Anti-Pogačar Tour? ‘We Want to Keep the Suspense,’ Says Prudhomme

Is the 2027 Tour de France route designed to make life hard for Tadej Pogačar?

No way, says Tour boss Christian Prudhomme.

The Tour de France created a stir Thursday with its 2027 course reveal in what’s a radical departure from the past several editions.

Instead of endless uphill kickers and non-stop climbing that seemed like a red carpet for King Pog, the 114th edition is packed with two individual time trials and features only three major mountaintop finales.

Fan reaction was quick: This is an anti-Pogačar course.

Prudhomme pushed back, but didn’t hide the fact that this year’s design is far from ideal from the Slovenian superstar.

“We’ll never design a course for just one rider. Instead, we design courses for different types of riders,” Prudhomme told RMC Radio.

“We’ve done it for puncheurs for years because it’s more exciting to watch and less dangerous than a classic sprint finish. Now, we’re adding more time trials because we want to rebalance things.”

Will more TTs stop Pogačar?

Is it possible to Pogi-proof a Tour?

Prudhomme and the ASO braintrust are about to find out.

Two individual time trials totaling 71 kilometers, the most in 15 years, give Remco Evenepoel and rising French star Paul Seixas a chance to counter the Slovenian’s mountain firepower.

After watching Pogačar dominate the Tour since 2024 and perhaps listening to murmurs that the Slovenian’s dominance is becoming boring, the Tour race director wanted to change things up.

With the most individual time trial kilometers since Bradley Wiggins won in 2012, Tour officials are giving Evenepoel room to put his biggest advantage to work.

Rising French star Seixas also gets terrain to challenge the established order — if he decides to race the Tour.

“We have a rider who has dominated the time trial for years, Remco Evenepoel. There’s also Paul Seixas, who is very good in this discipline,” Prudhomme said. “This could be a way to rebalance the time lost in the mountains.”

Prudhomme’s explanation, though, gets to the heart of the challenge facing anyone trying to build suspense around cycling’s most dominant rider.

From the monuments to the grand tours, Pogačar has been all but unbeatable since 2024. Only a mid-race crash that ended his season cost him a likely Vuelta a España crown.

Swapping out the Tour de France blueprint

After several Tour editions of ever-increasingly difficult courses, ASO thought it was time for a change.

The start in the UK with three stages means that there won’t be a major mountain summit until the end of the first full week.

The rise of Evenepoel against the clock and Seixas’ growing all-around abilities means, that at least in the eyes of course designers, having more TT’s now makes more sense.

In earlier editions, course designers saw how Pogačar was crushing rivals both in time trials and in the mountains. Jonas Vingegaard stopped him in his tracks for two years.

“For time trials, when the same riders gain time in the mountains and in the time trial, there’s no incentive to increase the time for the individual time trials since the result is the same,” Prudhomme said.

So in that context, Prudhommme and Co. came up with a 2027 course that’s a bit of an old-school throwback.

Sprinters see more chances, including a day-one shot at yellow, and the time trial is back in vogue.

A flat 38km test through Loire château country in the first week should suit the pure specialists. The second TT just before the Pyrénées is on a 33km loop around Toulouse that features a short but steep “wall” with about 10km to go.

On paper, that could favor Evenepoel and perhaps even Seixas, whose TT chops are improving. He finished third to an unstoppable Belgian “aero-rocket” at the Montréal time trial worlds.

“It’s a clash of styles between time trial specialists who gain time in the time trial and climbers who gain time in the mountains and lose it in the time trial,” he said.

Keeping the suspense until the end

Prudhomme called the Col du Portet the Tour’s “new Tourmalet” and said the final mountain stages in the Pyrénées will prove decision.

“This could turn the tables 48 hours before the final arrival in Paris,” he said. “We want to keep the suspense going for as long as possible.”

But will the Tour makeover work and keep the tension in the race all the way to the final weekend?

“It’s not an anti-Pogačar strategy,” Prudhomme told RMC Radio. “Pogačar loves challenges. So, he might be the one to win both time trials.”

So much for finding a chink in the Slovenian’s armor.