Was Jordan Jegat THE breakthrough of the 2025 Tour de France? "You can't hold back, don't set limits"

The Tour de France is the biggest cycling race in the world and because of the extreme quality at the startlist every year, it is very difficult for any rider to truly surprise. A few managed to do so and perhaps the biggest surprise of them all was Jordan Jegat, rider for the ProTeam-level TotalEnergies who managed to finish in the final Top10 against all odds.

Jegat is not an unknown figure in the peloton, having ridden to a Top15 at Itzulia Basque Country and the Criterium du Dauphiné, but few even put him in the category of a GC contender for the Tour. Even within the team, it was more likely that Steff Cras would have this goal, but the Belgian was forced to abandon with illness.

The team didn't manage to take a stage win as it did in 2024 with Anthony Turgis, but it managed to do something which is perhaps even more immpressive: Place a rider a the Tour's Top10. "If someone had told me that at the start of the Tour I would have said 'but nooooo'. Obviously, I'm happy, I wouldn't have believed it," the 26-year old told Cyclism'Actu in Paris.

Jegat raced in a similar way to compatriot Guillaume Martin, who has in the past ridden to Top10's at Grand Tours through a mix of good climbing and using breakaways both on mountainous and hilly stages to gain time on the direct competition. It's not an unknown tactic but one that is difficult to manage, specially in a Grand Tour where virtually every stage was ridden hard and ultimately where the average speed was the highest in the history of the sport.

Jegat had a strong start to the race showing consistency and not losing much time on the explosive stages, and by the time he entered the Pyrenees he was in 14th place. As the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Matteo Jorgenson, Carlos Rodríguez and others either dropped out of the race or the overall classification, the Frenchman remained consistent and the Top10 realistically became a goal. On stages 14 and 15 he joined the breakaway and came closer to the Top10, but a brutal crack on the Col de la Loze saw this objective fade slightly.

However a brilliant performance on stage 20, the day following the Alps, saw him be the only GC rider to be able to get himself in the day's breakaway and despite criticism from fellow breakaway riders, he pushed through and managed to gain time on Ben O'Connor to successfully enter the Top10.

"But there you go, I did it, so I'm very happy. As I often say, you can't hold back, don't set limits, and always look further ahead. I went after this top 10 with audacity, but also a lot of humility," he believes. "I forged ahead, I managed to make good breakaways that saved me time, without losing too much in the mountains. It's a whole, and that's why I finished 10th."

Jegat is perhaps this Tour's revelation, after an incredibly combative and consistent race that rewarded him greatly in Paris. "This is my second Tour de France, I finished 28th last year as a support rider for Steff Cras. It's true that I felt that physically it was responding well, and that I could do better," he concluded.

"This year, I came more to achieve a stage victory and why not a good overall. In my head, I had set myself a top 20, and to get close to the top 15. So top 10 is simply happiness. A feeling of accomplishment, of pride too after all these years of work,"