Bradley Wiggins warns of “dirty first week” at 2025 Tour de France

The Tour de France is back, and so is The Move, the segment of Lance Armstrong’s WEDU podcast where he’s joined by Johan Bruyneel, George Hincapie, and this time, Bradley Wiggins, to dissect the season’s major races.

With the 2025 edition of the Tour underway, the group sat down for a dedicated preview, opening with a discussion on how this year’s race breaks from recent tradition. The first 10 days of this Grande Boucle are flatter, more geared toward sprinters, and devoid of any major mountain stages, a setup that’s sure to provoke tension among the general classification contenders. Stage 5, featuring the lone early time trial, could be decisive. Here’s what they had to say:

Wiggins: “It's going to be a dirty first week, it's going to be tough for everyone, we're going to see riders in the general classification losing time because of cuts, the wind, the rain if it comes. Plus there's the time trial on stage 5, which is going to make some people want to stay ahead all the time so they can wear yellow. We're expecting Remco specifically.”

Armstrong: “It's a week where there's a lot to lose and not much to gain. It's great for the spectators because a lot can happen, but there's going to be a lot of nerves.”

Hincapie: “In the last few years the guys in the general classification had hard stages at the start, now they're going to be a lot more nervous thinking about bad luck coming their way with wind, rain and all the other factors. Guys risking their lives to win a stage or to get into a breakaway. Anyone can make it to the finish, but everything can be broken by crashes. Anything can happen, there's going to be action, but if I was one of the overall I'd be very nervous.”

Bruyneel: “We're going back to the more classic Tour, with 10 first days without hard stages. This is different. In terms of stress it's going to be massive. The sprinters have a lot of opportunities. I think there are some also ideal for breakaways, so we'll have to see what the sprinters' teams do. This is the Tour, every opportunity you have you have to try to take it.

"We've been seeing less and less breakaways. It's full of opportunities for the best sprinters in the world who are in the race. The fact that we have the time trial on stage 5 is going to allow us to see the first clashes between guys in the general classification. There will be no surprises. 33 km flat for specialists. Remco should win, I see him in yellow there. From then on, if Remco is in yellow, he'll try to defend it until stage 12.”

The first 10 stages of this Tour are unpredictable, but the setup itself is a throwback. As the group noted, this structure could lead to nonstop fireworks or a tightly controlled procession. It all depends on how teams respond.

Anything can happen. Or, as Armstrong and the others suggest, maybe very little does. It’s possible that sprint trains dominate, breakaways are reeled in, the weather stays tame, and the only shakeup comes from the time trial on stage 5.