The Winners and Losers of the Tour so Far

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We're six days into the Tour but we've already had some of the best stages in recent Tour memory. In this article we look at the 3 big winners and the 3 riders who have had a woeful start to the 2015 Tour de France.

3 Biggest Losers
Cofidis

This just about sums up the French team's Tour so far.

Most people would consider the title of "biggest loser" to be a sleight, however it's not the case for the small French team who have made a career out of being honourable losers. Unfortunately, this year they might just be a team of losers. They came into the Tour and their best chance at glory was a Nacer Bouhanni with bruised ribs. He crashed out on stage 5 to Amiens and left Cofidis in a bit of a hole. They have no real stage win threat and their usual top 20 rider, Dani Navarro, is currently lying almost 27 minutes back. They got themselves into a break with Kenneth Vanbilsen on stage 6 but it looks like it's going to be a very lean 3 weeks.

Yellow Jersey Holders
A yellow jersey is always a great honour. Unfortunately this year it seems to have brought bad luck along with it. So far we've had 4 holders of the maillot jaune (Dennis, Cancellara, Froome & Martin). I'm writing this after stage 6 where Martin has abandoned with a collarbone break. That would mean that of the 4 jersey holders; 2 have crashed out injured and one, Dennis, prematurely lost his jersey. Only Froome has "voluntarily" handed his jersey back. Froome will have the jersey back, but will he also have the terrible luck that has so far accompanied the jersey?

Thibault Pinot

Pinot during his meltdown on the cobbled stage 4

He came into the race with huge expectations and raised them on the first stage when he was the highest placed GC rider in the time trial. Since then his face has lurched from one disaster to another. He lost time in the crosswind splits on stage 2, then he lost time after getting dropped on the penultimate climb on stage 3 to Huy, then he lost even more time on the cobbled 4th stage. He's now in 30th place 6.30 down. He's still a brilliant climber so expect him to make time back as soon as we start heading uphill but he's lost too much to be a genuine podium consideration.

3 Biggest Winners
Warren Barguil

Barguil has flown under the radar so far.

He came to the Tour with the intension of learning and maybe trying for a stage win in the mountains. He had a terrible opening time trial, finishing in 127th place, but since then he's always been at the head of the peloton and as other riders lost time in crosswinds and crashes he hasn't and now lies 11th overall. The media haven't quite caught up with Barguil's excellent performance yet, he's the highest ranked Frenchman, so he has had a pressure free start to the race. He needs to try and keep up his high overall placing when the race hits the Pyrenees, if he can do that then we have a legitimate future star on our hands.

Chris Froome
Froome again had a poor start but he's been expertly guided through the difficult classics style stages by his team and he's now back in yellow. He went into the Tour as one of four huge favourites for the Tour, Quintana, Nibali and Contador are the others. After just 6 stages he is ahead of them all on GC and has a significant advantage going into the second weekend and the Pyrenees beyond that. One thing that will have worried the Brit is that his mountain domestiques haven't looked on top form yet. Richie Porte has missed every single break and lies in 158th position, Nicolas Roche has also missed the breaks and he is back in 69th position. This means that a huge amount of work has landed on Geraint Thomas' shoulders and Sky would've liked to save him for the high mountains.

African Cycling

An African hero!

When Daniel Teklehaimanot rode down the start ramp in Utrecht he became the first ever black African cyclist to start a Tour de France. On stage 6 he rode up 3 geographically insignificant climbs on the north coast of France but, in doing so slightly quicker than his two breakaway companions, he rode himself into a position that can never be taken away from him. He is the first ever black African cyclist to wear a Tour de France jersey and looking back at his performance in the Dauphine Libere, there's no reason to think he can't hang onto it.