"My comeback has been a success": Jordan Jegat hopes to have convinced directors about his Tour selection

Jordan Jegat definitely ranked among the pleasant surprises of last year's Tour de France with a nice 10th place in general classification to wrap things up. Add to that a strong season all round, and there's no surprise that Jegat, whose contract with TotalEnergies will run out at the end of his season, has logically seen a handful WorldTour teams at his doorstep.

With good sensations from 2025, Jegat started to build up towards this season, looking for a breakthrough - first professional victory. However his preparations were cut short by a knee injury which postponed Jegat's season debut all the way until mid-April.

But once he got back to racing, Jegat proved in the best way possible that his talent was not gone at all - by beating Decathlon's young climbing starlets Matthew Riccitello and Léo Bisiaux at the Classic Grand Besancon Doubs to take that desired first victory.

"My comeback to the peloton was very good, I think," Jegat tells WielerFlits with a sense of understatement. "With my victory in Besançon and my third place in the Jura the day after, my comeback has been a success. Now we are in the Tour of Turkey and I hope my form is good again. We shall see."

"Of course, I had some doubts before my comeback. During training, I could see that my form was good and my body was too, but when you’re not riding with and against other guys, you never know exactly how your body will react. It wasn’t until my first race that I saw the form was really there," he says, referring to his victory in the Classic Grand Besançon Doubs, with a finish on Montfauçon. His first professional win.

Jegat is undeniably one of the household names of the current TotalEnergies, yet the 26-year-old has no certainty of coming back to France ride his third Grande Boucle this summer. Due to his injury, adjustments have been made such that Jegat needs to earn his place again.

"But I do hope to ride the Tour de France for the third time," he says, before elaborating further. "The first plan is to win a stage. But I know I can do both, like Ben Healy last year. He finished ninth and took one or two stage wins. It is my goal to win a stage and finish in the top 10, but we will see if that is possible," Jegat says, looking ahead to the Tour.

After the strong debut at French one-day races - Jegat added another podium result at Tour de Jura one day later - Jegat's bid has most likely gained on relevancy in absence of another outstanding climber within TotalEnergies, but his chance to seal the selection could be the on-going Tour of Turkey. With two challenging mountain finishes, Jegat can look to convince his sports directors that he's up for the task of winning a stage for the French ProTeam.

In any case, the Tour preparation is already on the rails for Jegat: "Normally, I go to the Sierra Nevada after this to prepare for the Tour. I think my next race will be the Mercan'Tour, and after that the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Or the Dauphiné, that’s better," he concludes, laughing.