Five-time Tour de France champion Miguel Indurain warned that breakthrough French star Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) could be able to challenge for the race, although Indurain remained cautious about when exactly that might happen.
Speaking after a homage to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of his 1996 Olympic Games gold medal in Atlanta in the elite men's time trial, Indurain told reporters about the 19-year-old Frenchman: "He's got the legs to go for a Tour."
However, Indurain did not specify whether he meant the 2026 Tour or later in the young rider's pro career. Induráin himself first raced in the Tour de France in 1985, aged 20, but he did not win a Tour until 1991 when he was 27.
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"He's a bit young to be fighting for a Grand Tour," said Induráin, who held the record as the youngest-ever leader of the Vuelta a España at 20, "but that's sport for you.
"Young riders are coming on more and more quickly. He'll have all of France rooting for him. Let's see how he handles that pressure. We'll see, but he's got the legs to go for a Tour."
Indurain acknowledged that Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was the standout favourite to join himself, Anquetil, Hinault and Merckx as five-time Tour winners, although Indurain was, and would remain, the only rider to have won five Tours in succession, from 1991 to 1995.
"His morale is really strong and his team's morale is, too," Induráin insisted. "These days, in sport, everybody's at the same level physically. What changes things is who's got the best morale and who's feeling most at ease. You can tell that Pogačar enjoys what he does.
"However, he's got to get through the Tour. There are always ambushes, setbacks, difficult situations. His rivals will be waiting to catch him out, although in difficult situations, he's been able to solve things very well.
"He's courageous, aggressive, getting a great palmares which could include the fifth this year," Indurain told MARCA. "Each year, though, it's going to be a bit harder for him, because there are younger riders coming through all the time."
Enter Juan Ayuso
One of those younger riders, at least hypothetically, would be Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), currently Spain's biggest hope to return to the podium of the Tour de France for the first time since 2015.
"Changing teams always unsettles you a little, and he's had something of a complicated year. Let's see if, in terms of morale above all, he's got that self-confidence he needs."
The days of the enormous Tour de France time trials of the 1990s of 60 kilometres or more when Indurain was ruling the roost in the contra-relojs have long since passed into race history. Albeit with an occasional spike in the distances, the general trend is for them to be increasingly shorter, something Indurain says he understands in terms of social media but regrets all the same.
."Time trialling is for cycling fans, but TV viewing figures are always what count, and these days, a lot of viewers like the spectacular [non-TT] stages," Indurain pointed out.
"Time trials still count for something, but less and less so as they keep getting shorter. And it's the audience viewing shares that really count."
Of the three opening Tour stages in Catalunya, Indurain said he had not studied the route in detail, but perhaps predictably for a former time trial expert, he opted for stage 1's TTT as the most challenging and important.
"Stage 2 up from Tarragona to Barcelona will be tricky with so many small climbs and the risk of wind off the coast, while the Pyrenees likely won't be too hard, coming so soon in the race.
"But a stage 1 TTT is always going to be tough, you've got to look after your leader and make sure he doesn't lose time and above all it's the first day of the race," Indurain said. "That's going to be difficult."
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