of classics?
A brutal 2025 Tour de France saw the favourite retain his crown despite the organisers staging a course full of his previous nemesis, winning it before the final week which seemed to bring him no pleasure until the final stage.
They said it was a throwback opening week to the Tour, maybe only in so much as it looked on paper and the fact the week lasted 10 stages. Maybe that first stage with a sprinter taking the victory and the yellow jersey but it wasn’t a “week” raced like those of yore.
Ridden hard, big players were already down in time due to splits from crosswinds, as was the second stage which would see a small group in a bunch sprint but not the usual suspects but Mathieu van der Poel winning ahead of Pogacar and then Vingegaard with a new name in sixth Onley. Then a hard raced sprint stage, was actually won by a sprinter.
Before Pog won his first stage of the race on day four, this time getting the better of van der Poel, with again Vingegaard just behind on the same time, as was a certain Onley in 4th, one of only six riders. With a couple of TT big hitters hitting the deck on stage 1, it was really down to the GC contenders on stage 5. Remco put in a Remco performance to take the win, gaining 16 seconds on the time he’d lost to, second placed, Pog so far. The shock came from the Dane who finished out of the top 10. Not what he was expecting after the roles were reversed in the Dauphine.
Loosing over a minute in total. He was talking himself up, feeling great, putting in great numbers. Best numbers ever. Yet it wasn’t long until his teammate Kuss was talking about the team going for stages, as if they had no confidence of their team leader taking the top step in Paris.
Visma were doing everything they could for him, running interference, trying to disrupt Pog at every turn again in such a way that suggested for his numbers talk, it wasn’t really there.
Stage 6 say the battle of the combatants. Two players in the overall combativity award. The every present Captain America Quinn Simmons and the breakaway Brummy leprechaun Ben Healy. The Irishman taking his first Tour victory after a breakaway from the breakaway. van der Poel was a bit behind him but enough in front of the other GC contenders to take yellow by 1 second, after again Visma were up to their tricks, trying to keep Pog in yellow, meaning he’d have to do all the post race stuff.
They needn’t have bother, he took it himself the following day with yet another Tour stage win, this time on the Mûr-de-Bretagne, Vingegaard was second, with a certain Onley in third, a couple of seconds behind. What followed was the most non-eventful stage of the race. A nailed on sprint, finished in a nailed on sprint and the big fast guy won. Milan’s first Tour victory.
The next day also finished in a sprint. Just. The day started with a bit of a joke between teammates Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Rickaert, the latter saying that just once he’d like to be on the podium at the Tour de France. So his more illustrious colleague took him on a breakaway to try and get him the combativity award for the day. They went from the off and Rickaert led his mate until he had no more, with 6km to go, van der Poel almost finished it off caught but the charging peloton with less than 1km to go. Rickaert did get the award and duly took his place on the podium.
Things had been extended because Bastille Day fell on what would have been the first rest day but stage 10 had to be raced on France’s day. And duly won by a Brit. The fifth win by a Brit in the last two decades, to two French wins. Vismas’ Simon Yates taking the honours. While Healy finished third, taking the yellow jersey from Pog by nearly half a minute.
The day after the rest day, saw Pog’s only slip up on the race, as he crossed wheels and went down. The rest of the group he was in sat up and waited for the rainbow bands to rejoin. It saw Jonas Abrahamsen and Uno-X score their first Tour wins.
Would the crash have any effect on Pog for the first stage in the Pyrenees? The Hautacam where he’d previously come a cropper, left behind by Vingegaard. Well, this time Vingegaard had plenty of helpers but when they ran out and Pg’s teammate decided to sprint up the climb, the reigning champ was off and the Dane was floundering. He may have finished second but it was another 2 minutes 10 seconds lost. The gap was over three and a half minutes. This stage though saw the beginning of the end for Remco Evenepoel. Pog followed this up with yet another stage win, this time in the second TT, up to Peyragudes. More than 30 seconds put into Vingegaard. Now over four minutes, and was the Tour over?
Not a stage particularly for the world champion, Remco, but this wasn’t a rider who was right. The Belgian would climb off the following day, another day of suffering that he didn’t appreciate on camera but at least the cameras caught the moment he handed a delighted little lad his bottle. Would Pog win the third straight Pyrenean summit finish? A huge day climbing, ending up in Superbagnères. No, he would just finish best of the rest as Ineos’s Arensman would be another rider to take his debut Tour win. Again a rider breaking away from the breakaway. Again Pog put more time into his biggest rival, while a certain Onley was up to fourth.
Up to and including Peyragudes, Pog put 4′ 07″ into Vingegaard. From there to Paris he would extend that by just 17 seconds. A more mature Pog but also a Pog that was getting a bit chippy. Didn’t seem to be enjoying himself. It’s almost as if he actually had no one to race, so didn’t bother. He had digs but never putting in huge gaps. What was the point. It was won, Vingegaard had nothing to offer.
The Col de la Loz, where two years ago Pog said those immortal words down his team radio “I’m gone. I’m dead”, didn’t have impact, as he put a few more seconds into Vingegaard.
For all Vingegaard’s talk, there was no action. He did his usual wheelsucking that just seemed to piss Pog off more. When asked why he didn’t attack Pog, Vingegaard replied that if he had he could have been countered and beaten into second on stage 19 to La Plagne. In the end he finished second anyway – to Arensman gaining his second stage of the Tour and saving Ineoss’s tour. If he’d attacked he could have won. But the man who said he was willing to risk it all to take the top step showed he wasn’t willing to do anything. All talk. When asked about what Pog thought about what Vingegaard did, the Slovakian replied that there was nothing to talk about, he did nothing. THe commentators banged on about this being the first time Vingegaard had beaten Pog over the line in ages but he was given it and was so shameless he took the gift.
So for the final week Pog didn’t really race. Not the Pog way, as said he didn’t have to. But for rain on the final stage he wouldn’t probably have raced round Paris. With the new addition of three climbs of Montmartre, this wasn’t the sprinters world championship anymore. And with the rain came the news the GC race times had been neutralised it meant Pog could race and race he did, until Wout van Aert blasted away from him on the final climb, taking the victory in a way we’ve seen twice now this season, once in the Giro – noticeably with Vingegaard lollygagged at the back. No thoughts of the Dane helping his teammate. Was he cheering on Wout the way Pog was cheering on Tim Wellens’ victory?
Another brutal stage in a brutal tour that was bar one stage pretty much raced full gas throughout. And still Pog won. Won at a cantor without having to thrash himself in the final week. A final week in which he looked a bit disillusioned and wasn’t his cheeky self. Talk of this being his last but what chances when he’s now on four TdF victories and the record so much in his grasp. Hell, even Cav’s 35 stage wins is almost in sight.
The usual two took the top two steps. Florian Lipowitz, took third from Remco and kept it, despite a certain Onley getting to within half a minute the young Scot finished fourth in his second Tour. It’s no shame finishing 12′ 12″ behind Pog over this course. A course in which a number of times he was the only one close to the top two. A course which saw him finish in the top 10 in 8 stages, five of them in the top 5.
To be continued…