Tour de France cycling – Team guide: Star riders, memorable moments, which icy refreshment are they?

AG2R La Citroën

• Star Rider: Golden Greg van Avermaet
• Memorable Moment: Bardet’s breakthrough in 2016 when he notched second overall. In retrospect, it was all downhill from there but at the time it all felt so hopeful.
• Racing Style: These days they’re a classics team good at getting top tens but not-winning. Hard to see much success for them this year in Le Tour.
• Icy Refreshment: Cherry Coke – always sort of ‘there’ in the off-license chiller cabinet, but you never choose it.

Alpecin Fenix

• SR: Mighty Mathieu van der Poel
• MM: This is their debut year, would you believe. They are auto-invited as the top-ranked ProTeam.
• RS: Bag a few stage wins with van der Poel then, when he bails early for the Olympics, who knows!
• IR: Fizzy Vimto – not an immediate top tier choice, but a reliable winner.

Astana PremierTech

• SR: Jakob Fuglsang, on paper at least.
• MM: Contador dropping his own teammate Lance Armstrong in 2009. If you haven’t seen The Armstrong Lie, go watch this immediately.
• RS: The sooner they abandon their GC hopes this year, the more productive their Tour will be. Lutsenko, Fraile and even Aranburu can all deliver stage wins.
• IR: Pepsi Max – you think it’s bad but actually it’s quite good.

Bahrain Victorious

• SR: Mikel Landa
• MM: Landa’s panicked face last year as he realised his last domestique was about to pull off and he was about to have to try and drop Pog & Rog.
• RS: They’ve started winning, recently. A lot, actually. It all depends how Landa’s GC goes, but there are a lot of stage wins in this for them.
• IR: Original Magnum – dependable but ultimately a little disappointing.

Bora Hansgrohe

• SR: Peter Sagan. You know, Peter Sagan.
• MM: Sagan’s seven swashbuckling green jersey wins on Tinkoff, which then morphed into Bora.
• RS: Win the green jersey in the mountains. Intermediate sprint points for days. Also, Wilco Keldermann?
• IR: Lilt – used to be totally dominant in the summer time, but now a slightly fading force?

B&B Hotels p/b KTM

• SR: Pierre Rolland / Bryan Coquard
• MM: Last year at the height of ‘the BLM summer’ Kevin Reza became the focus of cycling’s own grapple with racial inequality.
• RS: Breakaway fodder, with Bryan Coquard for the sprints.
• IR: Appletiser – dark green, kinda tasty, but you’re never going to pick it as part of your meal deal.

Cofidis, Solutions Credits

• SR: Guillaume Martin, philosopher, athlete, sneaky GC candidate.
• MM: They are and always will be the team after which the sport’s most notorious doping scandal was named.
• RS: Prove we’re 100% clean now by absolutely never winning anything.
• IR: Fab lolly – old school, low-budget, red and white.

Deceunick-QuickStep

• SR: Julian Alaphilippe, but also, maybe – whisper it – Mark Cavendish!
• MM: They’ve had some corkers, but Mark Cavendish crashing out of the grand départ in Yorkshire during his first stint with the team takes some topping.
• RS: Stage wins, the green jersey, but also at least six days in yellow with Julian ‘The Last Musketeer’ Alaphilippe.
• IR: Cornetto - various flavours, but all reliable winners

EF Education First NIPPO

• SR: Rigoberto Uran, coming in hot for a GC tilt after strong Suisse showing.
• MM: That time in 2017 when Rigo won a stage despite only having two gears for the last 10km.
• RS: Super-strong Colombians backed by a phalanx of cheerful North Americans. Fun!
• IR: Panda Pop Cherry flavour – bright pink, absolutely buzzing with EF numbers.

Groupama FDJ

• SR: Fastman Arnaud Démare, good shot at the green jersey.
• MM: Thibaut Pinot climbing off in 2019, when he was absolutely 100% gonna win – what a sickener…
• RS: Latterly GC, but this year without Pinot you’d imagine sprintin’ and stage huntin’.
• IR: Orangina – bicycle racing teams simply don’t get Frencher than this..

Ineos Grenadiers

• SR: Throw a stone in the team bus and you’ll hit one. Richie Porte, Richard Carapaz, Geraint Thomas… even Tao Geoghegan Hart could win.
• MM: Gosh. Wiggins in ’12, or one of the other six years they’ve won the bloody thing?
• RS: Crush. Kill. Destroy.
• IR: Feast Ice Cream – your dad’s favourite.

Intermarché Wanty Gobert

• SR: Louis Mientjes, South African former starlet who has struggled to reach his potential.
• MM: Guillaume van Keirsbulck’s solo, 190km breakaway in 2017. Memorable, but for all the wrong reasons.
• RS: Since stepping up to WorldTour, they might be less inclined to act as pack-filler, but it’s hard to see where a win will come from.
• IR: Twister ice lolly – green and white, surprisingly good

Israel StartUp Nation

• SR: Until quite extremely recently, Chris Froome.
• MM: They signed Froome on a mahoosive contract to help them try and be competitive at Le Tour, and that has not gone well for them.
• RS: Up until this year, stage hunting, but the team says they are putting their weight behind Mike Woods for the GC, after Froome failed to make the grade in time.
• IR: Tap water – plain, functional, ultimately uninspiring.

Jumbo-Visma

• SR: Primož Roglič, he used to be a ski jumper.
• MM: Losing the Tour in 2020 on the very last day may just become this generations unforgettable ‘Lemond-Fignon’ moment.
• RS: Tenderise the enemy with Wout, obliterate them with Primož. Big money, serious faces.
• IR: Fruit Pastilles lolly – simple, effective, conservative, gets the job done.

Lotto Soudal

• SR: Caleb Ewan, the pocket rocket.
• MM: Thomas De Gendt on the Ventoux in 2016, and Thomas De Gendt in every Le Tour breakaway since.
• RS: This is fundamentally a sprinting team that’ll try and take opportunities when not protecting Ewan.
• IR: Diet Coke – a zippy caffeine hit, always in and around the top three.

Movistar

• SR: Marc Soler, finally emerges from the shadow of the infamous ‘trident’.
• MM: Big Mig Indurain won five Tours in a row when this team was called Banesto. That was in the ‘90s.
• RS: Internecine leadership squabbles. Dominate the team classification.
• IR: Bitter Kas – very popular in Spain but not appreciated much elsewhere, very bitter aftertaste.

Team Arkea Samsic

• SR: Somehow, inexplicably, Nairo Quintana…
• MM: 2020’s odd couple pairing of flatland bodyguard Brit, Conor Swift, and diminutive Colombian climber, Quintana, really warmed the heart. Beyond that, there aren’t many memories to choose from.
• RS: Top names like Warren Barguil and Quintana might be able to deliver a result in the mountains. It’ll be interesting to see if Nacer Bouhanni is selected given his travails this year.
• IR: Fanta Lemon – ignore at your peril, it low-key slaps but never gets the plaudits.

Team BikeExchange

• SR: Simon Yates.
• MM: Back when the Aussie franchise was known as Orica, they got their team bus stuck under a finish gantry. Also that time an inflatable kite fell on Adam Yates.
• RS: We’re led to believe Simon Yates will be stage hunting as he prepares for the Olympics, while Michael Matthews might have a shout at the green jersey.
• IR: A good old 99 ice cream – tasty, but can be a bit flaky.

Team DSM

• SR: Romain Bardet, but they have a real gaggle of strongmen to pick from.
• MM: Had a purple patch in 2013 and 2014 when Marcel Kittel won eight stages of Le Tour, including two wins on the Champs Elysees.
• RS: One of the standout teams of 2020 with their voracious attacking style, which garnered eight podiums, of which three were stage wins.
• IR: McFlurry – one pot, but filled with many swirling and delicious flavours.

Team TotalEnergies

• SR: Anthony Turgis, a fierce competitor who could thrive on the toughest classics-style days.
• MM: Way back when they were known as Europcar, Thomas Voeckler’s unbelievable ten-day stint in the maillot jaune in 2011 sent France into raptures. It’s never got as good since.
• RS: Put a man in the breakaway, erry damn day. Change the kit right before the race and annoy some print journalists.
• IR: Irn Bru – a little bit nostalgic, and passionately loved by its devotees.

Team Qhubeka Assos

• SR: Have been very coy about exactly who they’re sending, but Fabio Aru is on their team roster and who could forget his iconic, short-lived surprise attacks of yesteryear?
• MM: Hard to look past Steve Cummings on Mandela Day in 2015. Pure goosebumps, the very best of sport.
• RS: Operating on a fraction of the other WorldTeams’ budgets, they continuously manage to deliver the results.
• IR: Mini Milk – they don’t cost much and everybody loves ‘em.

Trek-Segafredo

• SR: Vincenzo Nibali, one of four past-winners of Le Tour on the start list.
• MM: After John Degenkolb’s win on the Roubaix stage in 2018 there weren’t many dry eyes in the house.
• RS: After a magical year in which Richie Porte rode to the podium, the team is now Porte-less – and looking down the barrel of a threadbare month in France unless they can magic up some reduced-bunch finishes for Stuyven & Theuns.
• IR: Amaretto & Coke – classic American, with a big slug of Italian flavour.

UAE Team Emirates

• SR: Tadej Pogačar, the champ.
• MM: Oh I don’t know, how about winning the Tour de France?
• RS: Last year Pogačar kinda snuck under the radar a little, but he won’t get the chance to do that twice. They’ve spent big to bolster their Tour squad.
• IR: San Pellegrino Aranciata flavour – more money than they know what to do with.