French teams still at hated zero wins in Tour de France: "Inevitably less chances when one rider wins a third of all stages"

So far, though, the Tour has been anything but generous to the French squads. There are five in total: Decathlon AG2R, Groupama-FDJ, Cofidis, Arkéa - B&B Hotels, and TotalEnergies. None have taken a stage win yet, though Decathlon (with Felix Gall) and Arkéa - B&B Hotels (with Kévin Vauquelin) still have riders sitting in the top ten overall.

At Groupama-FDJ, Romain Grégoire secured a few strong finishes in the early stages, but things have since become more difficult. “When you finish top 5 with Romain Grégoire on a stage where first is Pogacar, second is Van der Poel, and third is Vingegaard, what more can you do?” said team boss Marc Madiot in L’Équipe. “We did what we had to do. That’s all there is to it.”

“We’re here to race our race, to ride our own strategy, and to try to win a stage,” said the Frenchman. “There’s nothing frustrating about it, we knew before the start of the Tour that it wouldn’t be easy, and that things would be complicated. We’re fighting with our own means, with our own weapons.”

So far, eight teams have claimed stage wins, meaning 15 squads are still without a victory. “There are inevitably fewer opportunities when one rider wins a third of the stages on his own,” Madiot said, referring to Pogacar. “Behind him, there are maybe five or six chances left to be shared among all the other teams.”