These free spirits smell their chances in the chaotic first week of the Tour: "When I look at the road book, I lose sleep"

One of the outsiders for a stage win in those hilly stages is Axel Laurance. The INEOS Grenadiers rider will start his second Tour de France, after riding last year in support of Van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen at Alpecin-Deceuninck. “I feel confident and relaxed at the same time, so that’s cool,” he told Cyclism'Actu. This time, he will get a lot more opportunities for himself.

That’s partly due to a good preparation. He finished second in stage five of the Critérium du Dauphiné. “It was a good Dauphiné for me, and at the French championships, I had really good legs, it went pretty well,” said the Frenchman, who finished fifth at Nationals. “So I’m going into this Tour de France with confidence. I can’t wait to see the Champs-Élysées this year, it’s pretty legendary in the Tour,” said Laurance, referring to the fact that last year, the Tour finished in Nice. “And with Montmartre, the excitement could be even greater, it would be really beautiful to finish this Tour.”

INEOS Grenadiers is starting with a mixed team of climbers and attackers. “We can’t afford to gamble on the Tour. Everyone is ready. It’s very hard to get into a breakaway. We’ll have to avoid pitfalls. We’ll have a slightly more nervous start than last year, and there are a lot of things that can be dangerous in this first week, but it also offers opportunities for riders like me.”

To have a chance, Laurance has to survive the chaos. Everyone knows what can happen in the madness of the Tour’s first week. “We’re inevitably a bit scared. There are nerves, everything goes very fast, and there’s no room for mistakes. Everyone wants their place, so if we want to win, we can’t be nice to everyone,” he concludes.

In the Dauphiné, Laurance was beaten by Jake Stewart. The Brit from Israel-Premier Tech is also starting his second Tour and has mixed feelings about the opening week, which should suit him. “When I look at the road book, I lose sleep,” he laughingly told Daniel Benson. “I take it day by day, and the second stage looks interesting for me. It always depends on how they want to ride the finale, but if there’s a sprint from a reduced peloton, I’d be up for that.”

Winning races can get the ball rolling, the young sprinter knows. “More than anything else, it gave me confidence and confirmed what I’m capable of. I also won in Dunkirk. When you ride with confidence and know you’re in good form, you’ll perform well in the race.” In the flatter stages, Stewart will usually have to work for Pascal Ackermann.

Where Stewart wants to sprint, Neilson Powless does not. Well, if you look at his win in Dwars door Vlaanderen… But no, the American from EF Education-EasyPost is looking forward to an aggressive three weeks. “There are a handful of stages in the first half, but I can’t specifically point to one,” he explained, also to the British cycling journalist. “There are enough opportunities, but it’s a long and unpredictable race, so we’ll have to try multiple times.”

In 2022, the 28-year-old stage hunter was extremely aggressive and showcased himself impressively. “I’ll ride with more calculation, that’s for sure,” he says now, three years later. “It was great, and I loved approaching it that way, but I didn’t get to raise my hands in victory, and I’m still missing that. Every day, we have to see if it’s a chance for the breakaway because it’s unpredictable what the GC teams will want to do.”

That last point is a big obstacle in the hunt for a stage win. It always has been, but in recent years the strength of teams like Visma | Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates-XRG has been a burden for breakaway riders in the Tour de France. “I think a lot of the breakaways that made it 10 years ago wouldn’t make it now,” Powless realizes. “Especially in the mountain stages, because the pace from the GC guys is so high. They ride as if it’s a time trial, and that’s hard to compete with.”

In France, Louis Barré is a rider to keep an eye on. The Intermarché rider finished sixth in the Amstel Gold Race and discovered himself in the Dauphiné. “In the medium mountains, I can keep up with the best… except the aliens,” he laughs to Velofute. “I also know there’s still something missing in the high mountains. But I can handle myself pretty well in a breakaway. I know I’ve been able to get results in certain stages, and I’ve done that.”

Which stages will we see the attacker in? “I have a few stages in mind. One in Normandy, in Vire. Then the Mûr-de-Bretagne the next day. On paper, those suit me best. Then there are more breakaway stages. The Massif Central and the Pyrenees suit me best. The Alps, the mountain passes there, are quite long. And also the penultimate stage, in Pontarlier, that suits me. In 21 stages, there’s always something to experience. There are always openings.”