photo credits @ Le Tour
The first mountain stage of the 2025 Tour de France saw Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) assert his dominance on the slopes of Hautacam. The Slovenian dropped everyone with 12.5 kilometers to go and went on to claim his 20th stage win, his eighth in the Pyrenees and his first at Hautacam, where Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) had inflicted a significant defeat on him in 2022.
This time, Pogacar opened up a gap of 2’10’’ on his Danish rival and regained the Maillot Jaune, just a day after he hit the deck in Toulouse, while Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) emerged as the third strongest rider on the day, finishing just 11 seconds behind Vingegaard. However, Ben Healy was dropped on the Col du Soulor, with more than 50 kilometers to go, and had to relinquish the Maillot Jaune after two days in the overall lead.
Race Highlights
Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) attacked as soon as the peloton pass km 0. But this time, he was rapidly reeled in. After a flurry of attacks, a 52-man group got away at km 17.
In this bunch of attackers, Carlos Rodriguez had four Ineos-Grenadiers teammates with him, Thymen Arensman, Tobias Foss, Axel Laurance and Connor Swift, while on the move to defend his polka-dot jersey, Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) was also up there with three teammates, Santiago Buitrago, Robert Stannard and Fred Wright. The group also featured strong climbers such as Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet (Groupama-FDJ), Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Michael Woods (Israel Premier Tech).
To control the threatening group, EF Education-EasyPost, UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Uno-X Mobility worked together, while the lead group’s gap hit a maximum of 2’20’’ at the bottom of the Col du Soulor.
Visma-Lease a Bike immediately upped the ante, causing the race to explode, with Woods going solo at the top. But, Skjelmose and Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) caught him along the descent, while Armirail later accelerated ahead of the climb to Col des Bordères, later opening up a margin of 10 seconds that swelled to 50 seconds at the summit.
In the meantime, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) were dropped halfway up the ascent, while Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) struggled to keep up but survived with the help of Simon Yates. At the top, Evenepoel trailed by 45’’ and Evenepoel by 2’45’’.
On the descent to Hautacam, the GC contenders got back together, later catching the chasers as Armirail tackled the final climb with a lead of 1’40’’.
From there, UAE Team Emirates-XRG set a brutal pace at the bottom as Jhonatan Narvaez helped propel Pogacar’s attack with 12.5 km to go. Nobody could follow and Armirail was rapidly reeled in and dropped.
The Slovenian gradually increased his lead, taking victory on a summit where he previously lost 1’04’’ to Vingegaard three years ago. This time, the Danish climber trailed by 2’10’’ and crossed the line just ahead of Lipowitz with a gap of 2’21’’.
Healy eventually finished more than 10 minutes later, relinquishing the Maillot Jaune to Pogacar after two days in the overall lead.
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