"It always suits the strongest" - French pundit disagree with the idea that 2025 Tour de France opposes Tadej Pogacar's attributes

Cyrille Guimard has talked about Tadej Pogacar and the 2025 Tour de France route in his most recent interview, and as is the case with many other pundits and specialists out there, he has refused the proposition that was launched by a few that the route is 'Anti-Pogacar'.

Regarding the 2024 season, the French veteran told Cyclism'Actu in a very simple way the outlook of this ending season: "Well, the first thing is that Tadej Pogacar dominated it from start to finish, with absolutely extraordinary mastery. We have another character who also mastered the start of the season, Mathieu van der Poel".

On the French riders, he also had a relatively positive outlook on the year: "And then the French awakening at the start of the year, with a certain number of refreshing victories, insofar as, even if for the most part they were not the big WorldTour events, it's always good to win, it makes you want to start again, it gives confidence on a personal level, but also on a collective level. I also want to say thank you to the pro teams for having done what was necessary so that the French were ready for the Olympic Games, with these 2nd and 3rd places, which are still quite extraordinary."

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After the reveal of the route a few weeks back, featuring many hilly stages in the first week and then several very similar mountain days in the second half of the race, Dutch pundit This Zonneveld argued that this was a route thought to be partially designed to not benefit Tadej Pogacar and hence help the spectacle in the fight for the yellow jersey: "It can't be otherwise that they have thought about the Anti-Pogi-Tour: a course that suits him as little as possible," he had argued. 

But Guimard disagrees with this point of view: "It always suits the strongest. When I was sports director, I started looking at the route three weeks before the Tour, not before. Because you have a first view on the day of the presentation," he argues. "Then, six months before, you know which riders you are going to select, but three months later you have a third out. They say it is a route for Pogacar, for Vingegaard... but will they be at the start? So what is the point of making scenarios when we do not even know who the actors are? And the actors, in what state will they be?"

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