Tour de France 2025: Van der Poel sprints to stage two victory and into yellow jersey
The Dutch rider thwarted Tadej Pogacar's attempt to take the 100th win of his career, outsprinting the defending Tour champion on the steady final climb of the Boulevard Auguste Mariette.
His teammate Jasper Philipsen, wearing the yellow jersey after winning stage one to Lille on Saturday, was distanced in the closing kilometres and Van der Poel took the race lead from the Belgian sprinter.
Pogacar's main rival, Jonas Vingegaard of Visma Lease-a-bike, followed the Slovenian across the finish line, with the Olympic champion, Remco Evenepoel, distanced on Saturday's stage, showing greater vigilance to finish in the front group.
But for the hapless French rider Benjamin Thomas, who crashed on Saturday's stage while fighting his compatriot Matteo Vercher for a single point in the mountains classification on Mont Cassel, Sunday morning dawned with the news that his bike, along with 10 others from the Cofidis team worth about €140,000 (£120,000), had been stolen from their vehicles overnight.
Monday is likely to be another sprinters' stage, with a third tricky day through the Nord and towards the Channel, this time to Dunkirk, in which the cobbles of Mont Cassel and the crosswinds off the sea will again play their part.
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The Independent
43 minutes ago
- The Independent
Who is Oscar Onley? The talented Scot breaking through at the Tour de France
Viewers scanning the Tour de France general classification will see a mix of wholly expected names and some comparative unknowns. Tadej Pogacar leads the standings as his era-defining dominance continues; Jonas Vingegaard sits second behind his longtime rival. But accompanying the rider sitting fourth in the overall standings is a British flag: not former Tour de France winner and veteran Geraint Thomas, but the up-and-coming youngster Oscar Onley. The 22-year-old has been enjoying a breakout season and is in action in just his second Tour de France. He and his team came in targeting a stage win but are on course for a top-five finish, and very possibly a podium place, at the sport's biggest race. With every passing stage he has surpassed both his own expectations and that of all observers. So who is Onley, and what's behind his meteoric rise? Onley grew up in the Scottish Borders town of Kelso and was inspired to start cycling by the fact that the time-trial route for his local club, Kelso Wheelers, went right past his house. The youngster was soon hooked, and while he could have had a future as an elite cross-country runner, he eventually opted for two wheels instead. He raced in Europe as a junior before joining the development team of his current squad, Picnic PostNL, in 2021. His breakthrough win came in 2022 at the Giro Valle d'Aosta, an Italian stage race, before he finished third at the CRO Race - a stage race in Croatia - and he made the step up to WorldTour racing in 2023. He finished third at the Tour de Suisse, behind Joao Almeida and Kevin Vauquelin (AP) Onley picked up a few top-10s in his debut WorldTour season, including at major stage races the Tour de Romandie and the Criterium du Dauphine, but his Grand Tour debut didn't go to plan. The youngster was part of DSM-Firmenich's win in the team time trial on stage one of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana, but he crashed and broke his collarbone on stage two and was forced to abandon the race. But 2024 was to prove a standout year. He kicked it off in style with his first professional win at the Tour Down Under, the season-opening stage race in Australia, on the famous Willunga Hill climb, and finished fourth overall. He was 39th in his first full Grand Tour - last year's Tour de France - with his best result a fifth place on stage 17 to Superdevoluy, a tough mountain stage won by Richard Carapaz. He finished second overall at the Tour of Britain, winning the best young rider classification, and was the highest-placed British rider in the gruelling World Championships road race in Zurich. This year he has built on those experiences: he was fifth overall at the UAE Tour - won by Pogacar - then ninth at Itzulia Basque Country and third overall at the Tour de Suisse, a phenomenal race for the 22-year-old. Onley was seventh in stage 13's mountainous time trial (AFP via Getty Images) He took a stage win on Stage 5, beating overall winner Joao Almeida on a stage featuring four category-one climbs, and clearly rode into his best form at the perfect time with the Tour de France on the horizon. Having moved from the rolling Scottish hills to the mountains of Andorra, the 22-year-old is most at home when the gradient kicks up. So far in this Tour he has finished third, fourth twice, fifth, seventh, and sixth twice, with three of those fine results coming on gruelling back-to-back Pyrenean stages. While Onley is a pure climber, his seventh place on stage 13's mountainous time trial indicated that that sort of terrain against the clock also suits him well, which bodes well for a future as a serious GC contender. He was distanced by the likes of Vingegaard and Pogacar at the toughest gradients on the road stages to Hautacam and Superbagneres, but has shown he can ride his own pace to limit his losses, and has ridden a very mature race to rise to fourth overall. Onley follows Vingegaard and Pogacar on the toughest slopes of Col de la Loze (AP) Nowhere was that more on show than on the queen stage of the Tour: stage 18 from Vif to Courchevel, with the summit finish 2,304m above sea level on the mythical Col de la Loze. Onley was distanced on the day's second HC climb, the Col de la Madeleine, but paced himself well and was rejoined by his teammates on the valley road to Col de la Loze. With their support he conserved his energy and ultimately was the final GC rider to stick with Vingegaard and Pogacar on the steepest upper slopes of the formidable climb, only dropping in the closing few hundred metres. After stage 16's race to Mont Ventoux he was 2'01' behind Florian Lipowitz, the current third-placed rider and leader in the best young rider classification, but the queen stage saw him shave that deficit down to just 22 seconds, meaning Onley has a fine chance of both taking the white jersey in Paris and third spot on the podium. At the same time he built his advantage to 1'26' over five-time Grand Tour winner Primoz Roglic, Lipowitz's Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammate, who currently sits fifth. The Scot has consistently stuck with the yellow jersey group and finished third behind Pogacar and Vingegaard on stage seven (AFP via Getty Images) By the end of the second week, it looked as though the Scot himself was starting to believe he is real deal. He told ITV4 on Monday, 'It's something I wasn't expecting. It's really been a successful week, the Hautacam stage gave me a lot of confidence on the first climb, when I saw Remco [Evenepoel] being dropped and [Matteo] Jorgenson in trouble and I still felt really good. That was my first real test in the mountains with multiple climbs. 'The last day in the Pyrenees [stage 14 to Superbagneres] was the hardest stage for sure. I didn't feel super good that day but looking around, no one felt that good. Each stage that passes I'm gaining more confidence. 'The team have a lot of confidence in me, and maybe sometimes I need to have a little bit more confidence in myself. But that's starting to come now and I'm starting to see my place in the peloton and finding my way.' The team have insisted throughout this Tour that Onley is riding a 'relaxed GC', without any pressure on his shoulders, and that voyage of discovery of what exactly he's capable of continues this week, with one major day of climbing in the Alps left on Friday. Onley was fifth on stage 12 to Hautacam, behind only his GC rivals (AFP via Getty Images) And with the retirement of Romain Bardet, Picnic PostNL's veteran climber and GC rider, Onley is coming of age at just the right time - along with fellow 22-year-old British talent Max Poole, who represent a bright future for British GC hopefuls. Picnic PostNL's sports director Matt Winston told Velo this week, 'I think he's an incredible talent. He works hard, he's a quiet guy. But he is very thoughtful, very reflective. And he's doing a really good job.' Onley's ambitions of winning a stage at this Tour have been somewhat thwarted by his lofty position in the general classification, meaning that Pogacar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG outfit will never let him go in a breakaway. That means that in order to win a stage the Scot will have to stick with Pogacar, Vingegaard, and the GC group in the high mountains and overhaul them. It's a daunting task for anyone, but he has already demonstrated he can stick with them. And regardless of the final outcome in Paris, Onley has marked himself out as a huge name to watch for the future.
The Independent
43 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ben O'Connor conquers Tour de France queen stage as Tadej Pogacar tightens grip on yellow
Sign up to our free sport newsletter for all the latest news on everything from cycling to boxing Sign up to our free sport email for all the latest news Sign up to our free sport email for all the latest news Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Tadej Pogacar conquered his demons on the Col de la Loze to stretch his advantage in yellow as Ben O'Connor secured his second career Tour de France stage victory, this time on the queen stage. On the mountain where Pogacar famously cracked in 2023 as Jonas Vingegaard rode away to his second Tour crown, the Slovenian was the one gaining time two years later as a late dig at the summit saw him add 11 seconds to an overall lead that now stands at four minutes 26 seconds over his Danish rival. Oscar Onley, the 22-year-old Scot, hung with the two main favourites until the last 500 metres of this brutal 171.5km stage from Vif. Billed as the race's 'queen stage', it took in three hors categorie climbs, with Onley struggling on the second - the Col de la Madeleine - but regrouping and ultimately gaining 39 seconds on Florian Lipowitz to move to within 22 seconds of the podium with one mountain stage left. Stage honours belonged to O'Connor, who was in the original breakaway and attacked again on the valley road between the Col de la Madeleine and the final climb. He left Einer Rubio behind 16km from the summit of this 26km long climb, with double digit gradients and hail awaiting the riders on the narrow bike path to the summit. open image in gallery The Australian now has two Tour de France stage wins to go with his Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana victories ( AFP via Getty Images ) The Australian came to this Tour targeting the general classification but saw those hopes dashed by injuries sustained in a stage-one crash, and has had to recalibrate his ambitions to realise his second career Tour stage win, and first since 2021. '(The Tour) is a rough race,' O'Connor said. 'It's the biggest race in the world but for sure it's the cruellest. I've wanted another victory for so many years now, I've had a lot of thirds and fourths, so close. 'I couldn't be more proud of myself and the boys that have backed me every single day this whole race, even in the pretty rough times.' The penultimate mountain stage of this Tour was another opportunity for Vingegaard's Visma-Lease A Bike team to try to isolate Pogacar, and they made their first big moves on the Madeleine. open image in gallery Pogacar and Vingegaard were once again inseparable until the uppermost slopes of the final climb ( AFP via Getty Images ) Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG lieutenants fell away but recovered before the climb up through Courcheval. Vingegaard tried a late attack but it was Pogacar who came over the top to edge closer to a fourth career Tour crown. 'Today was brutal,' Vingegaard said. 'Five hours in the saddle. I'm not sure I've ever done such a hard stage in the Tour. I felt good, we had big plans, you could see that. We tried to go early and we did but unfortunately we could not gain any time. 'The team were amazing. I want to thank my team-mates. I think we were pretty equal, (Pogacar) took a few seconds in the end but the Tour is not over.' Lipowitz, sitting third overall in the best young rider's white jersey, had tried to stretch his advantage with solo moves but he was caught by the main favourites with nine kilometres left, allowing Onley to eat into his advantage and move within touching distance of the podium. 'It was hard," Onley said in his usual understated fashion. 'Visma set a hard pace and I just did what I could...(Twenty-two seconds), that's not much so we'll give it everything tomorrow.'
Scottish Sun
43 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
Oscar Onley's dream Tour de France continues as Scots cycling sensation closes to within SECONDS of historic podium spot
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) SCOTLAND could have its first EVER Tour de France GC podium finisher by the end of the week after Oscar Onley continued his dream ride in the toughest bike race in the world. The 22-year-old Borderer, brought up in Kelso from a young age and developed via the Scottish system, finished a creditable 39th in the toughest bike race in the world last year. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard, Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, and Scotland's Oscar Onley Credit: AP 2 Onley finishes in fourth Credit: EPA But starting in fourth after a gruelling 17 stages, he showed glimpses of becoming truly world class as he matched yellow jersey Tadej Pogacar and closest challenger Jonas Vingegaard on the closing stages of today's stage 18 into Courchevel in the Alps. In the end, he finished 1min58secs back on stage winner Ben O'Connor. More importantly, he managed to lose Florian Lipowitz, cutting his arrears on the German in third to just 22 seconds with one major mountain stage still to come in the battle for Scotland's first EVER podium spot. He also gave himself breathing space at the other side, stretching his advantage on fifth place Primoz Roglic to 1min 26 secs. Scotland's best ever finisher in the GC in this race was Robert Millar - now known as Philippa York - who finished fourth back in 1984, as well as wining the King of the Mountains jersey. Afterwards, Onley - who had to get back on with the top racers after struggling on the Col de la Madelaine, the steepest climb of the race - admitted that the lead "isn't much". He told ITV4: "It was hard, There was , they set a high pace "I wouldn't say I kept my cool. I still felt good. "I know the level of those guys in the attack. It showed in the end, it went pretty hard up there. The team are really good. "Yeah, I'm excited. I don't know, it's not much so we'll give it everything tomorrow." Tour de France prankster who invaded track LAID OUT in enormous crash after being tackled by police Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
