When the organizers of Tour de France announced in the middle of the night that the route of the last mountain stage has been shortened due to a contagious cow disease, probably it wasn't only the farmers on Col des Saisies who breathed a sigh of relief but also the staff of Visma Lease a Bike. Despite Vingegaard's famous "Tour is not over yet" statement, they knew the opposite was true and they gave up on any plan of long range attack, targeting only the stage victory with Jonas.
The man who did deliver the attack from far out was once again Primoz Roglic who launched himself into a doomed mission from the very first slopes of Col du Pré along French pocket climbers Lenny Martinez and Valentin Paret-Peintre. Together, they pushed a super fast pace to keep the peloton behind and they set a new climbing record: 35 min 07 sec, improving the previous benchmark by more than 3 minutes. It was their only success of the day and they didn't even have time to dream about stage victory because behind, Tim Wellens had orders from the Yellow Jersey to annihilate any breakaway.
Despite that and any logic, Roglic kept pushing alone, rediscovering and probably enjoying the way he used to race at the beginning of his career, not caring at all about GC and what happens behind him, including about his own teammates. He lost today as much time as he did in the whole Tour until now but he did his own way, all guns blazing. The good news for Red Bull was that Lipowitz managed to drop Onley and likely secured his third step on the final podium in Paris.
The much awaited attack of Pogacar came with 14 km to go but Jonas was ready for it and he was strong enough to follow the wheel of the Yellow Jersey. Unfortunately though, he was once again frightened by Pogacar and this fear-induced paralysis didn't let him take a single pull up the climb. While yesterday I defended Jonas and Visma's strategy, today it's impossible to do it. Even if it's obvious that Pogacar is physically the stronger rider, Vingegaard should have accepted the challenge of a mano-a-mano fight and take the risk. What did he have to lose in the last mountain stage of this Tour?
I understand that Pogacar wasn't very nice to him on Mont Ventoux and maybe he wanted him to feel the same but at the end of the day, Tadej has 4 stage victories in this Tour and Jonas none. This looked even worse after Visma announced they had nothing to lose and they're ready to risk everything, the disappointment is massive. They definitely didn't keep their word today and I think Jonas lost some of his fans with this anti-panache attitude. Fortunately, the cycling gods punished him and gave extra power to the brave Thymen Arensman who managed to hold them off for the second time in this Tour. 23 years after the last Tour de France visit when Michael Boogerd won, we witnessed another Dutch rider conquering La Plagne. Ah the Dutchmen and the Alps, what a match made in a weird heaven...
Unlike on Superbagneres, this time it's not fair to say that Pogacar gifted Arensman the victory because he always kept him in striking distance and he really wanted to catch him. After pacing for 10 kilometers though, enough was enough and he didn't want to do also a sprint leadout for Vingegaard and Jonas fell into his trap. He launched his final push too late and didn't get neither the stage win or praise for the way he rode, it was the worst possible scenario for Jonas and Visma Lease a Bike.
Due to this ultra-defensive strategy, Miguel Indurain's climbing record on La Plagne from 1995 managed to survive against all odds. So now we can say that maybe there was at least one person on this planet happy with the way Jonas Vingegaard rode today...
2025 Course Details: 19.3 km at 7.3% average gradient
50:10 - Thymen Arensman (23.08 km/h)
2021 Course Details: 17.0 km at 7,4% average gradient
45:14 - Mark Padun (22.55 km/h)
2002 Course Details: 17.8 km at 7,3% average gradient
48:43 - Sastre, Armstrong (21.92 km/h)
54:30 - Michael Boogerd (19.60 km/h)
1995 Course Details: 17.8 km at 7,3% average gradient
45:50 - Miguel Indurain (23.30 km/h) - CLIMBING RECORD 🏆
47:59 - Pavel Tonkov (22.26 km/h)
48:25 - Pantani, Gotti (22.06 km/h)
48:37 - Alex Zulle (21.97 km/h)
1987 Course Details: 17.8 km at 7,3% average gradient
52:45 - Fabio Parra (20.25 km/h)
55:06 - Fignon, Fuerte (19.38 km/h)
1984 Course Details: 17.8 km at 7,3% average gradient
52:20 - Laurent Fignon (20.41 km/h)
Course Details: 12.8 km at 7.8% average gradient
2025
35:07 - L. Martinez, Roglic, V. Paret-Peintre (21.87 km/h) - CLIMBING RECORD 🏆
36:05 - 35-rider Peloton (21.28 km/h)
2021
40:50 - Quintana, Woods (18.81 km/h)
42:20 - Peloton (18.14 km/h)
2018
39:36- Alejandro Valverde (19.39 km/h)
40:46 - Peloton (18.84 km/h)
2018 Criterium du Dauphine
38:40 - Latour, Caruso, Bardet, Buchmann (19.86 km/h)
