one was yet another example of this being a false narrative. Vingegaard himself was the key protagonist in the split in the final hour of racing. Despite his diminutive stature, the Dane looks a born Classics rider — much like his Slovenian counterpart — and it was his team that had the best day of all the GC squads at this Tour.
What was the damage inflicted by Visma on their rivals? In terms of their main challenger Pogačar, 0:00 time gained. But that isn’t the whole story; the UAE squad were littered all over the results sheets, with a number of them dropped. Most importantly of all, João Almeida lost 0:39. A rider whose key role will be domestique for Pogačar but at the same time, was bookies’ fourth favourite at the start of the race and someone UAE will want to keep high up on GC to give them multiple options. Less than a minute is by no means a race-ending gap, but it’s far from ideal and could be an indication of things to come if Visma decide to keep up their tactic of using the opening stages to catch their opponents napping.
Pogačar finished in the same group as Vingegaard on stage one (Image: SWpix.com)
In terms of the two squads, Visma’s is more balanced than UAE’s, who have opted to pack in a number of strong climbers, with the exceptions of Tim Wellens, who shepherded Pogačar well today and Nils Politt, who was nowhere to be seen in the finale, losing over five minutes. It will take something a lot more to topple Pogačar, one of the — if not the — greatest cyclists of all time, but, Visma should try to isolate him as much as possible. Furthermore, to simplify the race, Visma will want to nullify Almeida’s threat as soon as possible. If it is to be a two-up battle between them and Pogačar, they may as well establish that precedent early on.
Almeida wasn’t the only GC contender to lose time. The biggest names to also be in his group 0:39 back were Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep), Primož Roglič and Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). Both teams will be frustrated by the outcome of the day, which got away from them in the blink of an eye. For Roglič, opening weeks of the Tour have gone worse. For Evenepoel and Lipowitz, it’s a harsh lesson in the different beast that is La Grande Boucle. Luckily it’s not a big gap and there are 20 more stages to come.
No such luck has been afforded to others though. Most disappointed of all will be Ineos Grenadiers, whose GC leader Carlos Rodríguez lost time (0:39) but more devastatingly, Filippo Ganna crashed and was forced to abandon. Not only a key domestique for the Spaniard but also a contender for stage five’s individual time trial, the British squad will sorely miss their big Italian.
Crashes, mechanicals, splits – the Tour de France’s pressure cooker took its toll and not many came through unburnt. Even those who made the split were issued a warning: time can be lost at any point, including a flat finish.
