Enter the first mountain stage of the 2025 Tour de France, and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) did not disappoint 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 defeated him in 2022.
Perhaps it was revenge, perhaps it was a bet with himself, 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.
Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) who is new to the Tour and was picked as a wildcard to his team, emerged as the third strongest rider on the day, finishing just 11 seconds behind Vingegaard. 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.
After eleven stages, the peloton entered the Pyrenees with a 180.6-km stage from Auch to Hautacam, finishing atop the first Haut Categorie climb of this edition (13.5km at 7.8%). There were 171 riders at the start after XDS-Astana announced Cees Bol would retire due to illness.
A 52-man breakaway
In line with his glorious assault on Toulouse yesterday, Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) attacked as soon as the peloton passed km o.
But this time, he was caught quickly. After a flurry of attacks, a 52-man group get away at km 17.Part of this bunch of attackers, Carlos Rodriguez was the main GC threat: a top-10 finisher in 2023 (5th) and 2024 (7th), the Spaniard was the best classified in the overall standings (12th, +5’44’’). And he had four Ineos-Grenadiers teammates with him: Thymen Arensman, Tobias Foss, Axel Laurance and Connor Swift.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)…
Shredded on the Soulor
To control such a threatening group, EF Education-EasyPost, UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Uno-X Mobility worked together. The gap hit its maximum of 2’20’’ at the bottom of the first cat.-1 ascent of this Tour, Col du Soulor (11.8km at 7.3%).
Visma-Lease a Bike immediately upped the ante. And the race exploded. At the front, Michael Woods went solo at the top (km 134.1). Skjelmose and Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) catched him on the downhill. The Frenchman, who hails from the Pyrenees, accelerated ahead of the climb to Col des Bordères (3.1km at 7.7%). At the bottom, he had a lead of 10’’ to his chasers. At the summit (km 145.7), the gap was up to 50”.
In the meantime, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) has already been dropped halfway through the ascent. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) struggled to keep up but survived with the help of Simon Yates. At the top, Evenepoel trailed by 2’45’’.
Pogacar flew off the front
On the downhill towards Hautacam, the GC contenders regrouped. The chasers were caught and Bruno Armirail tackled the final climb with a lead of 1’40’’. UAE Team Emirates-XRG set a brutal pace at the bottom and Jhonatan Narvaez propelled Tadej Pogacar’s attack with 12.5 km to go. Nobody could follow and Armirail was quickly reeled in and dropped.
The Slovenian gradually increased his lead until he took the victory on a summit where he had lost 1’04’’ to Vingegaard three years ago. This time, the Danish climber trailed by 2’10’’ and crossed the line just ahead of Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), the third strongest man of the day, 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.
