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 kilometres 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. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) 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 kilometres to go, and had to relinquish the Maillot Jaune after two days in the overall lead.
Onto the mountains! After eleven fast and furious stages, the peloton enter the Pyrenees with a 180.6-km stage from Auch to Hautacam, finishing atop the first HC climb of this edition (13.5km at 7.8%). There are 171 riders at the start after XDS-Astana announced Cees Bol would retire due to illness.
A climber-studded 52-man breakaway
In line with his glorious assault on Toulouse yesterday, Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) attacks as soon as the peloton pass km 0. But this time, he’s rapidly reeled in. After a flurry of attacks, a 52-man group get away at km 17.
Part of this bunch of attackers, Carlos Rodriguez is the main GC threat: a top-10 finisher in 2023 (5th) and 2024 (7th), the Spaniard is the best classified in the overall standings (12th, +5’44’’). And he has 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) is also up there with three teammates: Santiago Buitrago, Robert Stannard and Fred Wright. The group also features strong climbers such as Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet (Groupama-FDJ), Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Michael Woods (Israel Premier Tech)…
The Soulor takes a high toll
To control such a threatening group, EF Education-EasyPost, UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Uno-X Mobility work together. The gap hits 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 up the ante. And the race explodes. At the front, Michael Woods goes solo at the top (km 134.1). Skjelmose and Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) catch him on the downhill. The Frenchman, hailing from the Pyrenees, accelerates ahead of the climb to Col des Bordères (3.1km at 7.7%). At the bottom, he has a lead of 10’’ to his chasers. At the summit (km 145.7), the gap is up to 50''.
In the meantime, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) are already dropped halfway through the ascent. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) struggles to keep up but survives with the help of Simon Yates. At the top, Evenepoel trails by 45’’ and Evenepoel by 2’45’’.
Pogacar flies away
On the downhill towards Hautacam, the GC contenders get back together. The chasers are caught and Bruno Armirail tackles the final climb with a lead of 1’40’’. UAE Team Emirates-XRG set a brutal pace at the bottom and Jhonatan Narvaez propels Tadej Pogacar’s attack with 12.5 km to go. Nobody can follow and Armirail is rapidly reeled in and dropped.
The Slovenian gradually increases his lead until he takes victory on a summit where he had lost 1’04’’ to Vingegaard three years ago. This time, the Danish climber trails by 2’10’’ and crosses 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.
