Tadej Pogačar avoided the splits, crashes and chaos of stage 1 of the 2025 Tour de France to finish in the front group and immediately gain 39 seconds on major GC rivals like Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), Mattias Skelmose (Lidl-Trek), Primož Roglič and Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansrohe) and others.

A fourth Tour win will draw Pogačar level with British rider Chris Froome for the fifth-most wins of all time. Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain have won cycling’s biggest race five times. Pogačar’s team is formidable. He will be supported by experienced all-rounders and climbers.