A strong Super U team surrounding him was also considered to be in his favour. Stephen Roche () had won the Tour in 1987 ahead of Delgado, but missed the race in 1988 with a knee injury. A strong spring season with victory at the Tour of the Basque Country, second place at Paris–Nice and a top-ten placing at the Giro d'Italia made it seem that Roche was finding his form again. Several other riders were named as favourites for a high place in the general classification. Charly Mottet (), fourth overall in 1987, had won the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré shortly before the Tour started and was ranked number one in the FICP Road World Rankings, a position that had been held by Sean Kelly () for five straight years. Kelly had never been a strong contender for the general classification, despite an overall victory at the 1988 Vuelta a España. Next to targeting a high place in the overall rankings, Kelly hoped to secure a record-breaking fourth win in the points classification. Kelly's PDM squad also had two talented Dutch riders in their ranks with hopes of a high finish: Steven Rooks, who had been second the year before, and Gert-Jan Theunisse. Since PDM had elected not to start either the Giro d'Italia or the Vuelta a España earlier in the season, the team hoped that their riders, without an additional three-week race in their legs, would be fresher than their rivals. Other favourites included Erik Breukink (Panasonic–Isostar), Andrew Hampsten (), Steve Bauer (), Fabio Parra () and Robert Millar (). According to "Sports Illustrated", Greg LeMond's "name was never mentioned among the pre-race favourites". LeMond had finished every Tour he had entered up to this point on the podium, including the first-ever victory for an American rider in 1986. His career was interrupted when he was accidentally shot by his brother-in-law in a hunting accident on Easter of 1987. About 60 pellets hit his body; his life was saved by emergency surgery, but LeMond struggled to return to professional cycling, leaving the successful PDM team at the end of 1988 and joining the relatively small ADR team. His team was not considered strong enough to help him during stage races, and ADR's financial troubles meant that LeMond had not been paid by his team in 1989 before the Tour started. Even the fee for late entry into the Tour was secured only when LeMond arranged additional sponsorship.