Velogames Preview – Velogame 2025

Honestly, I don’t know why anyone is back here again after the catastrophic and diabolical omission of any kind of sound advice for picking Isaac Del Toro at the Giro d’Italia, yet here we are. I guess I was so taken in by the two leaders spiel that I couldn’t see any other eventuality. Lesson learned and notes taken. Time to broaden the mind and embrace the horizon. After playing around with this new competition for the Tour de France for three days I can tell we’re in for a cracker. The values are superb and the number of fascinating and compelling drafts I’ve cooked up is well into the double figures at this point. Let’s break it down piece by piece and hopefully we can come up with the recipe for overall victory! I have 8th place to defend in the stage race championship as well, so there’s no wiggle room for erroneous picks here!

The Route

3,338.8km of purely French roads with 52,500m of elevation await 184 riders for the next three weeks and the route is astonishingly hard and stressful. The opening week is a mixed bag of sprints, punchy finales, and a flat individual time trial that’ll set the scene nicely for the final two weeks in the mountains. It is also 10 stages until the first rest day to allow the riders to celebrate Bastille Day on the 14th of July, with a very lumpy and exciting stage. Overall, we’re looking at five flat sprint days, eight medium mountain days, six summit finishes, and two individual time trials (ITT). One of those time trials is a proper mountain time trial, which I’m very much looking forward to. Let’s have a dive into the key stages.

Stage 1: The opening stage means a chance to grab the first yellow jersey and this year it’s one for the sprinters, with a start and finish in Lille.
Stage 2: A very choppy last 50km and a slight uphill finish gives the fast classics riders and puncheurs a chance to wrest the yellow jersey off the back of the stage one winner.
Stage 4: The streets of Rouen provide another very cool finale up and down the steep backstreets of the city centre. This will be fascinating.
Stage 5: This is the ITT, which takes place in Caen over a medium distance of 33km.
Stage 6: The first of two more hilly stages. Are these the first proper stages for the breakaway, before a weekend of sprint stages?
Stage 10: This is a cracking Bastille Day stage with seven category 2 climbs, and an uphill finish that could lay the groundwork for an assault on the King of the Mountains (KOM) jersey. Will we have a French victor I wonder.

Stage 12: The first massive summit finish of the race comes in the Pyrenees and ends atop the iconic Hautacam, 13.6km at 7.8%.
Stage 13: This is the mountain time trial, which takes a 10.9km trip up the Peyragudes where the Tour has finished many times before.
Stage 14: The Pyrenean queen stage has the riders tackle nearly 5000m of vertical ascent. Check out the profile below.

Stage 16: Week three begins with a jaunt across Southern France culminating in a single ascent of the mighty Mont Ventoux. Winning on this mountain is a real prize.
Stage 18: The first of two absolutely huge days in the French Alps with 5450m of ascent finishing on the Col de la Loze, but from the other side than the previous two appearances in this race.

Stage 19: The final mountains of the 2025 Tour de France and 4550m of more vertical ascent.
Stage 20: The penultimate stage offers a final hurrah for the breakaway and a cracking chance for a whole host of riders to bag their first Tour stage win.
Stage 21: The characteristic final stage showdown in Paris receives a little shake up with the final circuit taking three trips around Montmartre, in a homage to the 2024 Olympic road race route. Can this still be a famous sprint, or will the likes of Pogačar et al want to rewrite the script?

Velogames Category Guide

Now onto the nitty gritty of this guide and the main reason you’re all here. The beauty of the pricing for this Tour de France basically means you can take Pogačar, but it’ll force you to leave out a whole load of other favourites. And speaking of those other favourites, there are some amazing combinations possible. So the question is, can a team of Pogačar and a handful of other hopefuls best a team made up of three or four of the other main favourites? I can’t wait to find out.

All Rounders

Just like at the Giro, this is where the majority of the overall favourites are housed, and unfortunately, you can only pick three. Such is life, so you’ll be needing to make some tough decisions. Here is a rundown of the 14+ credit riders and the main favourites for this year’s yellow jersey.

Vingegaard and Evenepoel remain at the same price as they were a year ago, but it’s Roglič dropping from 20 credits to 14. This means it’s viable to pick all three if you don’t want to go for Pogačar. What a tantalising carrot that is to dangle before us. Granted, Pogačar scores obscene points seemingly with ease, and if he carries on in his usual vein, then he might be the first rider to crack the 4000 point barrier on a route like this. Here are the rest of the all rounders you’ll be wanting to consider.

I haven’t written anything about Adam Yates, Thomas, Arensman, or Vlasov because non have really showed the best form up until now in 2025. Ineos haven’t even announced their team at the time of writing so I’ll try and add a few comments if there are major changes. Adam Yates is one who could still score well if his form picks up, but with how well these guys are priced, surely the points come from elsewhere.

Climbers

Into the lions den with a incredible mix of talent and a whole host of possible bargains. For me, this is about finding the right balance of potential points whilst spending the fewest amount of credits. This is to maximise the points from all the other categories. I have a few strategies in mind for what to do with my climbers, and no real clue about where the points will end up come Paris. Let’s see if we can’t narrow down our options.

It’s really hard to pick a favourite out of the 10 and 12 creditors, but I reckon Skjelmose, Gall, and Mas all end up being decent picks. Who’s going to be a great pick though. Have a look through these cheaper options and maybe you’ll take a shine to one or two.

There are some fun picks in there, and it’s not essential to spend the big bucks in this category. I can see many ways of playing it. I guess it depends on how many credits you have left.

Sprinters

This is not a sprinter friendly race on paper. There are five proper sprints almost guaranteed with maybe one or two more that at least some of the fast men will contest. The measly number of sprints is reflected in the slightly lower cost of these big guys, but there’s still a green points jersey to be won. Here’s a look at the 8 credits plus contingent.

Beyond these, there are a smattering of interesting 6 credit sprinters for your consideration should the need arise for some saving. Here are my recommendations for that eventuality.

I think this category is just as much of a minefield as the climbers category, mainly due to the nature of the route. If I had 12 credits I’d go Milan, 10 Merlier, 8 either Girmay or Meeus, and 6 is a choice between Ackermann and Jeannière. For me anyway.

Unclassed

Time for one big table to close this guide out and I hope I cover everyone you’re interested in. I honestly expected more in the 8 credit bracket here, so I’m pleasantly surprised the are so many good options in the 6 credit range. Anyway, for you perusal, here are the unclasseds.

Hopefully the information on that table is still legible! I’m aware I haven’t mentioned many Ineos riders at all, but I’ll add them when the team is confirmed and we know a little bit about their objectives. There are so many of these unclassed riders I’d be keen to pick, especially if you’ve only got 6 credits to spend in your wildcard spot. No stream this week as I have tennis and work commitments, but I promise to get back to them before too long. In the meantime here is the league code to join: 224381821. And do join in the discussion on BlueSky and Twitter, I love a good debate. Excited to see all your teams! Until next time.