The Tour de France is back and it features the best selection of North American riders in years. With established names in form and with expectations surrounding several young riders ready to make the leap into the upper echelon’s of cycling’s best riders, expect the riders from the United States and Canada to be featuring heavily at the business end of stages this July. So who are the six Americans and three Canadians looking to salvage their continent’s reputation in cycling’s biggest race?
American riders
After a tumultuous last ten years, US cycling is flying high right now, with a heap of talented riders coming through to challenge at the very top level of the sport.
Lawson Craddock
Jayco-AlUla’s Lawson Craddock is a time-trial specialist from Houston, Texas. With only one time-trial in this year’s race, which includes a sneakily hard climb, he’s unlikely to get a result there. With that in mind the 21-year-old will most likely be looking to get in breakaways or support team leader Simon Yates’s general classification quest.
Matteo Jorgenson
The rapidly rising super-talent Matteo Jorgenson, 23, from Walnut Creek, California will be taking on his second Tour de France this year and after three top fives and fourth in the white jersey competition, expect him to be challenging for multiple stages, white and polka dot jerseys this time around. Although Enric Mas leads their Movistar team and has GC ambitions, Jorgenson is too good a rider to waste as a domestique that Mas doesn’t need.
Sepp Kuss
The biggest name on the list. Everyone knows who Sepp Kuss, the Eagle of Durango, is at this point. The world’s best super-domestique who could challenge the world’s best climbers for stages – and probably GC – if he wanted to, Kuss, 28, will be Jonas Vingegaard‘s right-hand man in the mountains, keeping things under control when the inevitable attacks loom and setting his Danish teammate up to win for himself. He already has a Giro d’Italia in his legs but don’t expect him to be suffering too much, there are plenty of opportunities to drop back from the favourites and rest up before he’s required. Unless Vingegaard gets a massive lead, it’s unlikely he’ll be allowed the chance to go for a stage.
Neilson Powless
Another rising star, Neilson Powless, who comes from Roseville, California and was the first US Native American to compete at the Tour in 2020, had an unbelievable start to 2023 including fifth at the Tour of Flanders, seventh in Milan-San Remo and the overall win at Étoile de Bessèges, and he’ll be hoping to turn that in to a stage win and maybe a polka dot jersey attempt at the Tour de France. When the next season of Tour de France: Unchained drops on Netflix next year, expect another feature for EF Education-EasyPost’s Powless, 26, and most likely alongside some of his compatriots who he’ll be challenging for a stage, and expect victory for the EF man.
Quinn Simmons
The newly crowned US Road Race National Champion on the newly named Lidl-Trek, Quinn Simmons, 22, is another incredibly talented rider from Durango, Colorado. His team don’t have a GC contender so Simmons will be free to ride for himself, meaning he’ll be getting in breakaways in hilly and mountains stages to bag himself a first Grand Tour stage win. Sadly the stage on 4th July is flat, so there’ll be no stars and stripes crossing the line first on Independence Day.
Kevin Vermaerke
The last of the young talents is DSM-Firmenich’s 22-year-old Kevin Vermaerke from Rancho Santa Margarita, California, recently seen bombing down descents with teammate Romain Bardet and SAFA Brian (see video). Vermaerke may be asked to shadow Bardet and help him out if needed and might get one or two chances to get in the breakaway, but as he’s still developing there won’t be any pressure for results.
Canadian riders
Thanks to the pull of its Canadian sponsor, all three riders from Canada at this year’s Tour de France rider for Israel-Premier Tech. No Prizes for guessing which sponsor is Canadian.
Guillaume Boivin
Three-time Canadian road race champion Guillaume Boivin is a 34-year-old Classics specialist from Montreal, with career highlights including ninth at the wet Paris-Roubaix in 2021 and podiums at Tro-Bro Léon and Ronde van Drenthe in 2012. His best result this year is ninth at Dwars door Vlaanderen. Israel-Premier Tech are aiming for stage wins at the Tour, so Boivin will be hoping to get in breakaways and work for stronger teammates.
Hugo Houle
Last year’s hero, Hugo Houle is back for more. The 32-year-old from Sainte-Perpétue will be looking to add to his tally of Tour de France stage wins and with one under his belt he’ll be brimming with confidence. With only four summit finishes there are plenty of opportunities for someone with his ability to make a breakaway stick.
Michael Woods
Israel-Premier Tech’s premier talent Michael Woods is the team’s best chance at winning stages, the 36-year-old climbs as well as anyone that he’ll encounter in breakaways and will likely be targeting the hardest stages of the race as well as the punchy opener in Bilbao. He could be in with a shout of going for the KOM jersey too, but given the past few years, that will probably go to the yellow jersey.