Welcome to Escape Collective. Please select your language.
Please note that this is an automated translation and it will not be perfect. All articles have been written in English and if anything appears to not make sense, please double check in English.
Pro cyclists in civilian clothing are a rare public sighting. For most of the year, when they’re at or around bike races, their attire is thus: heavily-branded team kit, and heavily-branded casualwear. There are team tracksuits, team t-shirts, team jackets, team hats; some teams have team denim and team sneakers. And that’s fine! There is a place for uniform, both from a sponsor-representation perspective and also to cut down on the mental exertion of choosing clothes every day. But it does mean that, without signifiers of personal flair and fashion, these athletes are a little … unknowable.
Which makes the Tour de France route presentation especially exciting: these grown adults get to dress themselves for once, revealing new complexities to their character.
Over the years, there have been some standout outfits – we’re talking Jonas Vingegaard in a turtleneck. Mathieu Burgaudeau in a turtleneck. Romain Bardet in a turtleneck. Almost certainly some other French dudes in turtlenecks (Is this a national fascination/sickness? Does it reveal something meaningful about Gallic neck aversion, and by extension explain why their GC riders have repeatedly shown themselves to be unable to go for the jugular?)
But for all of those hidden throats, there has also been a long track record of riders letting their freak flags fly – the Tadej Pogačars of the world in his little jaunty suspenders, Mark Cavendish in athleisure wear, Golden Greg van Avermaet in his loosely draped scarf. All these outfits, telling us a little more about the person wearing them.
One from the archives (2016) featuring L-R: Schoolboy Cav, grumpy Greg, and Tony Martin watching cat videos on YouTube.
Of course we’re interested in the details of the 2025 Tour de France routes: we are a cycling publication, after all. But we are also interested in the people who will be riding those routes, especially if they’re wearing a cummerbund to a cycling function on a Tuesday morning.
(You’ll note that I’m just focusing on the fellas here. Nothing good can come of men passing any comment on the appearance of women they don’t know [and even, usually, ones they do], other than to say here that these are a group of incredible athletes and I like how colourful Neve Bradbury’s top is. I will also say that our photographers on the ground dropped the ball pretty hard this year, so I have had to rely on screen-captures from the ASO’s grainy media-player. These are the sacrifices we make for #content 🫠)
False. That is a jaunty yellow strip of fabric on a chair. Here’s Christian Prudhomme wearing a standard suit like a standard man. For once he is looking down the barrel of the camera. Well done, Christian. Oh look, it’s the Smelly King (centre)! He is an ambassador for the Pau region – which he is only approximately pointing to – and he hangs around the Tour de France start village for the entire month of July, rotating between three kingly outfits that get increasingly pungent as the month goes on. This is the yellow one, which I can confirm – having spoken to him at length – is his personal favourite. Although he stays in character as King Henri IV during conversations, he has also let slip that he is actually an actor called Bernard and that his family think his job is very funny (as do we).
Always good to see him, anyway. His moustache has taken a surprising evolution since July. It’s only Biniam Girmay in a lovely slim-fitting charcoal suit standing in front of a wall. Many friends of the press corps in the auditorium here, as well as a pensive-looking Yoann Offredo (he is no friend of ours. No particular reason). Visma-Lease a Bike superbrain Richard Plugge and Grischa Niermann looking pleased about something or other. [sotto voce] “You’re a fucking motorbike, Richard.”OK, so now we’re up to the grainy screenshots. Hooray! Here’s Expensive Potato Enthusiast (and lovely shy man) Mathieu Burgaudeau, wearing a suit instead of a turtleneck and looking bashful about it. He has also regrown his Alaphilippe goatee since last time I saw him. You know, just in case you’re keeping tabs on that.Sandy Dujardin is chuffed in paisley.Fabian Grellier showcasing the dark clothes up top, white sneakers below which seems to be a recurring theme of this year’s crop of fellas.Poor Jonas Abrahamsen was the first of four Uno X riders to make an appearance, but didn’t get announced by the MC so just sort of wandered bashfully across the stage, looking like he was wondering whether it was worth the flight from Norway.Tobias Halland Johanessen in a nice but boring suit with some white sneakers. Hot on his heels is …… Valentin Madouas! Looks a little bit less like a doom metal fan now he’s cut his hair short, but still has a slightly dazed/stoned demeanour even after a season topped by an Olympic silver medal. Has opted for the casual/formal staple of a plain white t-shirt under a suit jacket. This is not the last time such an outfit will surface today. Hugo Page, a perfectly generic man.Big Norwegian man Søren Wærenskjold has dressed up in a suit, while also dressing down courtesy of a rumpled shirt daringly unbuttoned almost to the nipple. One senses this is not the most comfortable terrain for him fashion-wise. On the plus side, he’s about to go in for an overly-familiar hug of the announcer, Marc Chavet.A bespectacled Sam Bennett, wearing an AG2R-Decathlon jacket and shirt. Very handsome. Very brand-compliant.A casual Magnus Cort, sans blue moustache. Big ‘bouncer calling the boys back to check their ID’ energy.Alexander Kristoff has gone for a big paisley overshirt, which – just quietly – I am a big fan of. The rest of the outfit, however, seems virtually guaranteed to end up with tomato sauce smeared all over it by one of his four excitable sons. Victor Lafay is also in matching AG2R formalwear, and still looks like he’s been teleported in from the 13th century …… unlike Dylan Groenewegen, who is a bit sniffly but has committed admirably to his ‘Amsterdam Fuckboi’ schtick. Marc Chavet went for a call and response of Anthony Turgis‘ name, only nobody really seemed to shout the ‘Turgis’ back at him. Turgis looked pretty sharp in his green suit, though. Swings and roundabouts!Oh, just Kevin Vauquelin, another turtlenecked Frenchman. Mark Cavendish! In a Richard Mille watch with a manbag! There was a great few seconds where they both wanted to hold the mic. Yes, it looks like Cav’s earnestly singing something tender. Yes, I reckon he’s got a gorgeous tenor voice. Nessun Dorma, probably. And with that, it was onto the big route reveal.
