Tadej Pogaar aims for a record-equalling fifth win, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel line up with green lights for their form and health, Florian Lipowitz is back after the podium finish last year while Isaac del Toro and Paul Seixas bring carefree promise to the race too.The RouteThis is a back-loaded Tour. All grand tours aim to build to a crescendo but this year the Pyrenees are tackled early and well wait for the third weekend with Stages 14, 15 and after the rest the Stage 16 time trial to shape the overall before a fierce pair of stages finishing on Alpe dHuez on Stages 19 and 20. There are 10-6-4 second time bonuses at the stage finish.A reminder that all stages, the rules and more are one page at inrng.com/tourTadej Pogaar (UAE) is the prime pick. He bids to become the fifth rider to win the Tour five times and theres not the wisp of a cloud on the horizon of his ambitions. He seems unbeatable he hasnt lost a stage race since the 2023 Tour and crucially his rivals often believe it, settling for second as their best available result. He can win from many situations, from reduced group sprints to time trials to summit finishes, and if hes thirty seconds down on Vingegaard after Stage 20, he could even reverse this on the cobbles of Montmartre. The form is there as his recent Tour de Suisse stage showed. Any weak points? Fetch a microscope. With hindsight he might have been beatable last year given he later revealed a knee injury. This time his team are not the best for the opening team time trial and hes prone to bold attacks than often pay off but may not always Amstel Gold Race in 2025 and seems to need stimulation from rivals to be at his best. With luck he and well be boosted by what his rivals are offering this time.Isaac del Toro just won the Aura Tour and comfortably so. He showed in the Giro last year he can last three weeks and has reconned the key stages of the Tour with Pogaar, the apprentice alongside the master. Pogaar has gifted wins to team mates before but think a stage rather than a fifth Tour de France and the Mexicans relative weakness seems to be time trials but the Evian-Thonon stage this year has a sustained climb which suits. Theres a strong chance hes on the podium in Paris.Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB) comes to the Tour after winning the Giro, and taking Paris-Nice and the Volta Catalunya, and before all that the Vuelta too. Above all this means a clear run with all his injuries a distant memory. He rode the Giro partly because he got trounced at the Tour last year. This is his paradox, consistently better than all the rest, except for Pogaar where the magnifying effect of the Tour de France makes him look like perpetual runner-up but last year he had his moments, he even put Pogaar under pressure in the third week. Its unlikely the Giro triumph liberates him as we did not discover a new side to his racing, rather the economy of his victory means hes not fatigued. He even says hes better than ever, but a year ago at the Dauphin he said his power numbers were better than ever, only he was beaten by Pogaar. Hes got a whole team in support, theyll miss Wout van Aert who is capable of getting Vingegaard out of tricky situations. As things stand he looks a likely runner-up again but with the hope he can push Pogaar hard in the third week and see what happens.Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) starts a crunch Tour for him. Hired on big money as Tour contender, hes had a clear run to the race, including skipping racing since April. But is he really a Tour contender? Hell need a quantum change to out-climb Tadej Pogaar and Jonas Vingegaard, and now younger riders are queuing to overtake him too. But he is looking razor lean and has been preparing for just this. Some of his best wins have come about from surprise attacks, taking a gap and then being almost impossible to reel in and if he could deploy rather than hoping to win a summit finish shoot-out then he could cause an upset but there are few mountain stages valley roads to suit, this could land him a stage win more than the yellow jersey. If youre or he is superstitious the Tourmalet his nemesis in the 2023 Vuelta and the 2025 Tour comes early and should be an easier hurdle to clear.Florian Lipowitz was third last year, albeit eleven minutes down but the best of the rest behind Pogaar and Vingegaard thanks to consistency. He seems to trundle around like an impervious armoured vehicle but also the proverbial diesel who follows but rarely shapes the race. Hes still searching for his first World Tour level win. The 25 year olds racecraft is still a work-in-progress, he dropped the field going uphill in the recent Tour of Slovenia but was hesitant on the ensuing descent. Itll be intriguing to see how he and Evenepoel fare together, the sense is that Evenepoel is boosted by this internal competition but maybe prove brittle if overtaken.Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM) is the youngest rider to start the Tour de France since 1937. The 19 year old had an excellent spring campaign that saw him second in the Strade Bianche, dominate the Tour of the Basque Country and win the Flche Wallonne before being the only rider willing or able to match Pogaar in Lige-Bastogne-Lige. On the teams whiteboard the first goal is to finish the race, the second is get the best GC result possible. Its this challenge that is open, a field of dreams for him and fans. Hes shown glimpses that suggest hes going to be a contender someday soon. His teenage erreur de jeunesse on a descent in the Aura Tour last month cost him plenty, from a shot at victory to skin on his palms that required daily bandages and missed training. But this has dampened hype around the ace. Back in April he was still discovering how he fared when going all in for a one week stage race so a grand tour is going to be an adventure. One of his talents seems to be able to go very deep to win or follow rivals but this could cost him, whether the following day or week later.Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) as a Tour winner? Surely not this time and the goal is more like Seixas: to finish and do the best on GC possible but his team are spending big these days and need results at the Tour including some proof that Ayuso is a potential podium contender. Results could come on the opening day, it could be via Mads Pedersen mid-race but Ayuso is the spear tip. Mattias Skjelmose is an extra option for the team but seems a step below.Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) feels like a human scratchcard, you never know what you are going to get each time. Capable of toying with Pogaar on the right course, and finishing on the podium in the Vuelta last summer, hes having a great season in terms of results and seems to be enjoying it with the Tour as the goal all along. But GC or stage wins? Presumably hell aim for the former and pivot to the latter if hes outside the top-5 once a hierarchy is established but from breakaways he could haul himself higher up GC again.Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost) is capable of a top-10 finish on GC but he and his team know that this is not a valuable or visible result beyond the UCI points they need, instead a stage win or the mountains competition is more suitable.Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar) has changed teams several times but hes only 23 as he makes his Tour debut and like others will aim to see how far he can go on GC. The terror of the pressroom for those tasked with spelling his name correctly first time, he finished a steady seventh in the recent Aura Tour saying hed work on sharpening his climbing. His team have plenty of stage hunters so the pressure isnt all on him.Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain) is flying below the radar, second in the UAE Tour this year showed he could climb well but hes been discreet since, including the recent Tour de Suisse but the Tour has been the goal all along although hell find team mates busy aiming for other things. Ben OConnor (Jayco) tried to go for GC last time but it didnt work, then ended up winning the Queen Stage and finished 11th for some UCI points, the team would probably sign for the same again. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) was sixth last year and has consistently been in the top-10 in stage races this year and while the field is deeper can hope to do the same again while other team mates try to pick off a stage win again. Netcompany-Ineos dont have an obvious GC contender so a top-10 might be possible for Egan Bernal, Kvin Vauquelin or Thymen Arensman but would they settle for 8th or prefer 12th and a stage win? The talk is of the latter, getting more noticeable results rather than the habitual GC quest.PogaarVingegaardDel ToroSeixas, Evenepoel, LipowitzThe post Tour de France Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.