There’s a buzz of nervous anticipation permeating through the air in Lille this week. You can put some of it down to excitement as the biggest bike race on earth is starting here on Saturday, but there’s also an unmistakable sense of fear – especially among the peloton itself. These first stages of the 2025 Tour de France which weave in and out of narrow city streets are going to provide a spectacle for those watching at home, but the distinct lack of climbs to set a natural hierarchy in the bunch is raising alarm bells for many. The opening week of the Tour is always a risky affair, but this appears more heightened than ever.
“Everyone is scared,” Soudal-Quick-Step’s Remco Evenepoel said. “We don’t want to go out with injuries after a few stages – these first ten days are going to be an important factor in competing for GC. It is the same for everyone so I don’t need to stress. Some guys prefer hectic stages but we don’t like to crash. For me, I’m used to this from racing in Belgium as a junior and from the Tour last year so I am ready for whatever comes.”
While the likes of Evenepoel will be looking to make it through the first week unscathed in order to have their shot in the time trials and mountains later in this race, the opening stages provide prime victory opportunities for others. There is a yellow jersey up for grabs for the fast men, so they will be racing to win as much as the GC contenders will be racing to stay out of trouble.
Lidl-Trek’s sprinter and one of the favourites to take the opening day, Jonathan Milan, told media he is expecting carnage throughout the stage: “We went to see the finish some months ago and everyone will want to be at the front to avoid crashes. There will be a drag race that starts early and you have to be careful the whole day. It will be stressful and many sprinters teams think about the open parts before and the risk of cross winds. It will be very tough.”
Image: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
Among the riders, there is an understanding that the spotlight and pressure that comes with the Tour is like no other. Every rider has built their season around this three-week race and is aware of the high stakes. With this, more risks are taken than in other races, leading to a bunch more frantic than at any other time in the year.
“I think it will be a crazy, hectic and nervous first week. I think there are a lot of opportunities for a lot of guys: sprinters, puncheurs, Classic riders, breakaways, so it's not going to be a lot of time to sit back and relax. It's going to be a kind of stress in a bunch that I never experienced before. I try to prepare for that mentally,” Tour debutant Thibau Nys of Lidl-Trek said ahead of the race. “I’ve been told to just expect the worst. It will not be a walk in the park, and I know that.”
The flat course design and decision to begin the Tour de France this year with a stage that is likely to end in a bunch sprint is partly the reason for the heightened risks of the opening week. However, as Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Deceuninck pointed out, the riders themselves are the ones who create the danger. He believes that the safety in the peloton could be improved by fewer riders and teams taking to the start line of major events.
“It will always be unsafe in the bunch and most of the time it's the riders. You fight for position and this will never get out of cycling,” the Dutchman stated. “Making the bunch even bigger is a mistake, less teams and less riders would make the biggest difference to safety.”
Each year, conversations around safety in bike racing rumble on – the start of the 2025 Tour is no different. The reality is that the peloton is only getting faster and faster with equipment and training advancements, while at the same time salaries and exposure are also growing, which makes winning even more valuable. The discourse around route design and potential of disaster has never rung quite so loud as it has at the Grand Depart this year. No one wants to see crashes or injuries this weekend, but there’s an impending sense of inevitability about it among the riders. The madness is about to begin.
Cover image by ASO
