“I am a bit scared” – Tiesj Benoot warns of chaos at Tour de France Grand Départ in Lille

With just seven days until the 2025 Tour de France gets underway, the tension is already building, especially within the Team Visma | Lease a Bike camp. Belgian domestique Tiesj Benoot, who will be a key lieutenant for Jonas Vingegaard in his bid to reclaim the yellow jersey from Tadej Pogacar, has raised concerns about the danger and unpredictability of the race’s flat opening stages.

The Grand Départ in Lille on July 5 marks a return to a sprinter-friendly start. But for experienced riders like Benoot, that’s exactly the problem. Speaking to In de Leiderstrui, the experience pro didn’t hold back in expressing his concerns.

“Maybe not much is said about it yet, but it will be real chaos. I am a bit scared,” Benoot admitted. “In 2021 we started in Brittany and I actually fear the same scenes.”

That 2021 Tour start was marred by multiple mass crashes, including the infamous sign-board incident that took down half the peloton. Benoot hasn’t forgotten. “In Brittany, there were 120 men lying on the ground in those first days,” he said. “Something like that is not good for cycling.”

The contrast, he says, is with more recent Grand Départs in hilly terrain, like the Basque Country in 2023 or Italy in 2024, where the early selection occurred naturally and safely. “With those starts in the Basque Country and Italy, everyone was already a bit more in their place. I thought that was a very good choice by the organization, so it is a shame that we are now going back to such a flat start.”

Still, Benoot acknowledged the logic behind the decision. “I also understand it: the sprinters can go for the yellow jersey and they deserve it.”

The first few stages are expected to be fierce, with riders like Jasper Philipsen, Tim Merlier, Biniam Girmay and Jonathan Milan eyeing rare early opportunities to pull on the maillot jaune. But for GC contenders, the risks are enormous. A crash, a mechanical, or even a split in the crosswinds could derail a year’s worth of preparation before the race even hits the hills.

“It’s mainly about those first three, four, five days. After that it will slow down again, because everyone is more settled in the peloton,” Benoot explained. “I always say: if you get to the first rest day without crashes, then your Tour is already three quarters done. Let’s hope.”

Team Visma | Lease a Bike will enter the race hoping they can avoid any of the injuries that have plagued them during the last two years, and Benoot knows the responsibility to protect Vingegaard will be shared among a smaller core group. Vingegaard began the 2024 Tour less than 100 days after a life threatening injury in the basque country, and so at least he has not experienced such a dramatic run up to the Tour this year.

“We will do everything as a team to be in that safe zone,” he said. “But everyone does that. You saw it in the Critérium du Dauphiné, where every position was fought for.”

While the full stage profiles and logistical details are still trickling down to the riders, the message is already clear within the Visma camp: expect danger, prepare for war. Benoot will know that the first week of the Tour can spell the end for the GC men, as Primoz Roglic found in 2021 and 2022.

“We have received an overview of the three weeks, but not in detail yet,” Benoot said. “We already knew that it would be dangerous. In 2018 we also started in the Vendée and then my Tour de France was already over on day four.”