The Tour de France has long been the domain of European riders, and the peloton of 176 is still largely made up of riders from across the continent. Eight North American riders will take the start line across six teams at this year’s Tour. They all have Grand Tour experience, and a few have even put their names in the record books or at least earned an asterisk for special efforts.
While they all share a similarity with the main task at hand for each team - support the team’s GC leader - each is capable of going for glory with a stage victory should an opportunity arise across the three weeks. The last North American to win a stage at the Tour was Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech), who captured an emotional victory in Foix. A North American name is absent from the contenders' list to carry the maillot jaune, per nominations of the veterans by the teams, but anything can happen like Neilson Powless’ (EF Education-EasyPost) near take of the race lead on stage 5 last year.
