Pogacar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel, Roglic, Ayuso... Which Grand Tours will cycling's best race in 2025?

The 2025 season is officially underway with Luke Plapp becoming Australian national time trial champion for the third time this Thursday. This January we'll start to see the first road races with the highlight being the Tour Down Under, the first stage race of the World Tour. But at a time when more and more cyclists are going public with their goals, we've decided to give you a summary so that you can understand where the biggest names in cycling stand in relation to the Grand Tours;

Some of the plans of the main riders have long been public knowledge, such as UAE Team Emirates - XRG's Tadej Pogacar who will race the Tour de France, and with a high amount of certainty (although not confirmed) the Vuelta a España - whilst João Almeida is confirmed to race both. As for Adam Yates, he will also be part of the Tour line-up in support roles, but not before first sharing the leadership of the team in the Giro with Juan Ayuso.

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But in 2025, all eyes will be on Pogacar and the much-anticipated duel in the Tour de France against his most direct rival Jonas Vingegaard, who has not yet officially confirmed his plans but there are rumors that he may also take part in the Giro d'Italia as well. Simon Yates reportedly will race the Corsa Rosa before a domestique role at the Tour. Meanwhile, Matteo Jorgenson has not yet confirmed his plans for 2025 but he has expressed his desire to lead Visma in a Grand Tour, although that decision will still depend on Vingegaard's plans first - while Sepp Kuss' plans also remain in the unknown. 

Meanwhile, it was also confirmed today that Remco Evenepoel will lead Soudal - Quick-Step in the Tour and leave the leadership of the team in the Giro to Mikel Landa, who will then travel with the Belgian to the Grand Boucle.

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As for the Giro d'Italia, the plans are still largely unknown, as the route will not be revealed to the public until next Monday. Although it is known that the teams have been privately informed about the details of the route, at the moment the game is still very much up in the air until RCS makes the official announcement. Among the confirmed names is Primoz Roglic, who will try to repeat his feat of 2023 when he won in dramatic fashion ahead of Geraint Thomas. The Briton will apparently not be racing in Albania (but instead the Tour de France), but the 2024 runner-up, Daniel Martinez, and the winner of the 2022 Giro, Jai Hindley, will further strengthen the Red Bull - BORA - Hansgrohe bloc in the Corsa Rosa. In addition to them, Pello Bilbao, David Gaudu, Einer Rubio, Nairo Quintana, Derek Gee, Antonio Tiberi and Isaac del Toro are expected to start.

As for the Vuelta a España, not many riders have made it to the front yet, most of whom will leave their plans open for a Grand Tour that is often seen as the last salvation for riders who have had a less successful season. Among those already confirmed, in addition to Almeida, are the home riders Enric Mas and Carlos Rodriguez, as well as Alexandr Vlasov and Lennert van Eetvelt.

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See below for a list of 50 of the main stage-racers and what we know about their plans:
*Note: As of the 9th January.

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