Blood, hope and a broken finger: Two weeks on the road with the Tour de France's relegation rivals

New York Times

6 days ago

Like European soccer and many other global sports, professional cycling has embraced relegation.
For just the second time in WorldTour history, the 2025 season will see two teams demoted. At the end of the last three-year cycle in 2022, Israel-Premier Tech and Lotto-Soudal were relegated to ProTeam status, replaced by Arkea-Samsic and Mathieu van der Poel's Alpecin-Deceuninck team.
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Relegation does not spell complete disaster for a team — teams outside the WorldTour can secure wild-card invites to the biggest races, including the Tour de France — with the top two ProTour teams (based on points scored) getting automatic invites to WorldTour races. Even so, sponsorship is harder to secure for teams outside the top flight, with the situation in the lower echelons of the WorldTour already difficult. The other complication for struggling teams is that riders with a WorldTour deal can terminate their contracts and become available for transfer should their team suffer demotion.
With the Tour de France supersized in the UCI's points weighting, the three-week race was always going to play a big role in dictating survival — not just for WorldTour status, but for the existence of teams themselves.
Picnic-PostNL's pre-race base is a Novotel by Lille airport. This is not any sort of down-at-heel story but typical for the sport — they're sharing the facilities with Red Bull-BORA-Hansgrohe and Decathlon-AG2R.
But what separates them from their roommates, whose budgets exceed their own by at least €10million (£8.7m; $11.6m) per year, is their status for next season. Red Bull and Decathlon are sixth and 10th. Picnic are 18th, just one place above relegation.
A burst of form pulled them out of the relegation zone, highlighted by Casper van Uden's surprise stage win at May's Giro d'Italia, but they are still only separated from 19th-place Cofidis by a toenail. Put simply, they need more points.
At this year's Tour, they are led by 22-year Scottish climber Oscar Onley and the veteran Breton Warren Barguil.
'We are not scared of relegation,' Barguil tells The Athletic. 'But it will be s**t, and I don't think we'd deserve it, because the entire team is working, and we're doing all the right things for cycling.'
'In Arkea (Barguil's former team, whose relegation is all but certain), we knew it was better to put, like, three guys in the top 10 and only go for the sprint with one guy. Here, you will never see this thing happening. We have one goal: it's to win the race. It's how cycling needs to be.'
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Barguil admits to checking the UCI standings obsessively, at one point speaking to his sporting directors to ask if they would be able to enter an extra race in Brittany to gather more points. 'They told me not to stress,' he laughs.
The team's coach, Matt Winston, is one of the men making those calls. Despite the relegation threat, he is insistent that the team will chase wins, rather than conservatively earning points by racking up high finishes.
'Let's say you offer me three stage wins, which would be 630 points, or 15 top 10s,' he argues. 'What are you going to take? I'm going to go for three stage wins every day of the week, because that's what people will remember us for. We have a lot of people doing the best they can to prepare the team — we want to repay that.'
In football, relegation comes with the spectre of job losses. Picnic's relegation rivals Astana have said they need to stay in the World Tour to survive.
'That's something you'll have to ask our big boss, but I know whatever happens there will be a team next year,' says Winston.
'Relegation has been in football for years, but it's still new to cycling, and scares a lot of people. But I enjoy the challenge. Would I rather be 11th place, playing at Stoke on a Tuesday night with no chance of a result? I'd rather be in the game and with something to think about.'
There is silence at the Intermarche-Wanty bus. Riders glide in, chains whirring, but that is the only noise as they prop their bikes against the bodywork and climb up the steps for a shower.
Biniam Girmay, the team's Eritrean sprinter, is second on the bus but sixth on the stage.
Intermarche-Wanty should be safe from relegation, sitting in 16th position, but Picnic and Astana's form has been far better than the Belgian squad's. Girmay, their star rider, has not won all season. His last victory came on stage 12 of last year's Tour, where he earned the green jersey.
He was involved in a mid-race spat with current green jersey wearer Jonathan Milan during stage two of this year's race.
'It's not every year that you start the Tour de France and win stages,' says Aike Visbeek, the team's upbeat sporting director. 'We have a second place, we have a sixth place, we were a bit unlucky yesterday, but we are working hard. That's what we've got to do all the way to Paris.
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'We are sprinting to win stages. We're safe from relegation, and our focus is on the green jersey.'
But the mood on the bus was still sombre. This had been an attritional day. Riding at the front to avoid crashes, two riders — Laurenz Rex and Georg Zimmermann — both went down, their absence harming Girmay in the final sprint.
The Eritrean was well-beaten by stage winner Tim Merlier, who pipped Milan by a wheel rim but is still just four points behind the latter in the race for a valuable green jersey.
Rex's knees and fingers wept blood as he showed his soigneur the damage the day had inflicted on him.
Astana have been one of the success stories of this season. They have earned the fourth-most points of any team this season, moving from relegation favourites to two places clear of the drop. But with the UCI ranking table still tight — they are still just 1,500 points ahead of Cofidis — their form cannot afford to drop.
Team owner Alexander Vinokourov has ratcheted up the pressure, telling his squad the team would cease to exist if they were relegated from the WorldTour. Publicly, that position has not changed and the results have not been coming at the Tour.
Stage seven, however, is an opportunity. They are targeting a good result with Sergio Higuita and Clement Champoussin, but both are outsiders amid the stellar field. This season, Astana have made a habit of winning where they shouldn't. Today would top the lot — almost every team in the peloton is hoping for a good result at Mur de Bretagne.
Mark Renshaw made his name as arguably the greatest lead-out man in the sport's history for sprinter Mark Cavendish, but has been at Astana as a directeur sportif since 2023.
'We've been really unlucky,' he explains. 'But on the flip side, we've had three top 10 results. It's not easy to win at the Tour de France, but we'll be happy if we start to get some riders on the podium.'
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But another relegation rival snags third place on the day. Onley's third for Picnic-PostNL is arguably the finest result of his young career. The 22-year-old finishes behind only Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, earning his team 110 points in the process.
Post-race, Pogačar complemented the Scotsman: 'He showed in the past already what a super engine he has, with a punchy kick. He's riding super well.'
The next morning, Onley was bashful at hearing that praise. 'I told my coach that I wanted to focus on my engine because naturally, I'm quite a punchy rider. We'll find out in the next couple of weeks how it's going.'
Relegation? 'Myself and the team are aware of it, and obviously you can't hide the fact that it's happening,' he replies. 'But it doesn't change anything. I'm still trying to get results.'
Cofidis hoped for better on Bastille Day. Cofidis hoped for better this season. They are one of the most historic squads in France, once home to Lance Armstrong, Frank Vandenbroucke and David Millar — but they are at risk of disappearing from the WorldTour.
Bastille Day is the day that French teams target. Cofidis always knew it was a long shot, but have decided to attack the day with three riders — Alex Aranburu, Ion Izagirre, and Dylan Teuns. Emanuel Buchmann will target the general classification.
But here they are at Châtel-Guyon — and all three riders but Teuns have been dropped by the main peloton. Eventually, Buchmann climbs back on. Teuns falls away.
'It's difficult to say why we're at this level,' says Gorka Gerrikagoitia. He grips the steering wheel tightly. 'We're doing all we can to improve, and for sure, it's not an ideal situation if we're not in the WorldTour. The sponsor in Cofidis will continue, but not at the same level, not at the same budget.'
By the end of the day, Buchmann has lost seven minutes.
The WorldTour is not necessarily the be all and end all in the cycling world. Uno-X were founded in 2016, and serve as a conduit for Scandinavian cycling talent — this year's Tour squad is comprised of eight Norwegians and Danish rider Magnus Cort, who has won stages in all three Grand Tours.
Since their foundation, Uno-X have pushed for WorldTour status, but as of now, they are a ProTour squad, 20th in the standings, and almost 2000 points and two places away from achieving automatic promotion. Though they have an outside chance of overtaking Cofidis, that would still only place them 19th.
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Back in 2016, the team's founders announced their squad in alphabetical order. 'Jonas Abrahamsen,' were their first words. 'Twenty-one years old.'
Nine years later, Abrahamsen is now 20 kilograms (44 pounds) heavier — and a Tour de France stage winner, outsprinting Swiss champions Mauro Schmid on the streets of Toulouse.
Their hordes of fans, all in replica jerseys, found propping up the bars of finish towns until the town's beer is finished, have their first moment of real celebration. It is the team's first Grand Tour stage win.
Uno-X earns 210 points. The mechanics are crying. Former green jersey Thor Hushovd, now a DS at the team, is crying. Abrahamsen is crying.
The Norwegian squad are a team on the up, with big dreams, but at this moment, which of the above means more?
Cofidis' Bryan Coquard needs energy to get through the Pyrenees. A sprinter, not a climber, each day in the mountains is a battle to avoid the time-cut and disqualification from the race. With Cofidis' specialist climbers struggling, picking up consistent sprint results may be their best chance of points.
The bunch is passing quickly on stage 12 as Coquard grabs the musette holding his lunch. The strap wraps around his fingers. He breaks his fourth finger.
That day, he battles to complete the stage in time. On the same day, having already had their bicycles stolen on the second day of the Tour, before they were later rediscovered, the women's squad suffers the same fate. Cofidis are a small team. They cannot afford a loss of at least €100,000, not with the looming threat of relegation.
💪 Despite two fractured fingers at the beginning of the stage, 🇫🇷 @bryancoquard hung in there and finished the stage bravely and on time!
💪 Malgré deux doigts fracturés en début d'étape, 🇫🇷 @bryancoquard s'est accroché et termine l'étape au courage et dans les délais !… pic.twitter.com/NaZsEHUecX
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 17, 2025
'We have a sponsorship deal signed with Cofidis without a WorldTour clause,' says team boss Cédric Vasseur. 'But in reality, it's true that when you lose your place in the first division, you are losing a lot of money from organisers, from sponsors.
'You are weaker than when you are in the first division — and of course when a good rider wants to choose a team, he always chooses the WorldTour. The impact for us of losing a licence is huge.'
Further up the road, Onley, too, is in the high mountains and has still not cracked. On the legendary Hautacam, the Picnic-PostNL rider climbs through burning sunshine to finish fifth, ahead of Grand Tour winners Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic.
How does he feel? 'Tired.'
But the 22-year-old Scotsman is flourishing. Sitting fourth after the Pyrenees, he is just one minute and 25 seconds away from the podium — a result that could net Picnic-PostNL a massive 880 points.
It would put them almost 2000 points above Cofidis. The French squad appear doomed.
The news breaks in the Belgian press the previous evening. Intermarche-Wanty and Lotto have agreed to a merger.
It shows an inherent truth of modern cycling — that for low-budget teams, this sport is a battle for scraps.
Lotto were demoted to ProTour status ahead of the 2023 season, while Wanty have desperately struggled for results this season. With Girmay out of form, it is difficult to see where consistent wins will come from. Together, they reason, offers them a better chance of survival.
But an unintended consequence? Lotto and Intermarche-Wanty are set to receive WorldTour licences next season. Rather than two, they will now receive one combined licence. It means there is one left free, to be given to the 19th-best team in the UCI rankings.
The next morning, sources confirm the story is true. Cofidis have hope. If they protect an 800-point lead over Uno-X, the French squad should be safe.
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Vasseur is sitting on a coolbox at 1600m, waiting for his riders to arrive at the team car from the time trial — a steep 13km climb to Peyragudes. He says the sun is too hot, but remains resolutely away from the shade. There is a lightness to his manner. The relief is clear. His words, however, come with caution.
'Of course, it has not been (formally) confirmed yet,' he says. 'But if it's happening, it's a sign that we can be confident about staying in the first division.' He pauses.
'But just staying in the first division for the sake of staying in the first division makes no sense. You have to be in the first division to be competitive. It is already filled with strong teams, very strong teams, and Lotto and Wanty together will be stronger too.
'We have to think about our model — to see if it's still reliable to keep on going like we are today.'
At the summit, the glare is bright from a cloudless sky. Vasseur stands and pulls down his sunglasses. He closes the car boot and walks away, towards his finishing riders, back down the hill.