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The winners and losers of the first week of the Tour de France 2024
What’s a man supposed to do on a rest day at the Tour de France? After nine stages of full-throttle racing from Florence to Burgundy, we finally have the chance to draw some breath and evaluate the state of play.
Currently, Tadej Pogačar leads the overall classification with a 33-second gap to Remco Evenepoel and a 1:15 advantage over Jonas Vingegaard in third. Biniam Girmay leads the green jersey, Jonas Abrahamsen the polka-dots and Remco Evenepoel is the wearer of the white jersey.
Nine stages in, we have had our first real glance at who is gunning for victory, and equally at the riders struggling to keep up with la folie douce. Today, we will run through five winners from the first week and five riders (and teams) in real need of improvement.
Winner: Tadej Pogačar
After a week of racing, Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar has a stage win to his name and a 33-second lead in the general classification over his nearest rival Remco Evenepoel. Alongside his personal successes, Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates squad has looked steadfast in its support for the maillot jaune. João Almeida impressed on the Col du Galibier, and Juan Ayuso remains in the fight for a top five.
Pogačar’s stern descent off the Galibier allowed him to scoop a 12th Tour stage win. His perennial rival Jonas Vingegaard wasn’t far behind at the top of the climb, but Pogačar’s ruthlessness has put him in the driving seat going forward.
On Stage 9, he wasn’t afraid to ruffle some feathers on the gravel roads. This aggressive style is nothing new for the UAE Team Emirates leader, but it demonstrated a real intent to win this Tour de France early on.
Winner: Remco Evenepoel
Remco Evenepoel sits in second place in the GC after the first week of racing. Bolstered by a solid claim in the young riders’ classification, the Belgian has surpassed many expectations.
He added a Tour de France stage win to his palmarès in the vineyards of Burgundy on Friday. A few days later on Stage 9, he banished any worries about his lack of gravel expertise as he was one of the most aggressive on the stage, daring to attack with just shy of 80km remaining on the stage.
Evenepoel’s Soudal-QuickStep teammates have impressed. On the Col du Galibier, Mikel Landa was among the strongest climbers, indicating that he will play an important role in the Belgian’s podium bid later into the race.
Winner: Biniam Girmay
It’s difficult to not wax lyrical about Biniam Girmay‘s Tour de France performance this year. The Intermarché all-terrain sprinter has two stage wins, a firm grip on the maillot vert, and has made history by becoming the first Black rider to win a Tour de France stage. By every metric, Girmay is overperforming at this year’s Grande Boucle.
Stage 3’s victory captured imaginations the world over, with fans in Eritrea taking to the streets to celebrate. ‘Bini-mania’ has taken hold and Intermarché have full faith instilled in Girmay. Forget the underwhelming Intermarché of the Giro, the Belgian squad has found its mojo.
The Eritrean now places himself as the frontrunner for the green jersey, his 228-point tally is almost double the amount of his closest challenger Jasper Philipsen. If Girmay were to win the jersey, he’d become the first African to ever win a Tour de France jersey.
Winner: Jonas Abrahamsen
Few casual viewers knew Uno X’s Jonas Abrahamsen before the Tour de France. After nine days of fighting in the breakaway and playing the polka-dot jersey game, the Norwegian has become a breakout star of the 2024 race.
He cunningly calculated his breakaways to poach the green jersey for the opening stages, although soon lost it once the bunch sprints kicked in. So far, Abrahamsen has spent 500km in the breakaway fighting for the bonus brizes on offer, showing up the French ProTeams that usually fulfil this role and doing it by himself.
Abrahamsen has only worn his Uno X trade kit on one occasion at this Tour de France, having spent the second half of the first week in the polka-dot jersey as the leader of the mountains classification. The 28-year-old from southern Norway has a 13-point lead in that classification and should carry on wearing it until the end of the second week.
Winner: French riders
I boldly claimed before the race that French hopes at the Tour ‘had all the vigour of a stale baguette’. I am happy to admit that this premonition was far from being accurate.
During the first week, there were three French wins: Romain Bardet (Stage 1), Kévin Vauquelin (Stage 2) and Anthony Turgis (Stage 9). Bardet also became the first Frenchman in three years to wear the yellow jersey.
This is undoubtedly France’s best Tour opener in years. The French have been in the hunt for stages since the race kicked off in Italy. GC hopes look dashed given David Gaudu’s meagre first week, but the French are alive and kicking in their home race.
TotalEnergies banished stage-hunting woes to take their first win since 2017, while Arkéa-B&B Hotels took a maiden Tour win after ten years of trying. Groupama-FDJ is now the French team with the longest dry spell in the Tour de France. The former team of Thibaut Pinot last won a stage in 2019.
Loser: Jasper Philipsen
The screams of Godverdomme – a very Flemish expletive – could be heard loud and clear from the Alpecin-Deceuninck bus on TV microphones following Stage 6’s sprint to Dijon. A later relegation only added fuel to the fire.
Philipsen missed out in Saint Vulbas behind Mark Cavendish, and another runner-up spot in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises on Stage 8 left Alpecin-Deceuninck underwhelmed. In comparison to last year, Philipsen is looking more like a disaster than a master.
The green jersey bid is appearing more fleeting. A disciplinary point deduction on Stage 6 and missed opportunity in Turin tell us that Philipsen is on the back foot in the sprinting field. The Belgian currently sits in second place in the points classification but on a points tally that is just half of Girmay’s.
Loser: Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
The German team’s new guise under Red Bull seems to have cursed the squad at this year’s Tour de France.
Spearheaded by Primož Roglič, Red Bull have looked edgeless. Roglič was repeatedly in panic stations on the gravel stage and the Slovenian star was the first of the ‘big four’ to falter on the Col du Galibier. Similarly, he shed the most amount of time on Stage 7’s time-trial.
The all-star domestique line-up of Jai Hindley and Sasha Vlasov underwhelmed on Stage 4’s mountain stage too. Vlasov sits outside the top ten in 11th place while Hindley barely makes it inside the top 20. With such a lineup, we expected more from the team now dedicated to the world’s most popular energy drink.
Loser: Simon Yates
Before the Tour, Jayco-AlUla leader Simon Yates told Cyclist that he likes to be ‘under the radar’. At this Tour de France, he has barely blinked on the radar of GC riders, dashing the hopes of the Australian team he’s set to leave at the end of the season.
The race started on unfavourable terms for the 2018 Vuelta winner. On Stage 2’s ascent of San Luca, Yates slipped out of the group of GC favourites in desperate fashion, and his continued poor positioning and lack of climbing legs have seriously plagued his opening week.
Yates now sits 15 minutes behind in the GC, firmly out of the equation for a podium position in Nice. A dramatic loss of time on the gravel roads put him even further back in the standings, with the team finding more success in the sprints courtesy of Dylan Groenewegen.
Loser: Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale
After a barnstorming opening chapter in 2024, Decathlon-AG2R are currently losing steam at the Tour de France. The race’s official rolling prizemoney tallies were announced after Stage 9 and it had the team firmly in last place.
The French team’s leader Felix Gall is currently sitting six minutes behind Pogačar in 17th place overall. The Austrian grew into the 2023 race, but he is not helping his status as a one-Tour-wonder.
The team’s Irish sprinter Sam Bennett has barely cracked the top ten, only making it on one occasion. This comes as a disappointment after the Munster-bred fastman’s renaissance this spring. His team have put in the work to get him in position on an as-yet-unreleased aero bike, but nothing is yet to come to fruition.
Loser: Bahrain Victorious
2024 has not been the year of Bahrain Victorious. Gone are the days of rivalling the super-teams of UAE Team Emirates, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Ineos Grenadiers and Visma-Lease a Bike. The team has been struggling for big wins this year and it doesn’t look like the Tour de France is going to be their amphitheatre for greatness.
Matej Mohorič, the current gravel World Champion, has been incognito so far in the breakaways. Phil Bauhaus remains steady in the sprints, occupying the mid-table ranks on flat stages. Perhaps Jack Haig and Wout Poels are waiting for the serious mountain stages to come, so far they’ve been quiet, however.
In the GC rankings, Bahrain Victorious are well outside the top ten, with Santiago Buitrago currently their best-placed rider overall in 15th, 5:53 down, one place and five seconds ahead of Pello Bilbao. Buitrago looks to be its brightest prospect, but the Colombian will need a miracle to crack the top ten with such fierce opposition. Bahrain have made the top ten on GC every year since 2020, but that run looks set to be broken in 2024.
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