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New York Times
21 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Tour de France key takeaways: Impact of Pogacar's dominance, the majesty of Ventoux, hopes for 2026 edition
The 2025 Tour de France concluded on Sunday with Tadej Pogacar sealing his fourth overall win, picking up another four stage victories and the polka-dot jersey in the process. Elsewhere, Jonathan Milan fended off — who else? — Pogacar to take the green jersey, while Jasper Philipsen, Mathieu van der Poel and Ben Healy all wore the leader's yellow one at points during the 21-stage race. Advertisement The event gave us showpiece finishes at Mur-de-Bretagne, Hautacam and Mont Ventoux, and plenty of action throughout a thoughtful, clever route — albeit one that turned out to be so challenging everyone was exhausted by the finish, even Pogacar. Here, The Athletic's writers review a memorable three weeks on the roads of France. Jacob Whitehead: Cards on the table? I was a little dispirited after the Hautacam (stage 12). This Tour felt as if it had been building to a denouement on the Col de la Loze (stage 18), even a battle running all the way to Paris. But then Pogacar built up his lead to over three minutes. We were scarcely halfway through the race. The battle for the podium, however, kept the Alps alive — as first Oscar Onley pulled himself back into contention on stage 18, before Florian Lipowitz showed impressive maturity to shed him one day later. Largely, the racing was good, though I do feel the fireworks of the first week led to exhaustion setting in over the final days, which were, relatively, more sedate affairs. Chris Waugh: Not at all. The winner may have been all but confirmed by the end of the Pyrenees, but Jonas Vingegaard continued to try to launch attacks, while the battle for minor GC places was intriguing. I also think Pogacar's dominance was one of the reasons there were barely any days when the peloton simply let up. Teams recognised they had to really give it a go if they were going to stand a chance of winning a stage, or at least be in the conversation, and that meant the racing just about every day was full of intrigue somewhere. Duncan Alexander: Dominance is a periodic issue for the Tour. Cycling is a sport that loves to lean on the achievements of its greats, but often retrospectively. The roadside fans had long tired of (five-time winner) Eddy Merckx by this point in his career, so in many respects it's heartening to see just how popular Pogacar still is among the millions who line the route. His style of racing helps, of course. Anyone slightly put out by the defensive, moody Pogacar we saw in the Alps in week three was surely won round again by his willingness to put his safety on the line on the wet streets of Paris on Sunday. One day, people will speak in hushed tones about the 2025 Tour — just not this week. Advertisement Tim Spiers: Only a little. It was hardly a surprise that he dominated – the signs were there in the Criterium du Dauphine last month, and then Vingegaard's horrendous time-trial on stage five made it pretty obvious he wasn't in a position to challenge. Overall, it was a really enjoyable race, particularly the first 10 days, with pretty much every stage offering up a great story. With Pogacar dominating as expected, the main thing that took the shine off it was the lack of intrigue in the points and mountains competitions, especially in week three. Waugh: Overrated would be a stretch. More accurately, it showed the futility of attempting to compete with Pogacar when he is in peak form. Vingegaard had two years where he jumped ahead of Pogacar at the Tour, but the Slovenian has clearly worked on his weaknesses — including being susceptible to hot days in the high mountains — and he is just too strong over three weeks. Visma-Lease A Bike tried to crack him by sending a 'super-squad' and, once they realised they couldn't, that freed their Simon Yates to win a stage. Whitehead: It felt at one point as if Visma were ahead on points despite Pogacar's lead; entering the first rest day, he appeared visibly frustrated by Visma's tactics, and had lost Joao Almeida, his key mountain domestique. But then came the mountains, and UAE Team Emirates' squad simply performed better. Tim Wellens put in career-best climbing performances, Jhonatan Narvaez's acceleration set up the race's key moment on Hautacam, and Adam Yates stuck deep into climbs. Victor Campenaerts aside, Visma's domestiques arguably all slightly underperformed their top level. Teams are important, but UAE's were stronger. Alexander: Visma's approach heavily relied on Matteo Jorgenson maintaining a podium challenge deep into the race, but losing 10 minutes to the Hautacam put paid to that. Wout van Aert, despite his stage 21 heroics, was not the super-domestique that we saw in 2022 — in fairness, he probably won't ever be that strong again. And, as Jacob says, mano a mano, the UAE squad was just better. I will remember Jorgenson's descent of the Col de la Madeleine fondly, though, and not that anyone cares but Visma did win the team competition. Spiers: Well, from a viewing-spectacle perspective, their approach lit up the race. To contrast 10 years ago with the 'Death by a million pedal strokes' of Team Sky, Visma's tactics shouldn't be looked down on just because they couldn't beat the greatest and most freakishly exceptional cyclist of his, and possibly any other, generation. Where Visma fell down was probably in the lack of form of a few riders, notably Jorgenson. If he and Vingegaard had been able to repeatedly attack and counter-attack Pogacar on the Hautacam, or Ventoux, et cetera, it may have made a difference to the overall outcome. But probably not. Waugh: Due to work commitments — I am writing this while covering Newcastle United's pre-season tour in Singapore — I did not see every stage live. But, of the ones I did follow closely, it would be stage 16. There was action throughout and Ben Healy's (ultimately-in-vain) tussle with Valentin Paret-Peintre up Mont Ventoux was sport at its very best — especially once Ilan van Wilder somehow found the strength to join the riders at the front and then ride selflessly for his Soudal Quick-Step team-mate and set up a victory for a Frenchman on an iconic summit. Advertisement What made it even more captivating was that Vingegaard and Pogacar were storming up the mountain and, until the final 500m, nobody was quite sure whether they would haul in the four riders ahead of them. Julian Alaphilippe also had a few goes on the climb to try to win, which always makes a stage far more fun. Whitehead: I have to agree with Chris, albeit from a little closer than Singapore — I was standing on the inside of that final bend. Stage 16 was possibly the best sporting event I've covered in person. The anticipation seemed to rise by the metre. That mountain is a very special place. It is what sets cycling apart: that it is a sport that exists in the world, rather than in a bubble to the side of it. On the first true summit finish there since 2013, we were treated to a sprint to the line past the weather station from Healy and Paret-Peintre, the illogical return of Van Wilder and Vingegaard riding at his best level of the Tour. The sheer explosiveness of the leaders after nearly 20km of climbing just cannot come across on television. A real privilege. A shout-out also to stage nine, from Chinon to Chateauroux, where an escape by Jonas Rickaert and Mathieu van der Poel so nearly came off, animating what appeared to be a straightforward sprint day. It isn't always the victories you remember. Alexander: Big fan of stage two, with Van der Poel going full Van der Poel and winning the sprint ahead of Pogacar and a beefed-up Vingegaard. Also very much enjoyed stage 13, the mountain time-trial. It was fascinating to see the myriad approaches taken by each team to getting their riders up to Peyragudes as fast as possible. Time-trial bikes with road wheels, road bikes with disc wheels, reverse mullets, no-paint frames. It was a carnival of experimentation. Spiers: Recency bias, perhaps, but a word for the final stage, which was glorious. The processional saunter around Paris on the race's last day is always so sterile and predictable. This was the exact opposite, with Pogacar and Van Aert very nearly rivalling the unforgettable Olympic road race from a year ago. The crowds in Montmartre looked and sounded absolutely incredible. Whitehead: I'm going to take liberties and choose two. It's difficult to call the first unsung, but Lipowitz's podium really deserves more attention. He did not enter this race as Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's leader, has frequently been left alone to chase moves as best he can, and only began seriously riding five years ago. As Tour debuts go, this was exceptional. Secondly, midway through stage 12, on a boiling hot afternoon in the Pyrenees, Healy was losing time as he ascended the Col du Soulor, and the yellow jersey with it. His EF Education-EasyPost teammate Harry Sweeny was basically doing shuttle runs from the team car and back to spray water over his leader's head — he cannot have had a drink all day. By the stage's end, Healy had managed to limit the damage enough to fight for the top 10 on GC — a result which would have been shocking at the beginning of the Tour. Waugh: This category is always difficult to judge, because who can really be 'unsung' over the course of three weeks? But Wellens was constantly looking to get in breakaways, or prevent breakaways from getting clear in the first place — and that Belgian-national-colours jersey he was rocking is absolutely stunning. He took his opportunity on stage 15 from Muret to Carcassonne as well, attacking and soloing to the finish. Wellens can do a bit of everything and, while he may not be the flashiest rider, there is something eminently likeable about him. Advertisement Spiers: Now that Onley's name is being sung loud and proud, I'll go with a couple of unexpectedly brilliant Belgian super-domestiques from the two big teams in Wellens and Campenaerts, who both tirelessly dragged their leaders through hundreds of gruelling pre-mountain kilometres and often partly up the mountains themselves in the absence of either team having a strong climbing roster. French veteran Bruno Armirail deserves a mention too for lighting up the race on several occasions, ditto Quinn Simmons. Alexander: More love here for Armirail, who not only finished fourth in the stage five time-trial, his Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale team's best result in 'the race of truth' for more than a decade, but he also animated the race repeatedly on his home turf in the Pyrenees and was visible in the Alps, too. It wasn't a vintage Tour for his team, but Armirail was great. There's talk he will be off to Visma for next season — you can see why they'd be interested. Waugh: Carlos Rodriguez. It's perhaps harsh to single out an individual, but he has just not featured in the GC conversation at all and, while he has attempted to get into breaks and attack up climbs, the Spaniard has never looked like taking any of those to the line. INEOS Grenadiers in general seem like a team without a calling and were saved by Thymen Arensman's individual brilliance in winning two stages, but what were Rodriguez's goals for this Tour? Surely the 24-year-old did not get close to achieving whatever they were. Alexander: Stage 19, almost from start to finish. The route was truncated and rerouted due to some contagious nodular dermatitis among the local cattle, then some contagious indecisiveness hit the GC contenders as they made their way up to La Plagne. Had Vingegaard gone even 75 metres earlier, he'd probably have won the stage. Spiers: OK, Van Aert belatedly came to the party on the final day but, otherwise, he and Remco Evenepoel, two of the most adventurous, enterprising and captivating cyclists of their generation, both massively underperformed for various reasons. It was hard seeing them as shadows of their former selves. Whitehead: Possibly Groupama-FDJ. The flagship French squad build their season around this race, yet failed to impact its 2025 edition in any meaningful way. Romain Gregoire at least found himself in several breaks without coming especially close, but if FDJ's focus was on delivering Guillaume Martin to an anonymous 16th position, the lowest he's finished the race since 2018, questions should be asked about the team's long-term direction. Granted, they performed better than their countrymen at Cofidis, but FDJ's budget dwarfs the relegation contenders. Whitehead: Props to EF for giving me some great content (and a bright pink musette bag at the end of the race). I'm going to go left-field and opt for Arkea-B&B Hotels, however. They did not win a stage, while Kevin Vauquelin's podium challenge faded in the final weeks. But this is a tiny-budget team, already relegated from the WorldTour, and whose existence for next season is under real question. Yet they kept attacking every day, Vauquelin was comfortably the best Frenchman in this year's Tour and the support for them in their home region of Brittany gave us two of my favourite days of racing. Advertisement Alexander: Uno-X Mobility for me. A first-ever stage win via Jonas Abrahamsen in Toulouse, and a sixth-place GC finish from Tobias Halland Johannessen, a rider who committed so deeply to this Tour that he had to be given oxygen at the top of Ventoux. The Norwegian team were the perfect example of how a wildcard invitee should race at the Tour de France, putting some of the WorldTour squads to shame. Spiers: Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe deserve a mention for delivering a podium via Lipowitz and for Primoz Roglic finally finishing the race (in his own inimitable style) but the standout team for me would be Alpecin-Deceuninck. There was tremendous pressure on them for the opening two stages and they delivered, with two memorable wins. Groves' somewhat bizarre victory on stage 20 topped off a race that, in terms of stage victories, couldn't have gone any better, despite Philipsen and Van der Poel having to abandon. Waugh: Alpecin, of course, given they had three individual stage winners and responded to losing Philipsen and Van der Poel by eventually recovering enough for Kaden Groves to claim victory on Saturday in Pontarlier. But EF had an outstanding Tour. For Healy to win a stage and ride in yellow for two days, including from Auch to Hautacam in the Pyrenees, felt huge. Perhaps our Jacob was their lucky charm? Alexander: The 2026 Tour will start with a team time trial in Barcelona, and that's intriguing. It is likely to follow the example of recent team time trials in races such as Paris-Nice, where the rider times are taken individually (so, for example, Pogacar could drop his UAE team-mates as they approached the finish line). It will be a different way to begin a Tour and should lead to some fascinating early time gaps. Starting in Catalonia may influence the shape of the route too — will the race be sent straight towards the nearby Pyrenees in the first week? We will find out in October. Whitehead: This is a pipe dream, but I would be in favour of having fewer riders in teams. The size of the modern peloton is a contributing factor to crashes, and it would also make the race harder to control for the GC super-teams. It won't happen, but it would be good. Waugh: More of an even spread of sprinter/transitional stages throughout the three weeks. The terrain dictated that most of those were front-loaded this time, which is fair enough because it is important that the Tour does take turns to visit all parts of France, but it did make the overall event feel rather unbalanced. I also want to see at least one or two stages with gravel sections next year. And 'pavé' (cobblestones) should be part of the varied challenges riders must overcome throughout a Grand Tour, in my opinion. Spiers: Compelling battles for the three jerseys, please. This year's excellent route probably saved the race, so I'd want more of the same next year but with added gravel and/or cobbles. Oh, and keep Montmartre for the final stage! Whitehead: 7 — Great route, but probably not the best battle we've seen between Vingegaard and Pogacar. First week was thrilling — seven days of classics — but the peloton was exhausted by the end, and it showed. Waugh: 8.5 — Enjoyable and action-packed. Had there really been a decent tug-of-war for yellow, it would have been a nine or higher. Advertisement Spiers: 7 — Some memorable stages and a first week that will be hard to top, but Pogacar's dominance and his apparent boredom in week three brought things down a notch or two. Alexander: 7.5 — I make it 18 individual days of brilliant racing out of the 21, but a lack of jeopardy in the GC battle will always be frustrating. For more cycling, follow Global Sports on The Athletic app via the Discover tab
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Milan 'without words' after winning TDF Stage 17
Italian cyclist Jonathan Milan shares his feelings after winning Stage 17 of the Tour de France, explaining how grateful he is for his team and sharing he did not know there was a crash behind him during the wet finish.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Milan holds off Girmay, wins another TDF sprint
Italian cyclist Jonathan Milan sprinted ahead Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay and others to earn 20 points and win the intermediate sprint during a shortened Stage 19 of the Tour de France from Albertville to La Plagne.
Local France
4 days ago
- Sport
- Local France
Tour de France prankster gets eight-month suspended term for crossing finish line
The 30-year-old prankster attempted to ride across the finish line just minutes before the final sprint in Valence in southeastern France on Wednesday. Police and race security rushed to intercept the individual who was wearing a black helmet and a Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale team jersey. He was sentenced for "entering a sports competition area and disrupting the competition, refusing to comply and assaulting a person in a position of public authority," prosecutor Laurent de Caigny said. Advertisement The incident occurred just minutes before the peloton's sprint finish, which was already underway at full speed, with Italian rider Jonathan Milan winning on the day. The man, who has already been "convicted three times," is also banned from entering any sports venue for five years, the prosecutor added without providing further details. He was ordered to pay €500 in damages to the police officer who fell while attempting to stop him.
France 24
4 days ago
- France 24
Tour de France prankster gets eight-month suspended term for crossing finish line
The 30-year-old prankster attempted to ride across the finish line just minutes before the final sprint in Valence in southeastern France on Wednesday. Police and race security rushed to intercept the individual who was wearing a black helmet and a Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale team jersey. He was sentenced for "entering a sports competition area and disrupting the competition, refusing to comply and assaulting a person in a position of public authority," prosecutor Laurent de Caigny said. The incident occurred just minutes before the peloton's sprint finish, which was already underway at full speed, with Italian rider Jonathan Milan winning on the day. The man, who has already been "convicted three times," is also banned from entering any sports venue for five years, the prosecutor added without providing further details. He was ordered to pay 500 euros ($586) in damages to the police officer who fell while attempting to stop him.
