Already a stage winner at Hautacam, Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) doubled up with a second stage win, this time at La Plagne.
The Dutchman attacked with 13 kilometers to go on the final HC climb of the Tour de France 2025. At the summit, he narrowly resisted Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who crossed the line only 2 seconds behind the winner.
Right behind them, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) defended his white jersey and his spot on the GC podium against Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL). With just two stages to go, Tadej Pogacar takes his 52nd Maillot Jaune. He matches Jacques Anquetil’s record and enters the top-5 for most days leading the overall standings of the Tour.
One could only wonder if Pogacar had been warned by Tour organizers to allow someone else to win on this stage, as we all knew he could win himself. The Tour has become a bit of a yawn with Pogacar dominating so many stages, especially in the mountains. Now that he has a comfortable lead, there is no need for him to win more stages. I can almost imagine the conversation between Paul Prudhomme and the team management right now.
Due to the change of course because of sick cows, a 161-man peloton headed to Beaufort, where they rejoined he original route, heading to La Plagne. The stage became the shortest because of this change, tp 93.1 km instead of the originally planned 129,9 km. The cows in the region the Tour now avoided had contracted a form of dermatitis that was highly contagious and there was fear among the farmers that the contagion would spread through the region because of the Tour traffic.
The logic failed Cyclists International, as hundreds of thousands of tour fans had already moved to the contaminated region, and then back to the new route, bringing whatever cow dung on their shoes with them.
Roglic, Paret-Peintre and Martinez lead the way
A sequence exactly similar to the previous day begins with Lidl-Trek riders taking control of the peloton, en route to the intermediate sprint at Villard-sur-Doron (km 12.1). Clad with his green jersey, and thanks to a strong team lead up, Jonathan Milan was first on the line.
The climb to the Col du Pré came next and after several attacks, two groups formed at the front of the race. Eventually Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quick Step) emerged, crossing the pass in that order before launching their assault on the Cormet de Roselend.
Roglic sets off
Once again, Martinez went first at the summit. He had to make up for a penalty of 20 points he
received when receiving a push from his team car using a thinly veiled bottle exchange, that resulted in no bottle but a hefty push. In the peloton, Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) sets the pace to distance Kevin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), who was distanced over the top of Col du Pré. At Cormet de Roselend, the GC group are 50’’ behind the leaders while the French man trails by 1’50’’.
Roglic distanced the two French climbers on the downhill. Back on the valley, Paret-Peintre and Martinez were reeled in by the bunch, led by Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), with 32 km to go. The Belgian all-rounder then bridged the gap to Roglic 2 kilometers away from the start of the final major climb of the
Tour 2025: 19.1km at 7.2% to reach the finish line at La Plagne.
The last major summit
Roglic was dropped early on the ascent, which incited Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale to up the ante as
Felix Gall could take the 5th place in the overall standings.
With 14 kilometers to go, Tadej Pogacar launched an attack that splintered the group. Only Jonas Vingegaard managed to stay on his wheel, but the duo was joined by Arensman. The Dutchman took a gamble and dropped them with 13 kilometer to go. Three kilometers further on, a group reformed around Pogacar and Vingegaard, with Gall, Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL), Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) and Ben Healy, while Arensman tried to keep his hopes alive with a 30’’ lead.
The gap was still up to 20’’ into the last 3 kilometers and Onley showed some signs of weakness. Lipowitz accelerated, Arensman was in sight… But he resisted and in a nail biting sequence, took the win 2 seconds ahead of Vingegaard and Pogacar.
