Peak Pogačar

The pre-race favourite is in his prime and taking no prisoners, with a lead of over four minutes

- Chris Marshall-Bell

Hopes that the 2025 Tour de France would be a closely fought battle right until the end were extinguished as soon as the race got to the mountains, as Tadej Pogačar exerted his superiority over his great rival Jonas Vingegaard in the Pyrenees. Following an opening 10 days of racing where - with the exception of the stage five time trial - Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike team went on the attack and by and large limited their losses to the Slovenian in the punchy, uphill finishes, the Dane was further encouraged that he could claim a third Tour title when Pogačar crashed in the closing kilometres of stage 11 in Toulouse.

But just a day later, Pogačar, sporting a bandage on his left arm, proved that he wasn't badly hurt and instead went on the offensive, winning at Hautacam, the same mountain where he was dropped by Wout van Aert in 2022 and Vingegaard beat him by over a minute to seal his maiden yellow jersey, subjecting Pogačar to his first Tour loss.

This time around, however, there was no such repeat, with the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider attacking at the foot of the climb and winning by 2.10 to take an ironclad grip on the yellow jersey on the first day in the mountains. Underlining the Slovenian's superiority, Pogačar's teammate, Tim Wellens, said afterwards: “I imagine that if he didn't crash [on stage 11], he would have won by four minutes. He's mentally super strong, focused and always delivers.”

Stage win number 21