Tour de France teams: GC contenders
More than a dozen teams come to this year's Tour de France with ambitions of finishing high on the race's final general classification
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Every year a dozen or so teams come to the Tour de France with realistic ambitions of contending for the overall win. These teams want nothing more than for their marquee rider to stand on the final podium in Paris. That, and only that, is the team’s measure of success.
There are no fewer than 13 teams at this year’s Tour de France that come in with some level of ambition to go after the GC. As in years past, the teams sitting atop this list are again Team Ineos, Movistar, Astana, and Mitchelton-Scott (among others) that fall squarely into the GC-or-bust camp.
There are other GC teams that have other goals in mind, such as a run at the tour’s points jersey, or a stage victory or two. These teams must balance their ambitions between the hunt for a top GC placing, and the battle for stage victories and sprint or KOM points. UAE-Team Emirates, Deceuninck-Quick Step, and Jumbo-Visma all fall into this second camp.
Then, there are teams who have one or two riders on the roster who will battle for the GC. Bora-Hansgrohe is hyper-focused on Peter Sagan’s chase for a seventh green jersey. But Emmanuel Buchmann represents a card to play in the GC battle as well.
Below, we link to detailed analysis and roster makeup for the 2019 Tour de France’s GC teams.