1. Can Vingegaard plug the hole on Pogacar?
This is one of the most anticipated answers of the year. In 2024, the duel Tadej Pogacar (26 years old) – Jonas Vingegaard (28 years old) did not really take place, or at least it ended short on the Tour de France between the two men who occupy the first two places since 2021. The Slovenian quickly took the measure of his Danish rival to win his third Grande Boucle, after the 2020 and 2021 editions. But the domination of Pogacar did it really reflect the current gap in level between the two men or was it exacerbated by Vingegaard's serious injury (and convalescence) during the Tour of the Basque Country? To this day, it is still unknown.
The Visma Lease a bike rider therefore returns in 2025 refurbished, and officially determined to regain control of the Tour and equalize the number of yellow jerseys in Paris (he won the 2022 and 2023 editions). For this, Vingegaard can count on a team that is more solid than ever and determined to get back in front of UAE. The Dane, who had for a time thought about competing in the Giro (an admission of weakness?), finally chose to bet everything on the Tour. He will have a solid program to get there (Tour of the Algarve, Catalonia, Paris-Nice and Dauphiné) and has not forgotten that before his fall in the Basque Country, he had crushed the Gran Camino and Tirreno-Adriatico…
2. What can David Gaudu hope for in the Giro?
This is perhaps THE good idea of the season which is beginning. At 28 years old, David Gaudu chose to take part in the Tour of Italy for the first time in his career. The Breton climber had wanted it for a long time, but the horizon blocked by Pogacar and Vingegaard on the Tour de France ended up convincing his team to take the gamble, even if it meant only racing the Tour afterwards as a stage hunter. . Gaudu on the Giro is perhaps the meeting of a very talented climber with a demanding race, the way he likes them. The Groupama-FDJ rider knows how to be ready at the start of the season (he finished 2nd in Paris-Nice in 2022, behind Pogacar and ahead of Vingegaard) and his big places on the Tour (11th, 4th, 9th in 2021, 2022, 2023 ) or in the Vuelta (6th in 2024) make it a credible candidate for the podium (or even better?) in the race for the Jersey Pink. Especially since Pogacar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel will not be at the start…
3. What to expect from the world championships in Rwanda?
It will be one of the most anticipated moments of this year 2025 for world Cycling. For the first time in their history, the world road championships will take place in Africa, and more precisely in Rwanda, a country which loves cycling and offers images of incredible fervor every year on the occasion of its national tour. . The circuit traced around Kigali should offer, according to the UCI, the most difficult course in history, with 267 km to cover for 5,475 meters of positive altitude difference… The equivalent of a major mountain stage of the Tour de France. In these conditions, the greatest climbers in the world are expected, and a Pogacar – Vingegaard match cannot be ruled out…
-4. Will Van Aert land a cobblestone monument?
He's already 30 years old and he still hasn't won one of the two major cobbled monuments on the calendar. Wout van Aert certainly won a Milan – San Remo in 2020, a Strade Bianche the same year, as well as an E3 GP, a Nieuwsblad, an Amstel Gold Race and a Ghent Wevelgem. But still no Paris-Roubaix or Tour of Flanders, and this is an anomaly considering the profile and talent of the robust Belgian from Visma Lease a bike. Forfeited last season after his big fall on A Travers la Flanders, the man with nine victories on the Tour has often crossed paths with bad luck, or with a certain Mathieu van der Poel on the two races most dear to him. heart. Will he manage to reverse the trend against his Dutch rival? Time is running out…
5. Who will be the French of the year?
One generation passes away, another comes of age. Thibaut Pinot left at the end of 2024, Romain Bardet will hang up in June after the Dauphiné, and Julian Alaphilippe still wants to shine in new colors, those of Tudor. But in the wheel of David Gaudu, still leader of the 26-28 year olds, several French riders have arguments to compete in the biggest races of the World Tour. After a disrupted year, Christophe Laporte (Visma Lease a bike) can return in force to the cobblestones of Roubaix or Flanders. The punchers Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B & B) and Paul Lapeira (Decathlon-AG2R), who have already won at this level in 2024, intend to confirm regularly and have the means, on the classics Ardennes for example. Finally, Lenny Martinez's first laps at Bahrain are awaited with great curiosity in view of the young nugget from Groupama-FDJ.
