The dust has finally settled on the 2025 Tour de France, and after three weeks of thrilling racing, Tadej Pogačar secured his fourth title in six years.
There was more than just a yellow jersey up for grabs, however, with Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier dominating the sprints, and Ben Healy winning from the break and pulling on the yellow jersey for two days.
Away from the success, there were plenty of riders and teams who came away from the Tour de France with nothing to show for their efforts, and along with that, we’ve selected several unsung heroes who put in Herculean efforts during the race but perhaps didn’t get the recognition they deserved.
Daniel Benson is a Tour de France veteran, having covered 14 editions of the race as editor-in-chief of Cyclingnews and Velo, and now running his Substack newsletter.
The winners
There’s no other place to start than with the riders who finished on the podium.
Tadej Pogačar was in a league of his own, winning four stages, a fourth Tour title and a King of the Mountains jersey. He’s the outstanding rider of his generation, and at only 26, he’s set to dominate the sport for as long as he’s still motivated.
Third-place finisher Florian Lipowitz had a breakthrough Tour, taking third place and the white jersey as the best young rider. Not bad for a debutant who has only started cycling in the last few years.
Ben Healy won the Super Combativity award in Paris thanks to his consistent attacking approach throughout the race.
His efforts netted him a maiden Tour stage win, two stages in the yellow jersey, a second place on the road to the summit of Mont Ventoux and a top-10 on GC in a Grand Tour for the first time in his career. Not a bad haul for the Irish rider.
In the sprints, Tim Merlier won two stages, but the best sprinter in the race was Jonathan Milan, who also won two sprint stages on his debut and took the green jersey. The Italian was simply more consistent than Merlier and picked up more bonus points in the intermediate sprints to narrowly deny Pogačar the green jersey.
Hats off to Soudal Quick-Step as a whole, who won four stages in total through Merlier, Remco Evenepoel and Valentin Paret-Peintre, while Alpecin won three stages with three different sprinters, and enjoyed two spells in the yellow jersey.
It’s difficult to place Visma-Lease a Bike on this list.
For most teams, winning two stages, finishing second overall and taking the team classification would be considered a success.
But Visma went into the Tour aiming to win, and they never appeared likely to crack Tadej Pogačar. They employed every known tactic in the book, but fell short.
However, it would be unfair to label them, and their leader Jonas Vingegaard, as losers, even if I might have leaned towards that view in the BikeRadar Podcast.
The losers
Losers is a fairly unflattering term for riders who sacrifice their lives for such a hard sport – and especially when it comes from someone whose anatomy is made up of 65 per cent crisps – but it’s a catchy term, and who are we to argue with snappy copy and headlines?
So the 'loser’ bracket consists of all 14 teams that failed to win a stage at the Tour.
Red Bull-Bora-hangrohe received a pass because they won the white jersey courtesy of Lipowitz, and the German made it onto the podium.
However, the likes of Bahrain Victorious, Cofidis, Israel Premier-Tech, Intermarché-Wanty, Groupama-FDJ and XDS-Astana came away from the race with little to show for their efforts.
Remco Evenepoel also fits into this group, despite winning a stage. The Belgian entered the race with hopes of repeating his impressive third place from 2024, but his challenge faded in the mountains, and by the third week, he was out of the race and sitting at home on the sofa. Pass the crisps, Remco.
Primož Roglič also deserves a place in this category. Yes, he finished his first Tour de France since coming second in 2020, but the way his GC collapsed in the final mountain stage was staggering. Starting the day in fifth position, he launched a reckless long-range attack.
There’s bravery and respect in his approach, but it quickly became clear that he was going nowhere fast. When he was caught, instead of staying with the GC group to support young teammate Lipowitz seal third place, the veteran simply sat up and fell from fifth to eighth on the GC. I get it.
He’s won Grand Tours, and finishing fifth in the Tour doesn’t mean much to his palmares, but he’s paid handsomely to give his all, and that wasn’t evident on that particular stage.
The unsung heroes
All 160 finishers of this year’s Tour de France are heroes, but we’ve selected a handful of riders who really stood out over the 21 stages of this year’s race.
First up is Harry Sweeny of EF Education-EasyPost. The Australian was making his Tour debut and put in a number of sterling performances as a loyal domestique, most notably when it came to helping teammate Healy solidify his credentials as a top-10 GC rider.
There were various moments in the race when Healy was in need of help, and Sweeny came to the Irish rider’s aid. An attacking performance on the penultimate stage from Sweeny saw the EF rider make the break and go solo with around 50km to go. Although the move was eventually reeled in, the Aussie went down fighting.
Another rider who stood out was Jhonatan Narváez. He only made the move to UAE Team Emirates-XRG over the winter from Ineos Grenadiers, but he was arguably Pogačar’s best teammate in the higher mountains. Yes, Nils Politt did a lot of grunt work on the flat and lower slopes, but whenever the yellow jersey group was reduced to around 20 riders, Tadej Pogačar could always count on Narváez.
The rider from Ecuador has gone from a rider who didn’t really have a key role at Ineos to being a difference-maker for the Tour champion.
Kévin Vauquelin delivered a gutsy ride to finish seventh in Paris, securing his place as France’s top GC rider. Vauquelin had never aimed for the overall standings in a Grand Tour, but after a strong first week, he found himself in a good position.
A series of impressive performances in the mountains, supported by his strong time-trialling skills, enabled him to hold on and earn a well-deserved spot in the top 10. A move to Ineos Grenadiers is expected in 2026.
Another rider who caught my attention was Callum Scotson. The Australian didn’t win a stage or light up the race, but he was a dependable domestique for teammate Felix Gall in the mountains.
This was the 28-year-old’s first Tour de France, and while he finished well outside the top 20 in the GC and didn’t come close to winning any stages, he was a reliable, straightforward teammate through the second and third week. His overall performance marked a significant improvement for the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team rider.