Tour 2025: Abrahamsen wins crazy stage, Van der Poel comes just too late and Pogacar crashes in finale

The day’s first attacker was Jonas Abrahamsen. The Norwegian from Uno-X Mobility took Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) and Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana) with him. The trio quickly opened a solid gap, but the peloton didn’t calm down. Among those active were Wout van Aert, Thymen Arensman, and green jersey wearer Jonathan Milan. Especially the latter was very aggressive. However, because the peloton kept fluctuating between pushing and easing up, the gap grew to nearly a minute.

Schmid, Ballerini, and Abrahamsen - photo: Cor Vos

Jumping, jumping, jumping...
The gap was still large at the foot of the first climb, when things seemed to slow down. On the Côte de Castelnau-d'Estrétefonds (1.5 km at 5.9%), new accelerations came. Julian Alaphilippe lit the fuse, and shortly after, Van Aert took over. No one could get away, but the leading trio lost some of their advantage. The action continued relentlessly, leading to a chasing group forming, but Clément Berthet, Bastien Tronchon, Alexandre Delettre, Mattéo Vercher, and Marco Haller were reeled back in after a few kilometers.

The peloton then closed to seventeen seconds behind Abrahamsen, Ballerini, and Schmid. At that moment, Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) launched a counterattack. It was perfectly timed, as they bridged to the front while the peloton finally slowed down. With 82 kilometers remaining, we had a front group of five riders. Finally, some respite!

Pogacar has to chase on his own
At least for a few kilometers. When the five leaders had a two-minute gap, the peloton once again increased pace. Quintin Pacher and Clément Russo (Groupama-FDJ) joined forces with Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Roel van Sintmaartensdijk (Intermarché-Wanty). The latter had to drop back but didn’t rejoin the peloton yet. Behind them, a large chase group formed, including Van Aert, Frank van den Broek, Arnaud De Lie, and — notably — sprinter Dylan Groenewegen.

From this group, Van Aert broke away again with Groenewegen and De Lie. They bridged to Vermeersch and company. Van der Poel didn’t want to miss out and jumped from the peloton. He wasn’t alone, as yellow jersey holder Ben Healy and... Jonas Vingegaard also came from the back. At this point, Tadej Pogacar was nowhere to be seen. Remco Evenepoel was positioned near the front of the peloton, closing the gap. Not far behind was Pogacar himself, who then surged solo to bridge up. The situation was back on track.

Vingegaard at the front, but Pogacar is already back - photo: Cor Vos

Calm returned somewhat. From the second group, now about twenty riders, five escaped: Van Aert, Van der Poel, De Lie, Axel Laurance, and Quinn Simmons. The rest — including Pogacar, Vingegaard, and Evenepoel — dropped back to the peloton with Primoz Roglic. Israel-Premier Tech would eventually take responsibility for pacing that group, but the gap to the leaders had already grown to two and a half minutes. Even when Groupama-FDJ joined the chase later, little was taken off the advantage. With twenty kilometers to go, it was clear the winner was up front.

Van der Poel solo in the chase
So we still had ten contenders, but the group of five with Van der Poel and Van Aert still needed to bridge to the front. The chasers remained 25 to 30 seconds behind the breakaway for kilometers. At the foot of the Côte de Vieille-Toulouse (1.5 km at 6.7%) — fifteen kilometers from the finish — the situation was unchanged. But this climb saw action: Schmid accelerated up front, then Abrahamsen took over. The two crested together. Meanwhile, Simmons launched an attack in the group containing Van der Poel and Van Aert.

Van der Poel and Van Aert on the offensive - photo: Cor Vos

The American champion blasted away impressively. He passed Ballerini and rode up to the dropped Wright and Burgaudeau. However, Simmons didn’t close the gap quickly to Abrahamsen and Schmid, who started the Montée Pech David together. And they crossed the summit together. The first chaser at that point was Van der Poel, who went full gas in the second half of the climb. He had left Van Aert and others behind, but still trailed the leaders by 25 seconds at the top. Nine kilometers to go.

Van der Poel just misses out, Abrahamsen the fastest
In the following kilometers, Van der Poel slowly chipped away at the gap. Twenty-five seconds became twenty, then fifteen. At the start of the final kilometer, the Alpecin-Deceuninck leader was just eight seconds behind. Still, Schmid and Abrahamsen had the advantage, unless they suddenly faltered. That didn’t happen. The Swiss and the Norwegian sprinted for the win. In that sprint, Abrahamsen proved fastest. Schmid took second, with Van der Poel crossing the line a few seconds later in third.

The sprint for fourth was won by De Lie. Van Aert finished fifth.

Pogacar crash
Among the favorites, we saw a move by Kévin Vauquelin on the Montée Pech David, but the Frenchman could not escape definitively. Just before the summit, Vingegaard accelerated, but Pogacar was alert this time, as was Evenepoel. After the summit, Jorgenson tried attacking as well, but Pogacar was immediately on his wheel again. It seemed no gaps would open among the GC contenders—that is until Pogacar crashed five kilometers from the finish.

The world champion quickly remounted and immediately gave chase. Up front, the Visma | Lease a Bike team kept the pace so Pogacar could return without losing time. Ben Healy was still present in the group and retained his yellow jersey.