Rating every Tour de France team's performance – The good, the great and the downright disappointing

The Tour de France is done, we've heard from all the protagonists, we've made our conclusions, and we've dissected plenty of what happened – but we're not quite finished yet.

With all 21 stages wrapped up, it's time to look at each team one by one, and review exactly how their Tour went. What did they achieve? Did they meet their stated aims? How can they improve for next year?

Of course, there are teams we've heard tons about, the ones who won stages and jerseys, but of the 23 teams that lined up at this year's Tour de France, a surprising number are coming away with not all that much to talk about.

For some, modest achievements matched their modest ambitions, but for others, the Tour fell dramatically short of what they, their riders, and their sponsors would have been hoping for. Of course, there are a couple of overachievers too, who had an even better race than they could have hoped for.

Here, we've ranked the teams according to the teams classification – which in itself tells you something about their performance, though not everything – and rated exactly how they performed this July.

Lidl-Trek

• One-word review: Accomplished
• Achievements: Green jersey, a stage win, sixth and seventh on GC, team classification
• Room to improve: They’ll surely be aiming for a future GC podium with Juan Ayuso

Aside from UAE, that have the best rider in history and the strongest, best-funded support squad in history at their disposal, few other teams in the peloton can be as happy with their lot as Lidl-Trek. The German team enjoyed a near-perfect three weeks in France.

Mads Pedersen wasn’t the best sprinter of the Tour, but the green jersey isn’t just about sprinting, and once he got hold of it, he never looked like giving it up. He took a memorable breakaway stage win, to boot, and Lidl also beat UAE for the team prize. Juan Ayuso was in contention for white and the podium at one point, and the only real imperfection in the team’s campaign is that he and Mattias Skjelmose might’ve finished a place or two higher in the final GC.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG

• One-word review: Peerless
• Achievements: Overall victory, six stage wins, third overall and youth classification
• Room to improve: A GC one-two? The team classification? Pogačar probably could’ve won a few more stages…

The Tour de France went as expected for UAE Team Emirates-XRG. As with almost every race Tadej Pogačar starts these days, the result was a basically foregone conclusion. The Slovenian, more and more likely the best rider in history, won five stages (and could’ve won more), set the Alpe d’Huez record, and finished in Paris with a chasm of time separating himself and second place – and it would’ve been the same whether Jonas Vingegaard had crashed out or not.

His teammate, Isaac del Toro, held off a challenge from Paul Seixas to grab third overall and the white jersey in addition to that early stage win in Barcelona. There really wasn’t much else the team could’ve done better, even if this dominant performance was more or less only what was expected of them to begin with.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe

• One-word review: Dreamland
• Achievements: Second on GC and two stage wins with Remco Evenepoel
• Room to improve: It really isn’t going to get much better for Evenepoel when Tadej Pogačar is around

After finishing second in Paris, Remco Evenepoel said, "I've shown I deserve to dream", and the Belgian is rightfully in dreamland after a Tour where he finished second and took two stage victories. It’s as good a Tour outcome as he could’ve hoped for before starting in Barcelona.

A battle for second against Jonas Vingegaard would’ve been intriguing, but the Belgian got the better of everyone remaining in the Tour’s final week, barring Pogačar, of course (though he did beat him in the time trial and on the Plateau de Solaison).

Evenepoel’s great success aside, Red Bull will look back at Florian Lipowitz’s stage 16 crash and abandon with regret. The German was in the podium mix at the time, and who knows whether he might’ve overhauled Paul Seixas and Isaac del Toro for third had he stayed upright and in the race.

Decathlon CMA CGM

• One-word review: Prodigious
• Achievements: Fourth on GC with Paul Seixas, stage win with Olav Kooij
• Room to improve: A Seixas stage win wouldn’t have gone amiss, but you can’t ask for much more from your teenage leader

Few riders have elicited such excitement on their Tour de France debut as 19-year-old Paul Seixas, and the great hope of French cycling more than delivered with a fourth-place finish in Paris. Any wild hopes that he may already be able to challenge Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard were misplaced, but a final placing just two minutes off the podium and white jersey are a tremendous outcome.

Amid the Seixas-mania, it’s perhaps easy to forget that the team won a stage early on as Olav Kooij sprinted to success in Pau on his own Tour debut. Four more podium finishes, including two second places, saw him cement himself as the second-best sprinter of July. Elsewhere, the support squad – headed up by Nicolas Prodhomme (16th on GC), Tiesj Benoot (17th), and Matthew Riccitello (24th) – were an impressive force on multiple terrains.

Visma-Lease a Bike

• One-word review: Unlucky
• Achievements: A TTT stage win, 13th and 14th on GC
• Room to improve: It’s not something that can be controlled, but you have to stay upright to stay on the podium

Visma-Lease a Bike understandably put all their eggs in Jonas Vingegaard’s basket this summer, and their ambitions vaporised in seconds once their leader hit the deck on stage 15. It was a cruel end to his Tour, and the team tried to refocus on stage wins, but chances at that point were few and far between.

Realistically, Vingegaard was only going to finish a distant second this July, but hey, that’s still better than Visma’s final result. They can at least look back on that opening day TTT victory, though they couldn’t add another after Vingegaard’s abandon, despite the best efforts of Sepp Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson. Were they missing a Plan B, like the injured Wout van Aert and Christophe Laporte? Perhaps.

EF Education-EasyPost

• One-word review: Jaguar
• Achievements: Two stage wins, mountain classification, eighth on GC, super combativity prize with Richard Carapaz
• Room to improve: A bit more breakaway luck from a rider not named Richard Carapaz

Cycling may be a team sport, but EF Education-EasyPost have their leader, El Jaguar de Tulcan, Richard Carapaz, to thank for their successful three weeks in France. The Ecuadorian climber lit up the final week of the race to soar to two stage wins and the polka dot jersey. His efforts also took him from 18th to eighth in the final standings and a second super combativity prize in three years.

There weren’t any big results from elsewhere, though it wasn’t for lack of trying. Alex Baudin (seven days in the break) and Ben Healy (six) were breakaway fixtures, while Michael Valgren, Sean Quinn, and Georg Steinhauser were also in the move on multiple stages. Baudin’s fourth place was the best result, while Healy wasn’t at his swashbuckling best.

Netcompany Ineos

• One-word review: Disappointing
• Achievements: Second in the TTT, 20th on GC with Egan Bernal
• Room to improve: Well, everywhere

Netcompany Ineos, once invincible at the Tour, continued their Ratcliffe era of disappointment with a relatively anonymous display despite their big budget and a team full of big names.

They came armed with three possible GC options, with former winner Egan Bernal – at one point a top-10 challenger, fading to a team-best 20th in the final week – Thymen Arensman and Kévin Vauquelin, but none particularly delivered, with the Dutchman not quite able to repeat his highs from last year and win a stage to save the team in the final week. There was little to shout about elsewhere, either, as Filippo Ganna scored the team’s best result on day one with second in the team time trial, though Josh Tarling did have some impressive breakaway rides.

Bahrain Victorious

• One-word review: Flourishing
• Achievements: Fifth on GC and six top-10 placings with Lenny Martinez
• Room to improve: A stage win would’ve made it a perfect race, whether from Martinez or his quieter teammates

The French public may not have witnessed a home stage winner this year, but they can be very pleased with their rider’s GC efforts as Lenny Martinez joined Paul Seixas and Jordan Jegat in the top 10. Bahrain’s 23-year-old climber Martinez improved as the race went on, eventually making the break on L’Alpe d’Huez and working his way into the top five.

Martinez was close to joining Hinault, Rolland, Riblon, and Pinot as a French stage winner on the Tour’s most famous mountain, too, only for the record-shattering Tadej Pogačar to sweep past in the final kilometre and triumph.

Elsewhere, Antonio Tiberi and Phil Bauhaus toiled in anonymity (the Italian’s lack of presence was strange after his strong start to the year), and Damiano Caruso enjoyed his last-ever Tour with a couple of days in the break. Matej Mohorič was in a few breakaways, too, but he was far from his attacking, lip-zipping best. Still, with Martinez flying high on GC, Bahrain’s Tour was a success.

TotalEnergies

• One-word review: Overcoming
• Achievements: 10th on GC with Jordan Jegat
• Room to improve: They won a stage with Anthony Turgis two years ago, and another wouldn’t have gone amiss as they search for a new title sponsor

It’s hard to fault TotalEnergies’ Tour de France campaign after the all-French squad, with one of the smallest budgets in the race, overcame the odds to land a GC top 10 with Jordan Jegat. The 27-year-old Frenchman rode consistently throughout July, gaining time in breaks and improving in the Tour’s final week, and so repeated his 2025 result.

The team only has two wins this season, and another one would’ve certainly been welcome as they search for a new sponsor for next season as TotalEnergies depart. Jegat’s top 10 was achieved quietly, with seventh on the road to Belfort his best result. He and 2024 stage winner Anthony Turgis were their only real shots at success there, with the latter coming away with four top-10 placings.

Pinarello-Q36.5

• One-word review: Singular
• Achievements: Ninth on GC and two stage third-places with Tom Pidcock
• Room to improve: It wasn’t a bad Tour by any means, but a stage win would’ve made it an unqualified success

Pinarello-Q36.5 owes much of where they are right now to Tom Pidcock's decision to make the switch from Ineos ahead of last season. This year’s Tour didn’t do much to dispel the notion that, at the highest level, they’re a one-man team as Pidcock basically did it all for them in France.

The Briton’s ninth place is his best Tour GC result, though it didn’t match up to his Vuelta podium from last season. He also collected four top-10 placings along the way, including third places in Ussel and Belfort. Fred Wright’s effort off the front on the Montmartre in Paris was a brief reminder that the team had seven other riders at this race, too.

Movistar

• One-word review: Stalled
• Achievements: Four top-10 placings
• Room to improve: Much like Visma-Lease a Bike, avoid your leader crashing out or falling ill if you can. And come with a better Plan B in case he does

The Spanish squad lined up for their umpteenth Tour de France with hopes of supporting Belgian racer Cian Uijtdebroeks to a high GC placing. Unfortunately, Movistar’s days of the trident of success (think Valverde, Quintana, Landa) are long gone, and so there didn’t seem to be much in the way of a Plan B once Uijtdebroeks left the race with a fever and stomach problems on stage 6.

They attempted to recalibrate, sending the likes of Javier Romo, Pablo Castrillo, and Raúl García Pierna in breakaways. That strategy brought modest results in the form of a handful of top 10s, but that, plus 11th place in the team classification they won five times in recent history, isn’t much to shout about.

Tudor

• One-word review: Decent
• Achievements: 11th on GC with Yannis Voisard, three top-10 placings with Rick Pluimers
• Room to improve: Forget declining stars and invest their leadership budget more wisely in future

The headline names on Tudor’s Tour de France team were Julian Alaphilippe and Marc Hirschi. Neither lived up to the billing, though nobody really expected them to – Alaphilippe has declined with age, falling off a cliff after his 2021 Worlds win, while Hirschi’s abilities seem to have deserted him since leaving UAE.

Largely unknown Swiss racer Yannis Voisard wasn’t particularly visible in France, and Zubeldia’d his way to 11th on the GC come Paris, while Rick Pluimers scored a handful of bunch sprint top 10s. Australian climber Michael Storer wasn’t at his best, but he had just raced to seventh at the Giro d’Italia, so his performance does have an explanation.

Uno-X Mobility

• One-word review: Efficient
• Achievements: Stage win with Søren Wærenskjold, 12th on GC with Tobias Halland Johannessen
• Room to improve: Johannessen didn’t live up to his 2025 GC challenge, which was slightly disappointing

A year from their first stage win at their second Tour de France outing, Scandi squad Uno-X Mobility once again efficiently achieved what they set out to, scoring another stage win and delivering a solid GC result. Søren Wærenskjold was the class of the field in Nevers, and the Norwegian – not often thought of among the very fastest sprinters – beat the best of the best to score his team’s second Tour stage win in as many years.

2025 stage winner Jonas Abrahamsen was quieter this time around, with one breakaway effort his race highlight. Magnus Cort also made three breaks. But, Wærenskjold aside, the team’s highlight was Tobias Halland Johannessen, even if he didn’t replicate last July’s GC sixth place. Still 12th place after five breakaways, six top 10s and a second place behind Van der Poel in Ussel is nothing to sniff at.

Groupama-FDJ United

• One-word review: Lacklustre
• Achievements: Seven top-10 placings
• Room to improve: They need a better GC rider or a top-five sprinter, as there just aren't enough punchy stages for Grégoire these days

There are a few teams on this list that we really had to rack our brains to remember what they even did in this race, and Groupama unfortunately falls into this category. The French team has sadly been on the decline at their home race for some time now, unable to match the big budgets and ambitions of other WorldTour teams or their compatriots Decathlon, and this year was particularly lacklustre.

Clément Russo was solid in the sprints with a handful of top 10s, and Romain Grégoire got stuck in a few times, particularly doing well on stage 2. Guillaume Martin was nowhere, and top 10s seemed to be their limit, but that's not really the kind of performance that cuts through all that much. This Tour certainly wasn't a failure, and perhaps it was the upper limit of their abilities, but it wasn't a notable success, either.

Soudal-QuickStep

• One-word review: Swift
• Achievements: Three stage wins with Tim Merlier
• Room to improve: Merlier and Valentin Paret-Peintre couldn’t match others in the battles for green and polka dots

He may not have come away with the green jersey, but there’s little doubt that Tim Merlier was the best sprinter of this year’s Tour de France. Perhaps only his own teammate Paul Magnier can rival him for best sprinter of the year, and with the team racking up six sprint wins across the Giro and Tour, they’re once again the pre-eminent sprint force in the world.

Merlier was in the battle for green before fading away, while the team’s hopes for the polka dot jersey with Valentin Paret-Peintre faded in the final five mountains of the race as Richard Carapaz and Tadej Pogačar sped off up the road.

Elsewhere, Ilan Van Wilder was in with a shout of a GC top 10 heading into the Alps. The Belgian climber slid away on L’Alpe d’Huez, however, and he was unlucky to crash out of the race on the penultimate stage.

Jayco-AlUla

• One-word review: Focussed
• Achievements: A stage win with Schmid, multiple top 10s
• Room to improve: More of a GC focus or a win in the mountains could take their Tour from good to great

Jayco AlUla went into this Tour wanting to win stages, and in a race where a few teams won most of the stages, they came home with a win, so there's not much to complain about, in all honesty. Sure, you could argue that they didn't do much on GC, but that wasn't really their aim, with Ben O'Connor choosing the Giro as his overall aim this year.

Instead, they had Mauro Schmid emerge as one of the strongest riders in the whole race, on the attack multiple times and winning a stage, Pascal Ackermann up there in the sprints, and Michael Matthews delivering some top-10s too. O'Connor's results don't look like much on paper, but he was in four different breakaways, and Luke Plapp was key to setting up the team's best results. Another GC option or a mountains win would have been nice, but the Australian team had a good three weeks.

XDS-Astana

• One-word review: Fine
• Achievements: Two second-place finishes with Max Kanter and Harold Tejada
• Room to improve: We would have liked to have seen XDS-Astana try to take more opportunities in breakaways

After the highs of the Giro d’Italia, where they wore pink and won multiple stages, XDS-Astana's Tour was a little bit of a disappointment, to be honest. Perhaps it was a return to usual form, but after Italy it felt like a decline.

Max Kanter was good in the sprints, that's for sure, but Harold Tejada arguably could have delivered more than one second place from a break, along with Sergio Higuita. Aaron Gate had a good crack at his first Tour, but a lot of their other riders didn't do much, so it wasn't a vintage race for the team. At least they'll always have the Giro.

Caja Rural-Seguros RGA

• One-word review: Fulfilling
• Achievements: Ninth on one stage with Fernando Gaviria and a day in polka dots with Alex Molenaar
• Room to improve: Not a lot – Caja Rural did what was expected of them and what they were capable of

In their Tour de France debut, I'd say Caja Rural-Seguros RGA fulfilled their obligation as a wildcard team pretty perfectly. They wore a distinct jersey in the opening days with Alex Molenaar's efforts to claim the polka dot jersey; they got in plenty of breaks, and they even had a go in the sprints with Fernando Gaviria.

The Colombian crashing out obviously limited their results in that region, and ultimately he's not really at the level these days to win a stage, but when you're Caja Rural and a wildcard team, the expectations on you are lower, and the Spanish squad certainly met them. They should end their debut Tour happy.

Lotto Intermarché

• One-word review: Unexpected
• Achievements: Five top-10 placings for Huub Artz and Lennert Van Eetvelt
• Room to improve: Arguably, Lotto should have left Arnaud De Lie at home and come into this race with a clearer strategy for their other riders, rather than having to readapt on the fly

Like at the Giro d'Italia, Lotto-Intermarché had a pretty rubbish start to the race when Arnaud De Lie had to pull out of yet another Grand Tour on stage 3, but boy did they turn it around. They didn't win a stage, but they became fan favourites with underdog attacks from Baptiste Veistroffer and Liam Slock, who dutifully kept the race alive on some otherwise pretty boring days, and Huub Artz was something of a revelation with his strength in sprints, breaks and TTs.

He showed that he can basically do it all, and that his recent TT title was far from a fluke. Lennert Van Eetvelt didn't really deliver anything to write home about on the GC, but Lotto can go home from this race knowing that they left their mark and have some really motivated, exciting riders in their midst.

Alpecin-Premier Tech

• One-word review: Duopoly
• Achievements: Three stage wins with Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel
• Room to improve: More stage wins and green for Philipsen; Debruyne’s abandon robbed them of a solid performer in the mountains

Alpecin are one of several teams whose position on this list doesn't really reflect their performance – just because they didn't have riders ranking highly overall for the teams classification does not mean they were in the lower-performing half of teams.

Far from it. Alpecin started this race with some frustrations as Mathieu van der Poel couldn't get himself in contention for an early yellow jersey and Jasper Philipsen struggled in the early sprints, but things turned with Van der Poel winning a stage from the break, Philipsen getting his win and then it was capped off with arguably the best result yet: Van der Poel leading home a thrilling 1-2 on the Champs-Elysées on Sunday.

Perhaps the only thing that would have made their Tour better – aside from another win or two and green for Philipsen, but that's a bigger issue – would be if Ramses Debruyne hadn't had to abandon. The 23-year-old climber was really impressing, and we would have loved to see how far he could go.

Cofidis

• One-word review: Forgettable
• Achievements: Four top-10 placings for underrated Milan Fretin
• Room to improve: Find a way to take Fretin up a step and into the upper echelon of sprinters

Cofidis came to this race with most of their eggs in the basket of sprinter Milan Fretin, and whilst he did well in the sprints, sprinting is a strange discipline where we quite quickly forget everyone except the winner, so his string of top-fives actually didn't make for a particularly memorable race for Cofidis, even if it may be a success internally. Alex Kirsch was active in breaks, but riders like Alex Aranburu, Benjamin Thomas and Ion Izagirre arguably underdelivered for the French squad.

NSN

• One-word review: Solid
• Achievements: Consistently top sprint results for Girmay, two fourth places for Frigo and Askey
• Room to improve: Turn breakaway aggression into a top result, perhaps have one rider focusing on GC

It was actually quite surprising to see NSN so far down the final team rankings, because it felt like they were visible and active all race – the lack of GC riders hurts their team classification standings, but doesn't reflect their efforts accurately. The team didn't get a stage win, but raced really well, not just in the expected way of setting up Biniam Girmay in the sprints, but George Bennet and Marco Frigo were really impressive on the harder stages, too, and the colourful NSN jerseys were always visible on the breakaway stages.

Picnic-PostNL

• One-word review: Invisible
• Achievements: Fifth on one sprint stage with Pavel Bittner
• Room to improve: Every area could improve for Picnic PostNL, but fundamentally a lot of it comes down to budget and riders, which is not something the current roster could do much about

Can you actually remember anything Picnic-PostNL did during this Tour de France? I remember seeing Warren Barguil cross the line with Julian Alaphilippe on one stage, and Pavel Bittner crashing on stage 21, and that's about it.

The Czech rider's fifth place on stage 8 was their best result, and they only managed to place a rider in the top 20 on three other occasions. We know they haven't had a great year, but the team seems to be in a downward spiral right now, with motivation low among their riders. They need a miracle to turn this season around.