Tour de France 2025 Top 5 Favourites: Tadej Pogacar vs Jonas Vingegaard Again?

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the tour to France is just around the corner and the anticipation is building for cycling’s biggest race over the years the tour has crowned numerous legends like Eddie Mks Bernardino Miguel Linder and more recently we’ve seen multiple winners of Chris Froom and Targa and Yonas Spingle it’s the ultimate proving ground in the sport where careers are made dynasties are built and heartbreak is never far behind in 2025 the spotlight is once again on a select few who have shown the form the resilience and the tactical brilliance to go all the way in July but before we start make sure to hit the like button subscribe to the channel here on the cycling gain extra and why not check out our podcast available on Spotify and also our preview with none other than Yens first on the list is Primos Rugglitch the Slovenian superstar who has had a fairly good start to 2025 as he began the season with a eighth place in the Walter Algav before at the Walt Catalunia he fought back to win the stage race for a second year and crucially he was ahead of his rival at the time for the Jiru Huanuzo however at the Jurataya it did not go his way despite a good start to the race where he managed to finish high up in the first time trial and even taking the Malar Rosa from that point Rugglage suffered multiple crashes during the race even during the warm-up of the second time trial and eventually he had to abandon the race and since then he hasn’t done any racing and has just been preparing for the tour to France we know Rugglitch is a very strong grand tour rider with four welto spania wins to his name and a jured Italian win as well however the statistics are not in his favor when we look at the tour of France as he has not finished the race since his second place finish in 2020 to a young Tadatcha where he lost on the launch debel feast stage in 2021 he crashed out and that meant that Bingo was thrusted into the leadership 2022 he was instrumental in breaking Pagacha on the culde grand but did leave the race after crashing as well and in 2023 he was not at the tour but did manage to win the Jirro detaya and then last year we saw he crashed out in an unfortunate crash as well but did salvage the season by winning the world espa that aside red bull bhansra will back their superstar that aside red bull bhansro will to some extent back up their superstar they are bringing a very strong team that includes stuff like Alexander Bulazov and even Floren Lipovvit who was third in the doofen and could potentially grab the leadership from Ruglitch and they have also brought their inform sprinter Jordi Mayos fresh from his Copenhagen sprint classic win so maybe Red Bull Bora Hansro are not completely certain that Rugglitch is going to be their leader and they have other options with Lipovitz and Mayus for headlines in the tour a win for Rugglitch is maybe not going to happen but our top five could definitely be on the cards if he can stay away from the tarmac fourth on the list is our first Danish pick and that is Matias Skel Yensen who recently took a win in the Andor new one-day race in front of Enrich Mass skilmos has demonstrated he is in great form and showed this year in the classics campaign that he could really be at the pointy end so far in 2025 the DNE has had some good results with an early second place in the drum classic and he was up there in a few stages in Parines before being in the pointy end of the Toro of the Bance Country finishing fifth overall before at Amster Gold he did something sensational staying up there with Remco Venopol who chased down Tarugacha and then managed to beat both those superstars in a sprint and take his first gold victory his flesh for alone ended with a DNF and in least there was no result and since then skills didn’t have the best time as he had to withdraw with illness from not just the doofen but also the tortois and didn’t register a start at either of those races so it was not a great sign however his win in Andor will definitely fill the team with some confidence as many of the riders who were fighting for the win will also be at the tour he is a very strong rider in the mountains and we saw that last year at the Wel Espa so this will definitely be an interesting comparison to see how he stacks up in the biggest race in the world and if he could replicate the result of the well espanol with a top five that would be absolutely incredible little Trek are coming with split allegiances so John Milan will also have support of the team so we will wait and see how far Skills can do but if he is anything like the welter it could be a top 10 top five third on the list is the recovered Ramco Venipal who started his season early on with a bang after his offseason crash removenol was incredible initially in the Dbron’s pile where he took Wapman to the line and won in a sprint and instill gold he was the one who closed down Baga with Skilmore on his wheel but in his own words he did make a mistake in the sprint and he would have done it different in hindsight fleshone and leases weren’t quite as rewarding ninth in flesh and 59th in lies when he realized the win was gone but he went to the tombi in his first stage race of the season and in the opening prologue got an eighth place and he was up there in the mountains and won the final time trial to seal a fifth place overall and in the doofen Ramco seemed to build on his form from the Ramundi and he was at the pointy end of the race in the time trial winning that and having the lead of the race but was not able to do anything against the top riders when it came to the three last mountain stages and eventually finished the race fourth but taking this experience and training from the race at least and at the national championships he managed to win the Belgian TT and finished second in the road race behind Tim Wellins last year he was at the doofan as well and finished lower down after the tour of the vast country crash as you did here win the time trial stage and finished in the top 10 and then went on to finish third in the tour to France and win the white jersey the difference here though is that he doesn’t have a strong climber like Mikalander with him and we’ll have to rely on riders such as Vaniela and Valentin Panapra and as well the team will not be completely built around him as Tim Molia their super sprinter will also be looking for support so that is a bit of a worry as well before we come to the top two make sure to hit the like button and subscribe to the channel but some of the other riders of note Lenny Martinez who took a stage win in the doofen and could potentially be the best hope for the French ben Alcon as well who we interviewed on the channel is targeting his first tour to France with his team and did look quite solid at the Tortois Swiss so if he’s built from that could definitely do a top result he’s finished in the top five before felix scal for a was also up there in the tortois as well enrich mass will look to do something here if he can the moistar rider who has finished in the top five in the past now we come to number two on the list and surprise surprise it’s the twotime to France winner of the Vingal who will be leading up Bisma Lisa bike vingal has demonstrated he’s one of the best Grand Tour riders and oneweek stage racers of his generation and those two victories in 2022 and 2023 really did show his capability and he hasn’t finished lower than second in his tour of France career yonis Bingo in 2025 has not looked as sharp in the beginning compared to his 2024 where he looked invincible at his first test in 2025 he looked solid but didn’t manage to win his first mini mountain test of the Alto de Foyer but still managed to hold the margin close to the front runners to clinch the overall victory on the final stage which was a time trial and put 30 seconds into Almeida which was a strong display considering how strong Almeida has been this year in Paris he helped this Malisa bike win the team time trial and on stage four in the mountain top finish he attacked near the top and it looked like it was all over but he was pipped by the finish by a rampant Joel Ma and the next day Mingo was wearing the yellow jersey but he was involved in a crash that gave him a hand injury and a concussion so he had to withdraw from the race and his focus became all about training in altitude caps preparing for the tour to France and then he returned at the doofen where he was strong on the first stage attacking and finishing second on a peculiar stage he was up there the whole week and even managed to take time on Pagatcha in the time trial but he was not able to challenge his foe ultimately on the mountaintop finishes and finish second this Malisa bike will be focused on how they can defeat the Slovenian with familiar battlegrounds coming up in the tour kala and monu to try and replicate previous successes against the Slovenian this is the exact formula that worked in 2023 when Wingle dismantled Pagatcha in the Alps and now he’s banking potentially on a similar kind of strategy visma didn’t have Wanard and Simon Yates for the Dofane as they were covering from the Jirro so they will hope that that extra bit of training for Vingle with that extra firepower will be enough to challenge the might of UAE everything is poised for that one goal the yellow jersey but will Yonis Bingle wear that jersey first on the list is of course the world champion Tarbaga who’s been ripping up the season and dominating the world tour rankings in 2025 he’s already looked invincible winning the UAE tour very comfortably with two stage wins and overall then at Saranke despite crashing dramatically reathered himself and darted after Tom Pickog and ultimately won the race for a second year in a row and Milan San Ramo again he was the animator of the race attacking unprecedented on the Chessa and only Match of Vanipole and Ghana were able to match his power in the end but the wind slipped away from him in the sprint for Pagacha paga produced a masterclass in the Tour of Flanders yet again as he dropped the defending champion Macho Vanderpool and the rest to win his second title in that race next was Parro Bay his debut edition and here he showed incredible skill to be up there with Matro Manipul in select moves but he had bad luck with a minor crash and subsequent mechanical yet still managed to get all the way to the finish taking second place in his very first power bay which was very impressive in the Helier races in Namto Gold he was up there attacking early and recalibrated when he was brought back by Remco and Skilos and finishing second but he was back dominating in flesh balloon a few days later where he kicked towards the finish and took the win quite convincingly to the other riders and in Leblers he attacked hard on Lad and here no one was able to respond and again he won lege bast in a dominant fashion and meant that out of the four first monuments he had finished on the podium for every single one of them the doer was the next challenge against his closest to France rivals and with a weaker team to support him in the mountains he passed with flying colors winning stage one and stage six and even stage seven with authority and refused to win the final stage as his tally was going to be 99 victories with the overall win as the 99th so he wanted to get the 100th victory in the tour pagata and UAE have been very strong in 2025 and with his team that includes the Flying Jo Adam Yates Pavl Civokov and the like it will be very hard to beat this team they have the strongest rider and arguably the strongest team so if anyone’s going to deny them we need to see an impressive performance and uh riders in very good strength and we could even see Pagatcha trying to replicate what he did in 2024 with six stage victories and potentially winning multiple jerseys as well and maybe we will even see Joel Maida sneak onto the podium anyways with that that’s basically it for this video make sure to hit the like button subscribe to the channel if you’re new here and why not check out our video about the scary truth of Tupaca part three or the preview show with Yensf but until next time thank you for watching and I will see you around