Not many riders can say their first Grand Tour was the Tour de France. Joe Blackmore is one of the few.
The 22-year-old Brit was promoted to IPT’s ProTeam for this season after a stellar 2024, with numerous wins and impressive performances.
After a strong start to this season, Blackmore was selected for the Tour de France roster and has continued to show his immense talent throughout the race – whether helping teammates in breakaways or seizing his own opportunity, as he did on stage 10, finishing sixth on the day ahead of the main GC contenders.
“The race has definitely met my expectations about how intense and stressful the racing is here,” Blackmore explains ahead of the final stage into Paris. “It has been a long and hard race. I’ve had good days and not-so-good days, but you’ve just got to keep going every day.
“Stage 10, on Bastille Day, was probably my best day on the bike during this Tour. That was a cool day, being in the breakaway and then suffering the last 25 km on my own [to take sixth place].
“I feel like I’ve learned a lot during this race, and hopefully, in the coming years, I can come back and be even more at the front of the race. Everyone says that once you’ve got a Grand Tour in the legs, it helps you a lot. So, I hope to take a lot of form and strong legs with me from this Tour to bump me up a level.”
PT Sporting Manager, Steve Bauer, says he’s impressed by the way Blackmore has handled himself during his first Grand Tour.
“I think Joe did very well. The way he managed his energy and how he rode this race. Sometimes, it was even a little hard to hold him back as he was so eager to push on. Overall, I think he did a very good race, especially that day on stage 10 in the mountains, where he pushed on to finish sixth. That was quite impressive.
”It’s clear that he’s extremely talented and I believe with the experience he’s getting from this race, he will be even better in the future.”
Looking back at IPT’s Tour de France 2025, Bauer highlights the unity of the team, always working well together, while naturally regretting not being able to secure a stage win – one of the team’s stated goals ahead of the race.
“The highlight, for me, is how this team has really worked well as a unit. We have focused on victories and we worked hard as a group to try to achieve that. We’ve had some bad luck with punctures and crashes for especially Jake [Stewart] in crucial moments and Woodsy having stomach problems when being in a break on a finish that suited him.
”But I think the team did well, always being in the mix, fighting hard, but of course ultimately, we came up empty. However, I’m happy with how the boys worked together as a unit and that’s definitely something positive to take with us from this Tour.”