Pogacar beats Vingegaard by more than 2 minutes in the first big mountain stage of the Tour

Decisive, unappealable and, in principle, if nothing goes wrong, definitive. That has been the devastating attack of Tadej Pogacar in the ascent to Hautacam, the end of the first high mountain stage of the Tour de France 2025 which, if nothing changes, seems to be seen as a done deal with still half of the race to go thanks to the enormous performance shown by the Slovenian.

Tadej Pogacar sentencing the Tour de France 2025 on the slopes of Hautacam

It was coming, the tremendous toughness accumulated by the tremendous pace and competitiveness of the first week, the crazy stage we experienced yesterday, the first contact with the high mountains and along with a day of intense heat in the Pyrenees have provided all the ingredients for the perfect storm to unleash in the Tour de France 2025.

A truly dantesque day with 180 kilometers between Auch and Hautacam with a completely flat first part approaching a final third of the stage where the Soulor, Col de Borderes and the already mythical arrival at Hautacam were linked. A day that, like almost everything we have seen in the Tour de France so far, started at full speed. Continuous attacks trying to catch the breakaway and where it was striking that riders like Jonathan Milan or Biniam Girmay were trying to get into the splits, sprinters who will hardly have any more opportunities to score points for the green jersey and who were looking to reach the intermediate sprint ahead.

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It would take 20 kilometers for the breakaway of the day to form and, in a tremendously strange way, a split occurred leaving no less than 50 riders ahead, obviously of a high level with names like Skjelmose, Van der Poel, Alaphilippe, Schmid, Trentin, Raúl García Pierna, Iván Romeo, Pablo Castrillo.

However, what turned out to be truly relevant was how INEOS Grenadiers managed to filter no less than 4 men in this split: Arensman, Foss, Laurance and their team leader, Carlos Rodríguez, the best placed of those in the breakaway just 5:44 behind the yellow jersey. However, behind them, they did not stress. UAE Team Emirates-XRG only had Nils Politt pulling and EF Education-EasyPost also had another man while both received unexpected help from Uno-X Mobility determined to defend Johannessen's Top10.

This left a race once again turned into an intense pursuit with the riders in front paddling to death and those behind doing the same. In fact, the difference between the two groups was hooked for kilometers and kilometers around a minute and 45 seconds in an endless back and forth that was reflected in a first hour where 52 kilometers were covered.

With this scenario, what had to happen occurred, the arrival of the first ramps of the Soulor made the race explode into a thousand pieces, both in front, where the INEOS Grenadiers riders tried to make way for Carlos Rodriguez but all of them ended up paying for it while Skjelmose, Woods or Storer took advantage of their greater experience in breakaways to select the group and try to find that split that would lead them victoriously to the finish line.

There was also a change of paradigm in the group of favorites with the strong bet of Visma-Lease a Bike that began to set a very intense pace which, as expected, left the leader, Ben Healy, as a victim and also brought out, less expectedly, at least so soon in the stage, a Remco Evenepoel who fell off the wheel but very intelligently focused on setting his own pace without showing defeat.

But the pace of Visma-Lease a Bike was so intense that it even made two of its key riders, Simon Yates and Matteo Jorgenson, give in, which forced Sepp Kuss to moderate his pace and allowed the Belgian to minimize the losses at the top. The tone would be maintained on the climb up Borderes, where Jorgenson and Yates fell back again, an opportunity that UAE Team Emirates-XRG took to take action and try to isolate Jonas Vingegaard.

Nevertheless, on the descent towards Argeles-Gazost, the town at the foot of the final climb, Remco managed to return to the main group knowing that he would have to suffer immensely again in Hautacam to stay in podium positions. In a section where, while Visma-Lease a Bike lost units, UAE Team Emirates-XRG gained with the invaluable arrival of Tim Wellens from the breakaway, a Wellens who was key in the start of Hautacam where he set a brutal pace.

A hardening work that in the first ramps of this climb, an area of rolling hills between villages, was followed by a tremendous acceleration by Jonathan Narváez that left only his leader Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard on his wheel. The perfect prelude to the subsequent devastating attack by Tadej Pogacar who, unlike during the first week and without showing any signs of the injuries from yesterday's fall, destroyed Jonas Vingegaard when there were still 11 kilometers left for the breakaway and, worst of all for the Dane, also the toughest part of this fearsome Pyrenean colossus.

From there, the difference began to grow gradually, with the Slovenian completely on fire in what may be considered one of the greatest exhibitions in a career full of them, and a Jonas Vingegaard willing in the fight but unable to see how the seconds were falling one after another in his favor.

Behind him, a group formed by Roglic, Lipowitz, Vauquelin, Onley and Johannessen began to lick their lips with the incentive of knowing that their effort could start to earn them a podium spot even though, just behind them, Remco Evenepoel contained the losses with a tremendously intelligent climb. Among them, it was Florian Lipowitz, taking on the role of leader of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, who showed the best legs and launched a pursuit of Jonas Vingegaard.

Finally, another partial victory for a Tadej Pogacar who didn't even raise his hands at the finish line, focused only on pushing until the last meter and scraping every second. A Pogacar who arrived at the finish line completely empty but with the satisfaction of knowing that, if nothing unfortunate happens in the second half of the Tour de France, in two weekends he will be able to add a fourth yellow jersey to his collection.

Behind him, powerless, Jonas Vingegaard crossed the finish line with a face of circumstance more than 2 minutes behind the Slovenian while, just 12 seconds after his arrival, a Lipowitz who clearly aims for a podium spot in this Tour de France. 40 seconds behind him, Onley and Johannessen left while Remco barely lost half a minute compared to them. A situation that, a priori, will leave us with an interesting battle for the third step of the podium in the stages remaining until Paris.

Perhaps we are somewhat empty to see that the Tour de France, even knowing that in cycling anything can happen and a fall, illness, or simply one of those days when the legs don't work can ruin all the work done, is practically decided in favor of Tadej Pogacar who, perhaps since that stage towards the Col de la Loze, has not failed. He may have had bad days where he hasn't won when expected, but his bad days mean crossing the finish line second or third, so it is unlikely that this will change by the time we reach Paris.

Tomorrow, a new Pyrenean episode with the peculiar uphill time trial to Peyragudes where the most interesting thing will be to see how the riders have assimilated the tremendous effort of today and whether Remco Evenepoel, despite it being a time trial that does not suit his characteristics as a specialist in individual time trials, can make use of his qualities to fight for that third step of the podium he achieved last year.