Ten riders to watch at the Tour de France, live on NBC Sports and Peacock from July 1-23 (broadcast/streaming schedule here) …
Jonas Vingegaard
Jumbo-Visma/Denmark
2022 Tour de France winner
Went from working in a fish-packing plant to fund his cycling years ago to the top of the sport last year. The second Dane to win the Tour. Again the leader of the alpha team in cycling, though this year he will not have Slovenian Primoz Roglic to share leadership responsibilities. Vingegaard won June’s Criterium du Dauphine, one of the two primary Tour prep events, by the largest margin in 30 years.
Tadej Pogacar
UAE Team Emirates/Slovenia
2020, 2021 Tour de France winner
Pogacar’s bid to three-peat was foiled by Vingegaard last year. He still finished a clear second and is the undoubtedly the primary and most accomplished challenger to Vingegaard this year with 2022 third-place finisher Geraint Thomas plus Roglic not entered. This season, has won on 12 of his 21 days of racing, recently returning from an April broken wrist to sweep the Slovenian time trial and road race titles. UAE’s addition of Adam Yates, three times a top-10 Tour finisher, could help bridge the gap to Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma.
Egan Bernal
Ineos Grenadiers/Colombia
2019 Tour de France winner
The first South American to win the Tour and, at the time, the youngest Tour winner since World War II (since surpassed by Pogacar). Bernal dropped out of the 2020 Tour after falling out of contention with back pain and didn’t take part the last two years. He did win the 2021 Giro. In January 2022, Bernal collided with a parked bus in training, fracturing his right femur and kneecap, several ribs and a vertebrae. He missed all of 2022, returned to racing this spring and had an eighth-place finish at April’s Tour de Romandie. Though Bernal’s comeback is exceptional, expect Dani Martinez of Colombia or Carlos Rodriguez of Spain to be Ineos’ GC contender.
Mark Cavendish
Astana Qazaqstan/Great Britain
Record-tying 34 Tour de France stage wins
One last Tour for the 38-year-old Manx Missile, who hopes to break his tie with Belgian legend Eddy Merckx for the Tour de France stage wins record. Cavendish, who earned his first Tour stage win in 2008, announced in May that he will retire after this season. In 2021, Cavendish returned to the Tour for the first time since 2018 as a last-minute replacement, coming back from an Epstein-Barr virus diagnosis. Surprisingly, he won four sprint stages to tie Merckx’s record. He was left off Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl’s Tour squad, then switched teams.
Peter Sagan
TotalEnergies/Slovakia
Record seven-time Tour de France green jersey champion
Sagan, 33, also plans to retire from road racing after this season, though he will continue in mountain bike for a 2024 Olympic bid. The character of the peloton is a record seven-time Tour de France green jersey champion as best sprinter. He has 12 individual stage wins (the last in 2019), second-most among active riders behind Cavendish.
Wout van Aert
Jumbo-Visma/Belgium
Nine-time Tour de France stage winner
Though van Aert’s primary responsibility has been as a support rider for Vingegaard and before that Roglic, he is incredibly versatile. Last year, he topped the sprinters’ standings (with a record 480 points) while winning three stages for a second consecutive Tour. He also owns three world titles in cyclo-cross, Olympic or world championships medals in the time trial and road race, plus was fourth and fifth in the King of the Mountains standings at the last two Tours. This year, he is prioritizing stage wins and August’s world championships over the green jersey.
Enric Mas
Movistar/Spain
Two-time Vuelta a Espana runner-up
With Roglic and Thomas absent, it’s very likely that at least one of the podium finishers in Paris will be a first-timer. Mas may be the best of the group chasing Vinegaard and Pogacar. He finished sixth or better in the last five Grand Tours that he finished, and Movistar is one of the traditional top teams.
Jai Hindley
Bora–Hansgrohe/Australia
2022 Giro d’Italia winner
The only rider in this field other than Vingegaard, Pogacar and Bernal to win a Grand Tour in the last four years. Hindley joined Cadel Evans as the lone Australians to win a Grand Tour with his Giro triumph last year and chose not to defend that title to put all of his eggs in the Tour de France basket. Fourth in the Criterium du Dauphine.
David Gaudu
Groupama–FDJ/France
2022 Tour de France fourth place
Missed last year’s podium by 6 minutes, 17 seconds. The last Frenchman to stand on the podium in Paris was Romain Bardet in 2017. The last to win was Bernard Hinault in 1985. The avid trail runner was second in Paris-Nice in March -- between Pogacar and Vingegaard -- then 30th at the Criterium du Dauphine.
Neilson Powless
EF Education–EasyPost/USA
2022 Tour de France 12th place
Last year, Powless came four seconds shy at the end of the fifth stage of becoming the first American to wear the yellow jersey since Floyd Landis in 2009. If taking out stripped results due to doping, Greg LeMond is the only American to ever lead the Tour. Powless’ 12th-place finish overall was the best by an American since Andrew Talansky in 2015. The first tribally-recognized Native North American to ride the Tour is expected to be a support rider for Richard Carapaz.
NBC Sports research contributed to this report.
