The 2025 Tour de France will be headlined by 'the big four' in the battle for the yellow jersey, with the fight between Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič taking centre stage. However, right from the race for the Tour's first maillot jaune on the opening day in Lille, the Grand Tour will also host a titanic struggle among the sprinters.
The green jersey winners from the past three Tours – Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) – will all be lining up to race for stage wins and the points classification, along with many more sprinters who will be intent on making their mark on the world's biggest cycling stage. They include the likes of Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) and Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), as well as a wealth of outsiders.
Only five days in the 2025 Tour de France route look 100% nailed-on for full-bunch sprints, with the much-talked-of stage 1 joining stage 3 in Dunkerque, stage 8 in Laval, stage 9 in Châteauroux and stage 15 in Carcassonne.
Stages 6 and 11 could also host mass sprint finishes, though they aren't pan-flat. The tough uphill finish in Vire Normandie and late hills on the road to Toulouse potentially enough to rule out many of the top sprinters.
Read on for our comprehensive look at the riders who are likely to be charging toward the line through the sprint stages of the 2025 Tour de France.
Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep)
European champion Tim Merlier is the form pick of the fastmen heading into this year's Tour de France. The 31-year-old snared three wins during his June preparation block, with a victory at the Brussels Cycling Classic followed up by two stages at the Baloise Belgium Tour.
Sure, the fields at those races aren't the shark tank of a Tour de France sprint, but he still beat some big names, including Jasper Philipsen and several other riders in this round-up.
Merlier hasn't raced the Tour since his debut in 2021, when he partnered up with Philipsen as the pair shared sprint leadership for Alpecin-Fenix. In the meantime, he's racked up 44 of his 60 career wins, including 20 at WorldTour level – a rider for the big stage.
With Soudal-Quickstep pooling most of their resources around Remco Evenepoel's GC bid, Merlier won't have the benefit of a full, dedicated lead-out train as some of his rivals will this July. Still, Bert Van Lerberghe will be an invaluable lieutenant, and the team should rally around the sprinter during the sprint-friendly opening week.
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
Next up is a predictable choice, 2023 green jersey winner and Merlier's former teammate, Jasper Philipsen. The 27-year-old has the greatest Tour pedigree of any sprinter taking the start in Lille, boasting nine stage wins on his palmarès in addition to that coveted jersey.
He hasn't been at his absolute sprinting best in 2025, however. His two wins at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and a stage of the Baloise Belgium Tour pale in comparison to Merlier's 10.
He's also behind in the head-to-head with his countryman, trailing 7-2 in the sprints the pair have contested. But even considering all of this, he'll have a not-so-secret weapon in France in the form of the best lead-out man in the world.
Yes, Mathieu van der Poel will be back, ready for more lactate-defying pulls towards the finish line. The pairing has been a great success in recent Tours, and this time around, Kaden Groves – a top sprinter in his own right and a man who should be able to step in easily should any mishap befall Philipsen – joins the crew.
It's hard to argue against this lineup, which also includes the reliable Jonas Rickaert, Silvan Dillier, and Gianni Vermeersch, being the strongest lead-out train in the game. It would be a massive surprise if they don't pull out at least one stage win.
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek)
The title of 'fastest man in the peloton' is hotly contested among a few riders. Italian sprinter Jonathan Milan is the third man in the race who can feasibly lay claim to the sobriquet.
Milan, points classification champion at the Giro d'Italia in the past two seasons, is stepping up to the Tour de France this summer, and he looks more than ready to duke it out for that honour.
The track star has seven wins to his name this season, including points titles at the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico, with his most recent success coming on stage 2 of the Critérium du Dauphiné.
Since his big breakthrough in 2023, Milan has refined his sprint style and turned into a winning machine. His Lidl-Trek team has played a big part in that, of course, and he'll head to France with a lead-out train that can go toe-to-toe with Philipsen's.
His track teammate and last man, Simone Consonni, along with Edward Theuns and Jasper Stuyven, joined him during last spring's mightily successful Giro campaign. This year, Consonni and Theuns have barely left his side, the pair logging 29 and 31 of Milan's 34 race days. The trio, plus Thibau Nys and Quinn Simmons, will form a fearsome lead-out train in France, too.
Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty)
Reigning green jersey winner Biniam Girmay, the sensation of the 2024 Tour, will be hoping that July brings more good fortune this time around. He hasn't won since his third victory of last year's race in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, a streak which will run to 359 days when this race begins in Lille.
Girmay swept to a dominant points classification victory last year, but it's hard to imagine him achieving the same this July. His team will need a win from him, though, with Intermarché-Wanty requiring UCI points in their battle to stave off WorldTour relegation for 2026. The team lies around 1,300 points above 19th-placed Cofidis, and they've put most of their eggs in the Girmay basket at the Tour, with stage wins delivering a precious 210 points.
Girmay has racked up 775 so far this year, and he's picked up five second places along the way, ever so close to that elusive win at the Volta ao Algarve, Classique Dunkerque, Rund um Köln, and Boucles de la Mayenne.
Those aren't the biggest races on the calendar, and their sprint fields have hardly measured up to the Tour lineup. Turning on the form tap to face off against the toughest sprint lineup of the season is a big ask. However, for his team's sake, it's a task Girmay will have to meet.
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike)
Visma-Lease a Bike's main focus this July may be delivering Jonas Vingegaard to a third yellow jersey, but the team does have room for more than just the GC battle. Step forward Wout van Aert, who will have some freedom to seek his own success during the race.
The former green jersey will, of course, be putting in the work for his team leader throughout the Tour, but the versatile Belgian will find his chances on a variety of terrain that includes the sprints – if he chooses to take part in the big bunch battles.
There's no room in the Visma selection for Olav Kooij, the young Dutch sprinter who looks to be off to Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale next season. Instead, it'll be on Van Aert to pick and choose his days, most likely the tougher, hilly stages targeted by riders that include his career-long rival Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Indeed, Van Aert's lone victory this season came on one of those tougher days, on the strade bianche stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia, a race where he assisted Simon Yates to the overall win. A stomach bug ruled him out of the recent Belgian Championships. However, he should be back up to speed for the start of the Tour. It, however, remains to be seen whether he'll even aim for the flat sprint finishes as well as the lumpy ones.
Arnaud De Lie (Lotto)
Another Belgian aiming to recover from his maladies and win at the Tour is Arnaud De Lie, who has been plagued for much of the season to date by an illness which has left him underperforming while on the bike and spending long spells away from it recovering.
The 23-year-old, who takes on the Tour for a second time, has won this season, though his stage came all the way back in February at the Etoile de Bessèges. A third place at the Brussels Cycling Classic was his best result of the past month.
Lotto say De Lie "gained confidence day by day" at the recent Tour de Suisse, even if his form hasn't sparkled brightly enough to suggest he's a prime candidate for a stage win during the Tour's opening week.
In any case, however he feels in Northern France, De Lie can at least count on a solid lead-out squad in Jasper De Buyst, Jarrad Drizners, and Jenno Berckmoes.
Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla)
He may not have the star power or flashiness of some of the other riders, but Dylan Groenewegen has the second-most Tour sprint wins of any on this list. Since making his Tour debut nine years ago, he's grabbed six stages in six starts, a very reliable record.
Groenewegen has 77 victories on his palmarès, three of which have come this year at the Tour de Hongrie and Tour of Slovenia. Last year's stage win came in Dijon, where he beat Philipsen and Girmay to the line, with the former subsequently relegated.
Slovenia aside, Groenewegen's recent results have seen him score top 10s at the Elfstedenronde Brugge and Copenhagen Sprint before taking third in a mass sprint finish at the Dutch Nationals. They're not eye-catching results, but for Groenewegen – who will have lead-out men Luka Mezgec and Elmar Reinders by his side – taking Tour stage win number seven is far from out of the question.
Unfortunately for Jayco-AlUla and Groenewegen, the team will have to do without four-time Tour stage winner Michael Matthews this summer, after the Australian was found to be suffering signs of a pulmonary embolism at a recent training camp.
Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
Yet another Belgian sprinter at the Tour, Jordi Meeus, is on our list as one who has tasted success at a previous edition of the race. The 27-year-old, of course, sped to glory on the Champs-Elysées ahead of Philipsen and Groenewegen in 2023.
Meeus hasn't matched that high point since, instead picking up his wins at smaller races including the Tour of Norway and Tour de Wallonie. Still, he's heading to Lille in strong form, with a pair of WorldTour victories, his second and third after Paris, having come in the past fortnight.
The wins came on the only sprint opportunity at the Tour de Suisse and then two days later at the inaugural edition of the Copenhagen Sprint one-day race.
Meeus will have to balance his sprint focus with the task of supporting Primož Roglič this July, and the same goes for his teammate, newly crowned Dutch champion Danny van Poppel. The 31-year-old has three wins this season, the most recent coming ahead of Kooij and Groenewegen at the Dutch Nationals, so watch out for him, too, in sprint finishes this month.
Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious)
Phil Bauhaus returns for his third Tour de France as part of a versatile Bahrain Victorious squad seeking success on all terrains. The 30-year-old is a reliable performer year-on-year, picking up one or two WorldTour-level victories in each of the past four seasons.
He's still waiting to add to his tally in 2025, however. Could the Tour de France deliver that big win this season?
Bauhaus has picked up four sprint stage podium placings during the past two Tours, including a second place in Nîmes behind Philipsen. He's had four this season, too, but no wins, with a pair of second and third places coming at the Tour Down Under and the recent Tour of Slovenia.
If everything goes right, Bauhaus could win a stage this year, but he's not the fastest finisher in the Tour peloton.
Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels)
Like Girmay and Intermarché-Wanty, Arnaud Démare and Arkéa-B&B Hotels head into the Tour seeking big results and the big UCI points hauls that come with them. For the French squad, however, the situation is far more dire.
The team currently lie 3,000 points adrift of safety, meaning a podium sweep in Paris would shift them up into 18th. That isn't exactly on the cards, though, so focus instead will be on picking up a stage win somewhere and attracting new backers to replace the pair of outgoing title sponsors.
The 33-year-old Démare, eight times a Giro stage winner to go with two at the Tour, is one part of Arkéa's stage-seeking squad, but he hasn't won since Paris-Chauny last autumn, while his WorldTour drought extends back to August 2022. He's not topping our sprinter rankings then, but he has shown signs of form this season.
A trio of early-season second-places included a runner-up spot behind Merlier on the opening day of Paris-Nice, while recent weeks have seen him take sixth at the Elfstedenronde Brugge and fourth at the Copenhagen Sprint. It's likely he'll bring home similar results at the Tour, but hey, stranger things have happened than a Démare stage victory.
The best of the rest
German racer Pascal Ackermann is looking to add a Tour stage win to his haul of five Giro and Vuelta stages. However, he hasn't shown a ton of form this season, May's Classique Dunkerque win aside. Dauphiné stage winner Jake Stewart is another option for Israel-Premier Tech.
Tudor Pro Cycling make their Tour debut this season, and they'll look to their man Alberto Dainese to add a stage win in France to previous victories at the Giro and Vuelta a España.
Søren Wærenskjold heads up Uno-X Mobility's sprint hopes after the team left Alexander Kristoff at home. Stian Fredheim joins the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad champion in contesting the Tour's flat days.
Surf Coast Classic winner Tobias Lund Andresen has six other podium spots to his name this season. He and fellow 22-year-old, Vuelta stage winner Pavel Bittner, carry Picnic-PostNL's hopes in the sprints.
Cofidis are another team hoping to pick up UCI points at the Tour. Bryan Coquard and Alexis Renard lead them in the sprints, with the latter rider in good form, having picked up second places at the Brussels Cycling Classic and Copenhagen Sprint last month.
Another Frenchman, Paul Penhoët, makes his Tour de France debut this July. The 23-year-old has taken third, fifth, and sixth places across Tirreno-Adriatico and the Dauphiné this year. He's joined by another quick finisher, Lewis Askey, in the Groupama-FDJ selection.
Cees Bol and Davide Ballerini make up XDS-Astana's sprint options at the Tour, and the Kazakhstani team won't expect wins from either. Instead, they'll be pleased if the pair can pick up points and keep their WorldTour promotion momentum going.
EF Education-EasyPost's Dutch racer Marijn van den Berg showed good form at the Boucles de la Mayenne and La Route d'Occitanie last month, scoring a stage win at the latter.
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