Until the very last moment, teams were fighting to get anything they could out of the Tour de France. Just ask Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe), who until the final stage on the Champs-Élysées has been well out of contention in the bunch sprints, before ultimately winning the grandest one of the lot.
A lot of teams inevitably leave the Tour empty-handed, while many leave multiple victories and a stint in one of the race's prestigious jerseys to boot. Victories and jerseys don't tell the full story however, and there were riders and teams who impressed during the race even though they may have missed out on their ultimate goal.
Here, we take a look at what each of the Tour's teams brought to the race and rate their overall performance.
AG2R Citroën Team 7/10
Photo by James Startt/Agence Zoom
A Tour that might have gone off the rails after leader Ben O’Connor’s difficult opening week ended in success, as debutant Felix Gall shone in the final week to win the queen stage and finish eighth overall, while O’Connor bravely battled on to land a couple of third-place finishes from breakaways.
Alpecin-Deceuninck 9/10
Photo by James Startt/Agence Zoom
Few expected one team to dominate the bunch sprints, so Alpecin deserve a huge amount of praise for the way they guided Jasper Philipsen to an impressive haul of four stage wins and the green jersey, the team’s first at the Tour de France. He was in the mix and put into position for every single sprint, with Mathieu van der Poel superb in his selfless lead-out role. They’ve truly usurped Soudal-Quick-Step as the best lead-out train in the world.
Arkéa–Samsic 2/10
Photo by James Startt/Agence Zoom
Without their former talisman Nairo Quintana, the team looked rudderless. Aside from a few top 10s from Luca Mozzato in the bunch sprints, some promising breakaways from Warren Barguil, and a couple of combativity prizes for Simon Guglielmi and Laurent Pichon, they failed to make much of an impression.
Astana Qazaqstan Team 3/10
Photo by Pauline Ballet/ASO
The team found renewed purpose in organising around delivering Mark Cavendish in the sprints, and they came close to tasting glory when he finished second on stage seven, only to heartbreakingly crash out of the race the very next day. Without their leader, they were left to chase breakaway victories in vain.
Bahrain-Victorious 9/10
Photo by James Startt/Agence Zoom
Their Tour de France took place under unimaginably difficult circumstances following the death just weeks before of Gino Mäder. In a race of intense emotions, they rallied together to win a remarkable three stages with Pello Bilbao, Wout Poels and Matej Mohorič, with Bilbao also managing to finish sixth overall on GC.
Bora-Hansgrohe 8/10
Photo by James Startt/Agence Zoom
They might have hoped for more than seventh overall after Jai Hindley won stage five and took the yellow jersey for a day, but Jordi Meeus surprise victory on the Champs-Élysées will leave them more than satisfied with how their Tour panned out.
Cofidis 8/10
Photo by James Startt/Agence Zoom
At long, long last, Cofidis ended their 15 year Tour de France hoodoo by landing their long-awaited stage win courtesy of Victor Lafay in San Sebastián; and then, just like the proverbial London buses, another came just a week later via Ion Izagirre. A snaky 10th place overall for Guillaume Martin was the icing on the cake.
DSM-Firmenich 2/10
Photo by Pauline Ballet/ASO
Romain Bardet had looked set to challenge for a top 10 place on GC, but after he crashed out of the race on stage 12, the team lacked direction, and failed to get anything out of the Tour.
EF Education-EasyPost 3/10
Photo by Charly Lopez/ASO
This was a Tour of crashes and misfortune for EF Education-EasyPost. Leader Richard Carapaz left the race injured after the very first stage, and Esteban Chaves and the impressive James Shaw followed the next week, while Neilson Powless lost the polka-dot jersey towards the end of the second week.
Groupama-FDJ 4/10
Photo by Pauline Ballet/ASO
The end of the Thibaut Pinot era did not have the hoped-for romantic send-off as the fan favourite fell short of winning a stage, while his successor David Gaudu struggled to live up to last year’s standards, finishing ninth on GC
Ineos Grenadiers 7/10
Photo by Pauline Ballet/ASO
For a while it looked as though young debutant Carlos Rodríguez would once again seal Ineos the third place spot on GC behind Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar for the third successive Tour, but he faded a little after a crash to finish fifth. The team are a long way from being the force they once were, so, with lowered expectations, can be content with two stage wins via Rodríguez and Michał Kwiatkowski.
Intermarché–Circus–Wanty 3/10
Photo by Pauline Ballet/ASO
The much-anticipated Tour de France debut of the team’s star and hottest talent Biniam Girmay was ultimately a little underwhelming, with the Eritrean only once getting into the mix in the bunch sprints with third place in Bordeaux. Louis Meintjes was unfortunate to crash out while 13th on GC, but Georg Zimmermann did well in his attempts to redeem the team’s race, being a regular presence in the breaks and finishing second behind Pello Bilbao in Issoire.
Israel-Premier Tech 6/10
Photo by James Startt/Agence Zoom
Perhaps inspired by Derek Gee’s memorable exploits at the Giro d’Italia, a strategy based around attacking and targeting breakways paid off, as Michael Woods delivered a stage victory atop the iconic Puy de Dôme.
Jayco-Alula 6/10
Photo by Pauline Ballet/ASO
Simon Yates might not have landed the stage win he was gunning for, but more than made up for it by finishing a career-high fourth on GC. Dylan Groenewegen looked good in the sprints, registering second, third, fourth and fifth place finishes, but for the first time since his debut in 2016, comes home without a win to his name.
Jumbo-Visma 10/10
Photo by Pauline Ballet/ASO
Jumbo-Visma came here to win the Tour de France with Jonas Vingegaard, and they ultimately did so comfortably. There was none of the rollercoaster rides and stresses that saw them finish last year’s race with just five riders left; this time Van Aert’s leaving to witness the birth of his second child was their only abandon, by which point overall victory was already safely in the bag after three weeks of controlled, dominant racing. Maybe some more stage wins in addition to Vingegaard’s time trial triumph in Combloux would have been the cherry on the cake (particularly for Wout van Aert, for whom this was a first ever winless Tour de France), but by winning the yellow jersey they solidify their status as the best team in the world.
Lidl-Trek 8/10
Photo by Pauline Ballet/ASO
The collective effort on the Saturday’s final mountain stage in the Vosges to seal Giulio Ciccone victory in the mountains classification was a triumph of teamwork, as domestiques, in particular Matthias Skjelmose and Mads Pedersen did priceless shifts to help him on the climbs. Pedersen landed a stage win in Limoges too, to complete a strong performance.
Lotto-Dstny 5/10
Photo: Charly Lopez/ASO
Just as Caleb Ewan was beginning to show signs of a return to form with a couple of podium finishes in the opening week sprints, he abandoned during the Alps with fatigue. Still, the squad rallied well following the departure of their leader, with Maxim Van Gils finishing second on Grand Colombier, Pascal Eenkhoorn and Victor Campenaerts combining well to come so close to landing the former a stage win on stage 18’s successful breakaway, and Campenaerts being awarded the super-combativity award for his constant attacks.
Movistar 3/10
Photo by Zac Williams/SWPix
It was hoped that the early abandon of Enric Mas would at least free up Movistar’s climbing domestiques to chase stage wins, but this never came into fruition. Matteo Jorgenson came the closest with his bold long-range attack on stage 12 to finish third atop Puy de Dôme, but their race petered out as Jorgenson, Antonio Pedrero and Ruben Guerreiro all followed Mas in abandoning.
Soudal-Quick-Step 6 /10
Photo by Charly Lopez/ASO
With their formerly peerless lead-out train unable to compete with Alpecin-Deceuninck and Fabio Jakobsen only managing to land one top five finish before withdrawing during the second week, Soudal-Quick-Step failed to win a single sprint for the first time since the 2012 Tour de France. Julian Alaphilippe also didn’t have the legs to back up the countless attacks he made throughout the race, but thankfully Kaper Asgreen saved their race with a stage win from a breakaway in Bourg-en-Bresse.
TotalEnergies 5/10
Photo by James Startt/Agence Zoom
The man who TotalEnergies signed to give them a wildcard invite, Peter Sagan, might have had a quiet time during what was his last ever Tour de France, but the rest of the squad stepped up to justify their inclusion. Mathieu Burgaudeau was especially impressive, registering a second and third place from two of his many breakaway appearances, while Pierre Latour was also second on the stage to Puy de Dôme and Anthony Turgis and Daniel Oss earned the combativity award for their respective efforts in the breakaway on stages eight and 11.
UAE Team Emirates 9/10
Photo by Pauline Ballet/ASO
Ironically, this was probably UAE Team Emirates best Tour de France team performance to date, yet also one in which they fell short of repeating their overall successes in 2020 and 2021. They occupied both other places on the podium with Tadej Pogačar and Adam Yates, won a total of three stages between the same two riders, and took the race to Jumbo-Visma with aggressive riding from their talent-filled line-up, but could do nothing to stop Vingegaard’s exceptional time trial and Pogačar’s collapse on the Col de la Loze.
Uno-X Pro Cycling 4/10
Photo by Pauline Ballet/ASO
Uno-X’s all-Norwegian outfit provided a breath of fresh air on their Tour de France debut. They were dependable presences in the breakaways, with Tobias Johannessen doing especially well to achieve top six finishes in all three of the times he got up the road.
Cover image by Pauline Ballet/ASO
