‘It's like a game of chess’ - how group psychology affects the tactics of the Tour de France peloton

Domestiques, sprinters, hill climbers and GCs. How exactly do teams work at the Tour de France?

A pack of the riders pictured in action during stage nine of the 2025 Tour de France cycling, from Chinon to Chateauroux (170 km), on Sunday 13 July 2025 in France, cycling through a field of sunflowers.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

To the uninitiated, the Tour de France may seem to be one man in yellow, chased by 180 other riders trying to take it off him, or win stages. But dig a little deeper and it becomes a race of teams and endless tactics, where the fate of a stage can hinge on the cohesion of the group, as well as the individual ambitions of riders.

The Tour de France is a team event, raced by 23 groups of eight, in most cases all working to support their lead rider. Every rider has a role: sprinters vie for stage-wins; GC contenders race for the yellow jersey, with the rest of the team typically made up of domestiques. These are the workers there to support their leader, sheltering them from the wind, keeping them protected in the peloton and supplied up with water, gels, food and clothes grabbed from the team cars when needed.

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News Writer

Meg is a news writer for Cycling Weekly. In her time around cycling, Meg is a podcast producer and lover of anything that gets her outside, and moving.

From the Welsh-English borderlands, Meg's first taste of cycling was downhill - she's now learning to love the up, and swapping her full-sus for gravel (for the most part!).

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