"UAE were less dominant this year... It really shocked me" - Jordan Jegat saw first hand Tadej Pogacar give away stage wins at 2025 Tour de France

TotalEnergies' Jordan Jegat was one of the biggest breakthrough riders at the 2025 Tour de France, taking a surprise top-10 finish in the general classification. Riding just the second Grand Tour of his career, Jegat did however, notice some big changes from the Tour de France in 2024.

"Since the Tour finished, time’s flown. It still feels like it ended five or six hours ago. I’ve had a packed schedule — no time for myself. I’ve only just arrived at my parents’ place in Brittany, and it’s the first time I’ve really had a moment to stop," reflected the 26-year-old Frenchman in a post-Tour conversation with RMC. "I’ll take a few days to enjoy the basics — going to the beach, riding my bike a little, nothing too serious."

As mentioned, with two Grand Tours under his belt, Jegat is far from the most experienced rider in the peloton, but the climber has adapted well to the toughest level of racing on the calendar. "Physically, it’s straightforward — you push the pedals and climb the mountains. But in the peloton, you have to earn your spot, fight for position, use your elbows. During this Tour, I stayed completely focused on my own race and goals. I kept a cool head," he explains. "I only snapped once — at Simone Velasco, who didn’t like me joining a breakaway — and told him that was one too many times."

And having fought for a top-10 finish in GC, Jegat managed to get a very close up look at the superstar Maillot Jaune contenders Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, although he notes he didn't see them too often. "They’re usually shielded by their teams," Jegat notes. "But when you do ride alongside them, you look at them differently — like the champions they are. On Stage 10, I was with them on the final climb and thought to myself, 'This is something special.'”

"I always had the idea in the back of my mind that I wanted a good GC result. Last year, that wasn’t the focus at all and I still came 28th. This year, I was in the mix throughout — hovering around the top 10. It felt out of reach, but I managed to avoid crashes and illness, and it all came together. My consistency and attacking spirit earned me that result," Jegat continues. "Of course, I’d trade that top 10 for a stage win — no question. But if you take away the sprinters’ stages, and the ones won by Pogacar and other big names, there’s not much left for the rest of us."

That said though, Jegat did notice some curious riding from Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates - XRG. "You ask yourself the night before: Are Pogacar or Team Visma | Lease a Bike going to go for it tomorrow? You try to anticipate and plan, but you don’t always have a choice. UAE were actually less dominant this year," says Jegat. "They lost João Almeida early on, and Pavel Sivakov was ill. It was more Visma, with Vingegaard, calling the shots."

That in turn, led to a less cannibalistic Pogacar, allowing for stage wins to go to the breakaway more often than Jegat had expected. "It really shocked me," he admits. "At the finish, seeing guys like Thymen Arensman or Ben O’Connor win those stages — it caught me off guard. I don’t know if Pogacar could have beaten them, but it’s still surprising that he didn’t."

Despite doing two Tours de France now, Jegat also has never managed to ride the traditional Champs-Élysées finale. After last year's finale in Nice, this year saw the introduction on Montmartre. "I would’ve loved to. We didn’t really get to enjoy the Paris landmarks, like the Louvre — we were full gas the whole time. So yes, I was a bit disappointed," he concludes. "But Montmartre was a spectacular event, with an incredible crowd. Why not turn it into a one-day classic?"