Completing last year’s podium was Remco Evenepoel, who achieved an impressive third place on his race debut.

Belgium’s double Olympic champion, who won road race and time trial golds at Paris 2024, carries Soudal-QuickStep’s hopes following a fourth-place finish at the Dauphine, but he has yet to hit his very best form since suffering multiple injuries in an accident while on a training ride in December.

And, while he demonstrated his time trial abilities in winning stage four, the former Vuelta a Espana winner finished more than four minutes behind Pogacar overall.

The 25-year-old was pipped to the podium there by Florian Lipowitz of Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, who are expected to prioritise Primoz Roglic in their hunt for a general classification podium place.

The team’s head of performance Dan Lorang admitted to cycling website Velo, external this month that the rider’s fellow Slovenian Pogacar “is one level above”, adding: “We have to accept that’s how it is, and we cannot negotiate it.”

Nevertheless, Roglic, left devastated when compatriot Pogacar snatched Tour de France glory from him on the penultimate stage in 2020, has excellent Grand Tour pedigree as a five-time winner of cycling’s multi-week races (four Vuelta a Espana titles and one Giro d’Italia victory).

But after winning the Volta a Catalunya in March, Roglic crashed out of this year’s Giro and it remains to be seen whether the 35-year-old can recover in time to compete with the best at the Tour.

Should he struggle, the team could decide to unleash exciting 24-year-old German Lipowitz, who has also placed second overall at Paris-Nice and fourth at the Tour of the Basque Country in 2025.