Dylan Groenewegen has thrown his hat into the ring of big-name sprinters targeting victory and the first yellow jersey on stage 1 of this year's Tour de France in Lille.
The Jayco-AlUla rider recently returned to his powerful best, winning two stages at the Tour of Slovenia and so is growing in confidence as the days countdown to the Tour Grand Depart in northern France. The Tour begins on Saturday July 5 with a 184.9km stage around the Lille Métropole area before an expected high-speed sprint in the city centre.
Groenewegen expected sprint rivals in Lille include Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto), three-time stage winner and 2024 green jersey winner Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) and others.
The stage to Lille will be the most prestigious and important sprint of 2025.
"There's more at stake than just a Tour de France stage and as a sprinter you don't get that chance very often," Groenewegen told Dutch national television channel Nos during a relaxed pre-Tour interview on a boat near his home in the Netherlands.
"The last time was six years ago but I crashed then. Fortunately Mike Teunissen won and it was still a great day for us as a team but now I hope that I can do it myself."
Groenewegen is now 32 and in his final year of his contract with Jayco-AlUla. He is not expected to stay with the Australian team as the sprinters' transfer market sparks a number of changes. However he will share team leadership with Ben O'Connor and target the numerous sprint opportunities in the first half of the 2025 Tour.
He has ridden the Tour seven times, finished all but one of them and won stages in five different editions, including two stages in 2018. His last was in 2024 in Dijon, when he beat Girmay.
"If I felt I was no longer good enough, I wouldn't even go there. I could think of a better holiday," Groenewegen said of the annual three weeks of suffering and intense racing in July.
"Of course, there's always a chance it won't work out, but we're going to try to turn that opening stage to our advantage. And then you have the yellow jersey as an extra reward."
Whatever happens in Lille, the open week of the Tour across northern France offers chances for the sprinters and finisseur riders like Van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
"I think there are two or three sprint chances in week one. It also depends on how the peloton is going to race," Groenewegen suggested.
Groenewegen has endured some difficult seasons since his double Tour stage win in 2018. He was suspended for nine months after he sparked Fabio Jakobsen's terrible crash at the2020 Tour de Pologne. He became a father in 2021 but then his young son faced some serious health problems.
Groenewegen always had the swagger and straight talking attitude of a successful sprinter but is now more mature.
"I'm calmer and because of the birth, more of a family person. We enjoy it even more that he is now completely healthy and is with us. And then I also enjoy winning races more," he said.
Groenewegen suffered concussion after a crash at the 2025 UAE Tour and another hard crash at Tirreno-Adriatico but he is now near his best.
"When you ride a spring like that, you also have some doubts but in recent weeks, the sprint is back to where it should be. The speed is there, the condition is there and the instinct is back to where it should be," he concluded.
