"He’s a five-star favorite, while everyone else is at two stars" - Pogacar continues to be the ultimate man to beat for 2027 Tour de France, Armstrong says
Cycling
The 2027 Tour de France has widely been discussed, much of it due to the large amount of time trialing kilometers which favour Remco Evenepoel, and do the opposite for Tadej Pogacar. Lance Armstrong believes however that it will make little to no difference.
"Things can get wild in Northern England in July. It can be beautiful, but also nasty," Armstrong argued on The Move podcast. "If I were racing, I’d tell myself: let’s get past this as quickly as possible and catch the ferry to France."
The American was keen on pointing out that the starting week of the Tour can be quite tense, specially on British roads. "There is an awful lot to lose there, and nothing to gain. Two of those three stages are over 200 kilometers long. That’s an 'X-factor' in this Tour de France".
The first decisive stage of the race will be its seventh day, with a 38-kilometer long time trial. The first mountain stage will come on stage 9, meaning a lot of racing will take place before the GC contenders - on paper - begin to create meaningful differences between each other.
"I’ll say this now: go watch it—the crowds will be amazing. But I was there in May, and the wind was blowing so hard. If the weather turns bad... some riders might not even make it across the Channel."
Is the 2027 Tour de France less adapted to Tadej Pogacar?
More time trialing and the 'anti-Pogacar Tour'
The 71 kilometers of almost fully pan-flat time trialing create an opportunity for riders such as Remco Evenepoel and Paul Seixas to put pressure on Tadej Pogacar; whilst the toughest stage of the race will be left for the the final week.
It is a route that is agreed to be designed to keep the tension until later than previous years.
"In our day, riders would lose four minutes in the team time trial—and we knew they would. So, they had no choice but to go absolutely berserk and really shake things up in the mountains," Armstrong recalls. "That brought a huge amount of excitement to the race and made our lives stressful, but it certainly worked for the Tour".
"They’re trying to shift the perception that the race is decided too early. With this route, it feels like a bit of sleight of hand: maybe Remco takes the yellow jersey after stage 7, and then we reach stage 18, where Pogacar blows everyone away—at which point we know it’s all over—but at least you’ve kept the suspense alive until that stage".
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Pogacar above everyone else
But the truth is that until today, there have been so signs that the former World Champion will meet a rival of his level. At the 2026 Tour, Pogacar spoke of his least stressful victory to date, whilst his climbing performances have continued to be unmatched throughout a period of three weeks.
What Armstrong sees into the 2027 edition is something he recognizes from his own days leading the Grand Boucle: "Back in our day, the route was designed to be 'Postal-proof' (he refers to his former team US Postal, ed.)".
You could argue that more individual time-trial kilometers should, in theory, favor Remco Evenepoel over Tadej. But people have tried all sorts of tactical games against Tadej; in practice, that theory never holds up," he argues.
"As we’ve said so many times, Pogacar is the greatest there has ever been, and he remains the best. He’s a five-star favorite, while everyone else is at two stars—maybe Remco gets three. This is Tadej’s race to lose".
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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