Tadej Pogacar has won four of the six Tours de France he has contested
Pogacar finished as runner-up to Jonas Vingegaard in the other two
Vingegaard attempting to become only fourth man to hold all three Grand Tour titles at same time
Recommended bets: Tadej Pogacar to win five or more stages @ 7/10 with LiveScore Bet Juan Ayuso to win young rider classification @ 4/1 with LiveScore Bet
The 113th edition of cycling's biggest and most famous race, the Tour de France, starts on Saturday, with the best cast in many a year set to descend on Barcelona.
The man everyone has to beat is four-time champion Tadej Pogacar, whose domination of the sport shows no sign of abating, with him having crossed the line first in 11 of his 16 racedays so far this year.
Five-star Pogacar to extend Tour dominance
There is not a sportsman or woman on the planet more dominant than Pogacar right now.
The superstar Slovenian has carried all before him on every terrain and in one-day races or three-week Grand Tours.
This year alone Pogacar has won three Monuments – Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege – as well as the Tour of Romandie and Tour de Suisse.
Worryingly for the rest of the riders on the start list for this year's Tour de France, Pogacar reckons he is better than ever and has the carrot of becoming only the fifth man in history to win five Tour titles.
Pogacar finished almost four and a half minutes ahead of great rival Jonas Vingegaard in 2024 and extended his advantage over the Dane to more than six minutes last year.
Perhaps crucially, he will be fresher than Vingegaard, who won May's Giro d'Italia and has raced almost twice as much as Pogacar this year.
Pogacar showed two years ago that the Giro-Tour double is doable and Vingegaard, who completed the Grand Tour set with his victory in Italy, can become only the fourth man to hold all of cycling's biggest stage race titles with a third Tour triumph.
But, in truth, the yellow jersey is at the mercy of Pogacar, who is never satisfied with simply accumulating time while others take the glory on stages.
Pogacar is a born winner and, while at 3/10 with LiveScore Bet to win the General Classification he is clearly no kind of punting proposition, the 7/10 that he wins at least five stages looks more enticing.
The Slovene won four stages and finished second four times last year, while he crossed the line first six times en route to winning the 2024 Tour, to go with six during his sole Giro victory earlier that year.
Back Tadej Pogacar to win five or more stages at 7/10 with LiveScore Bet
Ayuso value in intriguing young riders battle
There has not been a French winner of the Tour since Bernard Hinault in 1985, but 19-year-old Paul Seixas has got the home population dreaming.
Seixas has burst on to the scene this season and threatened to give Pogacar a run for his money at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, where he eventually finished second.
The teenager won April's Tour of the Basque Country, but, while obviously a mercurial talent, a six-stage race in northern Spain in April is far removed from the three-week war of attrition that is the Tour de France.
Seixas is therefore easy to pass over as a short-priced favourite in an intriguing young riders classification, in which Juan Ayuso could be the man to focus on.
Ayuso looks much more at home with Lidl-Trek, having left Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates at the end of last year and the Spaniard beat Seixas at the Tour of the Algarve in the spring.
Third place to Isaac del Toro, another contender for the white jersey, at June's Tour Auvergne - Rhone-Alpes was a promising display from Ayuso, who was second to the Mexican talent on the final two mountain stages.
Del Toro almost won the Giro last year despite going in as Ayuso's understudy and has to be respected, but he will be an important lieutenant for Pogacar in the mountains, whereas Ayuso, who is double the price of Del Toro, has an entire team pulling for him.
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