The tour of the tour: The Sprinter – Ackermann against Girmay, Philipsen, Milan and Co.

The Sprinter could get their money’s worth on at least seven stages of the tour 2025. The German hopes rest on Pascal Ackermann, who finally wants to get involved in France. However, the competition is powerful. The top candidates for stage wins in the short portrait.

Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty)

The fast man from Eritrea was one of the big sensations at the Tour de France in 2024. The 25-year-old surprisingly won three stages and ultimately won the green jersey of the best sprinter.

Girmay is a natural talent, has a very special sense of being in the right place at the right time. This ability allows him to win without great tactical preparation – his teammates are usually not at his side when it comes to the final of the stages.

It can be very excited to see whether Girmay can repeat his coup from the previous year. The opponents now know him better and this season it has not been enough for Girmay. For this he showed himself to be surprisingly strong with the all-rounders in the heavy classic Paris-Roubaix with 15th place.

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin – Deceuninck)

The 27-year-old Belgian is the top favorite on the green jersey of the best sprinter and of course does not want to let an outsider like Girmay take the butter off bread again. His team Alpecin-Deceuninck has been perfectly matched to his fast man after all these years, the cogs with the Belgians are noiseless from one with mass sprints from one.

But also for Philipsen, who has already won nine tour stages and won the green jersey in 2023, the following applies: the psyche plays a major role. It will be important for the 27 -year -old that he can celebrate a sense of achievement early – then it could be his tour.

The season so far did not run optimally: Philipsen was at the forefront at the beginning of the year when it went to the races that were important for Sprinter: he won Kuurn-Brussels-Kuurne, at Scheldrijs he was only conquered by his compatriot Tim Merlier. In March he often fell hard with Nokere Koerse, which then rather impaired his spring season.

Tim Merlier (Soudal – Quick Step)

Beware of the experienced Tim Merlier! The 32-year-old Belgian drives an eminently strong season and has already won a whole handful of important season wins.

The fast man from Soudal – Quick Step has prepared a timetable that is entirely geared towards the Tour de France. At the beginning of the year he was in top shape and drove the competition to the ground in the races on the Arabian Peninsula. At the Scheldrijs, he then clearly defeated Jasper Philipsen in spring, at Gent-Wevelgemgeme only outlier Mads Pedersen was in front of him.

After Paris-Roubaix, he took an almost two-month racing break in order to register with an impressive success at the Classics in Brussels in early June.

Curious: In one of his daily victories at the UAE tour, the Belgian crashed to the finish with supervisors and journalists during his jubilee and fell heavily upside down. Fortunately, he was able to give the all -clear soon and start again the day.

Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek)

Is the hour of Jonathan Milan on the tour this year? The 1.94-meter giant from Italy seems to be gradually ripe for the great success.

The now 24-year-old, who still won gold in the Olympic Games in the Olympic Games in the four-way team tracking on the track, has so far had a very successful season on the street.

He gave his season debut on the Valencia tour, where he won a section in the mass sprint. Afterwards, he also prevailed on two stages on the UAE Tour and at Tirreno-Adrico and won the points rating of both tours. After driving on the podium at Classic Brugge – De Panne (2nd place) and Gent -Wevelgem (3rd place), he did not start at the Giro d’Italia, but prepared for his first tour de France at the Critérium du Dauphiné. He won the mass sprint of the 2nd stage.

Arnaud de Lie (Lotto)

When Arnaud de Lie ended the 2022 season, all experts actually agreed: a new top sprinter with world-class format is growing here. Daring and with a lot of determination, he had thrown himself into the sprint decisions, especially in the event of a single -day race, of which he decided more than a dozen for himself.

Advance laurels, which he has not been able to fulfill since then. 2023 was not a good year, in 2024 despite the Belgian championship title and a decent tour de France. And 2025? It started well for the now 23-year-old Belgian with a win at the Étoile de Bessèges.

But before the spring classics he was slowed down by a respiratory virus. After a long break, he tried the comeback at around Cologne in May, but got out during the first hour of race. He then also failed to do the Boucles de la Mayenne. The turning point then brought a third place at the Brussels Cycling Classic. Since then, there has been a little hope that the Lie can be there, especially in the first tour week to him.

Pascal Ackermann (Team Israel Premier Tech)

The spell was finally broken in mid -May: Pascal Ackermann had won his first victory after almost two years. The Palatinate won the premiere of the French single-day race Classique Dunkirken after 193.5 kilometers in Lens in the sprint in front of the three-time tour stage winner Biniam Girmay and the Italian Alberto Dainese.

Ackermann drove his last of 41 professional victories in July 2023 on the tour of Austria. The 31-year-old, who has already won stages at Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta, was long considered a great German sprint hope. In 2019 he was the first German to win the score at the Giro d ‘Italia. In recent years, however, he has not been able to build on his success.

After a few years in the Bora Hansgrohe team, Ackermann switched to the UAE team in 2022, but where he wasn’t quite happy. It was only when I switched to Team Israel Premier Tech in 2024 that he finally seems to have experienced such a kind of liberation again. At least his special status was guaranteed in this team, and he was always guaranteed the Tour-de-France participation-unlike his predecessor teams. On this basis, Ackermann wants to finally accelerate on the tour.

“Win stage”

However, if it doesn’t work for any reason, his team has a fast man in the hindquarters. Jake Stewartwho is supposed to act as a driver, recently jumped into the Breathe at the criterion du Dauphiné. When Ackermann left because of a fall, the Briton won the 5th stage in the sprint in front of Jonathan Milan.

The sporting director Steve Bauer makes the goal clear: “It is simply said but difficult to reach: We want to win a stage. We have put together the best team from our currently healthy squad to achieve this goal.”