{"id":307544,"date":"2025-07-31T21:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T21:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307544\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T21:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T21:19:10","slug":"uae-were-less-dominant-this-year-it-really-shocked-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307544\/","title":{"rendered":"UAE were less dominant this year… It really shocked me"},"content":{"rendered":"

TotalEnergies<\/a>‘ Jordan Jegat<\/a> was one of the biggest breakthrough riders at the 2025 Tour de France<\/a>, 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\u2019s flown. It still feels like it ended five or six hours ago. I\u2019ve had a packed schedule \u2014 no time for myself. I\u2019ve only just arrived at my parents\u2019 place in Brittany, and it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve really had a moment to stop,” reflected the 26-year-old Frenchman in a post-Tour conversation with RMC<\/a>. “I\u2019ll take a few days to enjoy the basics \u2014 going to the beach, riding my bike a little, nothing too serious.”<\/p>\n

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\u2019s straightforward \u2014 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 \u2014 at Simone Velasco, who didn\u2019t like me joining a breakaway \u2014 and told him that was one too many times.”<\/p>\n


\nAnd 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<\/a> and Jonas Vingegaard<\/a>, although he notes he didn’t see them too often. “They\u2019re usually shielded by their teams,” Jegat notes. “But when you do ride alongside them, you look at them differently \u2014 like the champions they are. On Stage 10, I was with them on the final climb and thought to myself, ‘This is something special.’\u201d<\/p>\n

“I always had the idea in the back of my mind that I wanted a good GC result. Last year, that wasn\u2019t the focus at all and I still came 28th. This year, I was in the mix throughout \u2014 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\u2019d trade that top 10 for a stage win \u2014 no question. But if you take away the sprinters\u2019 stages, and the ones won by Pogacar and other big names, there\u2019s not much left for the rest of us.”<\/p>\n

That said though, Jegat did notice some curious riding from Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates – XRG<\/a>. “You ask yourself the night before: Are Pogacar or Team Visma <\/a>| Lease a Bike going to go for it tomorrow? You try to anticipate and plan, but you don\u2019t always have a choice. UAE were actually less dominant this year,” says Jegat. “They lost Jo\u00e3o Almeida<\/a> early on, and Pavel Sivakov<\/a> 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<\/a> or Ben O\u2019Connor win those stages \u2014 it caught me off guard. I don\u2019t know if Pogacar could have beaten them, but it\u2019s still surprising that he didn\u2019t.”<\/p>\n

Despite doing two Tours de France now, Jegat also has never managed to ride the traditional Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es finale. After last year’s finale in Nice, this year saw the introduction on Montmartre. “I would\u2019ve loved to. We didn\u2019t really get to enjoy the Paris landmarks, like the Louvre \u2014 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?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TotalEnergies‘ Jordan Jegat was one of the biggest breakthrough riders at the 2025 Tour de France, taking a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-307544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114949938532550796","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}