Intermarché–Wanty’s Road to the 2025 Tour de France 🔄

Every team shows up to the Tour with stories — of narrow wins, brutal losses, and battles that forged team spirit. Intermarché–Wanty’s 2025 campaign was pure underdog cinema. From early-season classics to high-altitude drama, this squad earned their Tour slot through grit and guts.

Season Recap: Wins, Breaks & Breakthroughs

Intermarché didn’t roll into 2025 with the deepest budget or the longest palmarès — but what they lacked in resources, they made up for with bold moves and fearless racing.

Key Highlights:

• Biniam Girmay stormed to a podium at Milano–Sanremo, proving he’s not a one-hit wonder.
• Georg Zimmermann took a mountain-top win at Tour de Romandie, cementing his GC dark horse status.
• Louis Barré and Hugo Page showed serious form in early-season French races — landing top-10s at Tour des Alpes-Maritimes and Classic Loire Atlantique.

Team Strength: Breakaways and opportunistic raids — masters of slipping into the move nobody expected.

📈 Key 2025 Build-Up Races

Before the Grande Boucle, Intermarché–Wanty fine-tuned tactics and tested legs in a string of crucial events:

• Paris–Nice: A gritty display in crosswinds, with Girmay surviving chaos and Page nearly stealing a sprint stage.
• Tour of the Alps: Zimmermann flexed his climbing legs with consistent top-10 finishes.
• Critérium du Dauphiné: The final tune-up where Jonas Rutsch and Vito Braet showed climbing form and support strength.

These races weren’t just prep — they were auditions for Tour spots. Every attack, every pull at the front earned someone their plane ticket to Florence.

How They Earned That Tour Startline

Unlike automatic WT invites, Intermarché–Wanty hustled hard for every UCI point to secure their place — consistently punching above their weight in Europe’s biggest one-week stage races and classics.

Why They Belong in July:

• A proven breakaway threat squad
• Multiple stage podiums in 2024’s Tour
• Fan favorite energy: no fear, no brakes

Final Call: The team earned Tour status by being the squad nobody wants to let up the road — because they just might make it stick.

Intermarché–Wanty’s Tour de France Track Record 📖

For a squad that wasn’t always a WorldTour heavyweight, Intermarché–Wanty has built one of the most cult-followed, scrappy reputations in modern Grand Tour racing. These guys don’t ride for survival — they ride for chaos, breakaways, and stage glory. Here’s a deep dive into their Tour story so far, legend style:

How It Started

• 2014–2019: Backdoor entries through wildcard invites.
• 2020: Gritty rides, near misses, and relentless breakaway attempts made them a fan-favorite underdog.
• 2021: Promoted to WorldTour status — officially racing with the big boys.

That year? Taco van der Hoorn stole a stage win in Giro, setting the tone for Intermarché’s no-fear attitude.

Tour de France Highlights

• 2022:
  • Biniam Girmay’s debut Tour — while injury cut it short, his explosive form made him a marked man for future editions.
  • Multiple breakaway attempts from Zimmermann and Pascal Eenkhoorn turned heads.
• 2023:
  • Girmay nabs top-5 finishes in multiple sprint stages, proving he’s not just a classics man.
  • Rein Taaramäe animates the mountains, chasing polka dot points.
• 2024:
  • Zimmermann finally bags a mountain stage win in the Alps, one of the feel-good stories of the Tour.
  • Girmay makes history with the first African-born rider in yellow (briefly, after a gutsy break).

📊 Intermarché–Wanty Tour de France Stats

What Makes Their Tour De France Story Legendary?

• The Breakaway Kings: Few squads send as many men up the road as Intermarché. It’s part of their identity.
• The Girmay Effect: His rise has turned them from plucky outsiders to legitimate sprint and classics contenders.
• Underdog Energy: This is the team you root for when you love chaos, last-kilometer attacks, and unpredictable stages.