July 25, 2025 • 11 mins
- Originally planned as a 129.9 km Alpine queen stage from Albertville to La Plagne, including the Col des Saisies, Col du Pré, Cormet de Roselend, and final summit finish.
- Due to a last‑minute outbreak of nodular dermatitis in local cattle, organisers shortened the stage to approximately 93–95 km, cutting out two climbs. The start was delayed to about 14:30 BST.
- Shortly after the revised neutral start in Albertville, Primož Roglič attempted an early attack, bridging with Valentin Paret‑Peintre and Lenny Martínez—an aggressive move that ultimately fizzled as the GC group reeled them in.I
- Riders faced two key climbs: the HC Col du Pré (~12.6 km at ~7.7%) and the 2nd‑category Cormet de Roselend, before descending towards La Plagne. The shortened course and cool, rainy Alpine weather added extra drama.
- With ~12–13 km to go on the final ascent to La Plagne, Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) launched a decisive attack, escaping the GC group including Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, and built a small gap.
- In the final meters, Vingegaard and Pogacar were closing fast, but Arensman held on to win by just 2 seconds—earning his second Tour stage victory.
- Emotion poured out from Arensman at the finish, calling the win a dream after taking on cycling’s biggest names.
- Tadej Pogacar retained the yellow jersey, with a slightly reduced lead of approximately 4 minutes 24 seconds over Vingegaard with two stages to go.
- Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull‑BORA) held third overall, just ahead of Oscar Onley, who continues to impress as a young GC hopeful.
- Pogacar also kept the King of the Mountains (KOM) and polka-dot jersey, showcasing his all-round dominance and smart, measured riding.
- Arensman’s savvy timing and courage to attack on the final climb, even with the GC men looming.
- Pogacar’s calculated control: he didn’t challenge for the stage win, but maintained pace to protect his lead.
- The impact of the diseased cattle outbreak forcing a dramatic last‑minute route change—and how riders and teams adapted.
- GC context: Lipowitz vs Onley battle for third; Vingegaard’s attempt to chip away at Pogacar; and Roglič’s fading gambit.
- Weather and terrain factors: shorter course, rain, cooler temps—how that influenced tactics and rider performance.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Final mountain stage of this year's tour didn't disappoint. There
was a bit of dejavous, but there's also a bit
of a twist at the end. My name's Dave and
this is the Ride and Thrive podcast with today at
the tour. So it was a bit of a bit
of a reduced start this one. They reduced the distance
of it because of a bovine incident, a disease or
(00:22):
something near the start of the race, so they chopped
a bit of the race off, so it was ninety
three kilometers instead of one hundred and twenty nine kilometers.
So off they went, and then the early action this
was a bit of deja vous because it was a
bit of a carbon copy of yesterday where Little Trek
(00:42):
were keen to get their man in the Points Jersey,
in the Green Jersey, to get the intermediate sprint. So
they controlled the early miles and Jonathan Milan duly obliged
and took the intermediate sprint points with Inmai closely closely following.
(01:04):
So next up was the climb up the cald de Prix.
Now this was this was Lenny Martinez territory. He had
an indiscretion yesterday if you listened to my podcast yesterday
around the sticky bottle incident. So I think he was
out for a bit of redemption and also because he
lost some mountain points because of the fine, then I
(01:27):
think he was he was up to try and maximize
the points he could get. So he set off up
the mountain and he was followed by Premus Rglitic and
Valentine Panapentra, and they went up and it was indeed
Martinez who took the points, as the other two are
(01:48):
not really in that fight, so to speak, so they
he went to the front and he took all the points,
and a similar thing going up the next mountain, the
the comed rosalind and Martinez led the trio over there
as well and again took took the mountain points, so
(02:10):
he was in the virtual Polka Dot Jersey at that point.
It was then that things started to change. As they
came down the descent of that particular mountain, it was
Roglic who set off on his own, and he was
obviously trying to turn the clock back again and put
in a bit of time between himself and the chasers. However,
(02:38):
the rest of the group weren't having that and it
was Yue led by Tim Wellens who put on an
absolute monster turn at the front and he led the
team and he bridged the gap over to Roglic about
two kilometers away from the start of the final climb,
which was Laplana, which was about nineteen kilometers long, so
(03:00):
a bit of a bit of a beast. Now, as
soon as they got on the climb, Roglitch was dropped
pretty much straight away and it was Taddy Pagatcha then
who made the next move. He launched an attack which
scattered the group somewhat. Of course, Jonas's finger guard went
with him. They settled into a bit of a rhythm.
(03:23):
Now this was quite early on even for Pergatcha to
launch a final assault for the summit, so he pretty
much settled into a steady rhythm and that enabled a
couple of other riders to join them. So they joined
a small group Felix Goal, Oscar Onley and Florian Lipovitz. Now,
(03:43):
if you remember, it was Oscar Onley who was looking
to cement the third place and try and take it
off lip of it. So he had a really good
day yesterday and Lipovitz didn't have such a good day.
So you could see that Lipovitz was all he had
to do was to stay on the wheel of only
and just come in behind him to keep that gap
(04:04):
so he could remain third. So it was interesting to
see how that played up played out. Tobias Johannison from
Uno X Mobility Ben Healy was there as well, along
with Team Aaronsman. They led on up the climb steady
away and then with thirteen kilometers to go, Aaronsman, a
bit of an audacious move, decides to kick on. Now
(04:26):
that the other two they don't go with him, they
let he tries to get a bit of a gap
and slowly he starts to open up a bit of
a gap and they call it snapping the elastics. So
he's trying to snap the elastic because you try and
get a bit of bit of air between himself and
the chasing group. And he did this, and we obviously
had Pagatcha and Vinger Guard were following. But he made
(04:50):
a bit of a run for it and he was
getting away, so he was actually looking quite good for him.
But you always had the feeling that that Pergatcha was
going to run on and just nick it off him
on the line. So as they carried on, it was
Pogatcha Vinger guard. Florian Lipovitz, who was staying with him only,
(05:10):
was then started to get drop. He was getting kind
of slower and slower going up the hill, and then
Lipovitz overtook him and went to the front of that
group to really put the hammer down. And it was
at this stage that you knew that Onley wasn't going
to make any time up on Lipovitz. In fact, it's
the opposite way around. Lipovitz was going to cement his
place for third and put more time on Only, and
(05:34):
so it was that they then three went up in
search of Aaronsman. However, they got to the last sort
of bend, the last five hundred meters, and you could
kind of see the gap. It was narrowing, but it
was like you were just waiting for Pergatcha to go,
just waiting for him to kick on and hunt him
down and take the stage win. But he actually he
(05:55):
never did. He just he just stayed with a Vinger guard,
ended up Aaronsman ended up taking a fantastic win, and
he was absolutely beside himself. He kind of slowed up
as he got towards the line the others. You could
see the others looming in the background, and I think
he won with about two seconds ahead of vinger Guard,
who came over next, and then Pagatcha, So Vingergard actually
(06:19):
finished ahead of Pagatcha for once on this particular climb.
Then it was Aaronsman took the win. Ving Guard's second,
pagatcha third lip of its fourth only came in fifth,
with Felix Gal from de Kathlin a G two r
in sixth, So that was a that was a great
win there. And have they saved saved their skin? I
(06:42):
do you think they've done enough? They've had two wins
and that's another win for Aaronsman, so that'll be interesting
that there. Camp will probably be buoyant. They were They
were probably having a very nondescript, very sort of beige
tour until Aaronsman has had under them two wins, so
they're probably quite buoyant in that camp, which it will
(07:04):
be interesting to see what comes out of that. So
where does that leave the GC. Well, of course I
said earlier that Pagatcha's pretty much got the yellow jersey
sewn up. He's four minutes ahead or four minutes in change,
four minutes twenty four, I think ahead of Jonah Spingergard
(07:26):
in second, and like I said Lipovitz, it's pretty much
sealed third place, which is a great run for him
for Red Bull. He's also the young rider, so he's
got the white jersey as well. With only in fourth
on GC, Felix gal moves up to fifth for the
catlin A G two R, so really good for them.
(07:47):
Tobias Johannessen is in six, so that's the top six
on GC in terms of the other jerseys, so Jonathan
Milan has got the green jersey, so it looks like
he's going to take that all the way to Paris.
He's ahead of Taddy Pagatcha by a comfortable margin and
(08:10):
Benny and mcguy Goomai sorry is in third place. For that.
The Polka Dot jersey also goes to Taddy Pagatcha, with
Jonas bin a Guard in second and Lenny Martinez in
third just a few points behind. So it would be
interesting tomorrow there might be a few points on offer
(08:31):
Koen points not many, and interestingly, on the final day
of the mont Martra in Paris there's a few points
on offer. So it depends how Jonas bin a Guard
is feeling about that competition. There might be a bit
in it with Lenny Martinez. The white jersey, which is
the youth jersey, that is Florian Lipovitz looks like he's
(08:52):
going to take that. He's a minute ahead, quite comfortably
ahead of Oscar Onlly, so barring any major upsets, he
should take the white Jersey to Paris. So over to tomorrow.
So stage twenty, now, Stage twenty is a hilly stage.
There's a few hills in it, but it's not a
(09:14):
mountain stage. It's one hundred and eighty four kilometers in
length and it's from now don't quote me on this,
Nantua to Pontalia. There we go. So we're expecting a
bit of a sprint, so one maybe for the sprinters,
or it could be a breakaway. It depends. It's kind
(09:38):
of up and down. There's no respite on this one,
so we'll see how this one plays out. I think
it may be someone. It's obviously the chance for somebody
to make a name for themselves and win a stage.
So we could see a breakaway. It depends how everyone's feeling. Now,
it does seem like Pagatcha and Emirates are just protecting
(09:59):
their lead. You know, he's had he's had no kind
of compulsions to go after stage wins in the last
few days, and people are trying to read a lot
into into it. The fact is he absolutely doesn't have to.
He's done enough. He's done enough already, so he doesn't
have to go for the stage wins. He might be
saving himself. He did say in a press confidence the
(10:21):
other day that he was tired and he just you know,
he wants he wants it to where he wants to
go home type thing. So he's done all the hard
work and he's he's he's just consolidating his position. So
it might be that, you know, he hasn't got the
legs he might have, he's just i mean up to him.
He is the by far the best rider anyway, So
(10:41):
you know, UE are probably just going to be protecting
their riders tomorrow. Vizmar maybe wants to want to do
something tomorrow just to to try and make in roads
on on the GC. But yeah, it might be one
of the other teams that are going to come to
the fore maybe a little track or there could be
(11:03):
any one of the one of the other minor teams,
so we'll see how that plays out anyway, And waffling
on a bit tune in tomorrow where we'll do another
recap with today at the tour, and I shall see
you then, guys, bye for now,
Final mountain stage of this year's tour didn't disappoint. There
was a bit of dejavous, but there's also a bit
of a twist at the end. My name's Dave and
this is the Ride and Thrive podcast with today at
the tour. So it was a bit of a bit
of a reduced start this one. They reduced the distance
of it because of a bovine incident, a disease or
(00:22):
something near the start of the race, so they chopped
a bit of the race off, so it was ninety
three kilometers instead of one hundred and twenty nine kilometers.
So off they went, and then the early action this
was a bit of deja vous because it was a
bit of a carbon copy of yesterday where Little Trek
(00:42):
were keen to get their man in the Points Jersey,
in the Green Jersey, to get the intermediate sprint. So
they controlled the early miles and Jonathan Milan duly obliged
and took the intermediate sprint points with Inmai closely closely following.
(01:04):
So next up was the climb up the cald de Prix.
Now this was this was Lenny Martinez territory. He had
an indiscretion yesterday if you listened to my podcast yesterday
around the sticky bottle incident. So I think he was
out for a bit of redemption and also because he
lost some mountain points because of the fine, then I
(01:27):
think he was he was up to try and maximize
the points he could get. So he set off up
the mountain and he was followed by Premus Rglitic and
Valentine Panapentra, and they went up and it was indeed
Martinez who took the points, as the other two are
(01:48):
not really in that fight, so to speak, so they
he went to the front and he took all the points,
and a similar thing going up the next mountain, the
the comed rosalind and Martinez led the trio over there
as well and again took took the mountain points, so
(02:10):
he was in the virtual Polka Dot Jersey at that point.
It was then that things started to change. As they
came down the descent of that particular mountain, it was
Roglic who set off on his own, and he was
obviously trying to turn the clock back again and put
in a bit of time between himself and the chasers. However,
(02:38):
the rest of the group weren't having that and it
was Yue led by Tim Wellens who put on an
absolute monster turn at the front and he led the
team and he bridged the gap over to Roglic about
two kilometers away from the start of the final climb,
which was Laplana, which was about nineteen kilometers long, so
(03:00):
a bit of a bit of a beast. Now, as
soon as they got on the climb, Roglitch was dropped
pretty much straight away and it was Taddy Pagatcha then
who made the next move. He launched an attack which
scattered the group somewhat. Of course, Jonas's finger guard went
with him. They settled into a bit of a rhythm.
(03:23):
Now this was quite early on even for Pergatcha to
launch a final assault for the summit, so he pretty
much settled into a steady rhythm and that enabled a
couple of other riders to join them. So they joined
a small group Felix Goal, Oscar Onley and Florian Lipovitz. Now,
(03:43):
if you remember, it was Oscar Onley who was looking
to cement the third place and try and take it
off lip of it. So he had a really good
day yesterday and Lipovitz didn't have such a good day.
So you could see that Lipovitz was all he had
to do was to stay on the wheel of only
and just come in behind him to keep that gap
(04:04):
so he could remain third. So it was interesting to
see how that played up played out. Tobias Johannison from
Uno X Mobility Ben Healy was there as well, along
with Team Aaronsman. They led on up the climb steady
away and then with thirteen kilometers to go, Aaronsman, a
bit of an audacious move, decides to kick on. Now
(04:26):
that the other two they don't go with him, they
let he tries to get a bit of a gap
and slowly he starts to open up a bit of
a gap and they call it snapping the elastics. So
he's trying to snap the elastic because you try and
get a bit of bit of air between himself and
the chasing group. And he did this, and we obviously
had Pagatcha and Vinger Guard were following. But he made
(04:50):
a bit of a run for it and he was
getting away, so he was actually looking quite good for him.
But you always had the feeling that that Pergatcha was
going to run on and just nick it off him
on the line. So as they carried on, it was
Pogatcha Vinger guard. Florian Lipovitz, who was staying with him only,
(05:10):
was then started to get drop. He was getting kind
of slower and slower going up the hill, and then
Lipovitz overtook him and went to the front of that
group to really put the hammer down. And it was
at this stage that you knew that Onley wasn't going
to make any time up on Lipovitz. In fact, it's
the opposite way around. Lipovitz was going to cement his
place for third and put more time on Only, and
(05:34):
so it was that they then three went up in
search of Aaronsman. However, they got to the last sort
of bend, the last five hundred meters, and you could
kind of see the gap. It was narrowing, but it
was like you were just waiting for Pergatcha to go,
just waiting for him to kick on and hunt him
down and take the stage win. But he actually he
(05:55):
never did. He just he just stayed with a Vinger guard,
ended up Aaronsman ended up taking a fantastic win, and
he was absolutely beside himself. He kind of slowed up
as he got towards the line the others. You could
see the others looming in the background, and I think
he won with about two seconds ahead of vinger Guard,
who came over next, and then Pagatcha, So Vingergard actually
(06:19):
finished ahead of Pagatcha for once on this particular climb.
Then it was Aaronsman took the win. Ving Guard's second,
pagatcha third lip of its fourth only came in fifth,
with Felix Gal from de Kathlin a G two r
in sixth, So that was a that was a great
win there. And have they saved saved their skin? I
(06:42):
do you think they've done enough? They've had two wins
and that's another win for Aaronsman, so that'll be interesting
that there. Camp will probably be buoyant. They were They
were probably having a very nondescript, very sort of beige
tour until Aaronsman has had under them two wins, so
they're probably quite buoyant in that camp, which it will
(07:04):
be interesting to see what comes out of that. So
where does that leave the GC. Well, of course I
said earlier that Pagatcha's pretty much got the yellow jersey
sewn up. He's four minutes ahead or four minutes in change,
four minutes twenty four, I think ahead of Jonah Spingergard
(07:26):
in second, and like I said Lipovitz, it's pretty much
sealed third place, which is a great run for him
for Red Bull. He's also the young rider, so he's
got the white jersey as well. With only in fourth
on GC, Felix gal moves up to fifth for the
catlin A G two R, so really good for them.
(07:47):
Tobias Johannessen is in six, so that's the top six
on GC in terms of the other jerseys, so Jonathan
Milan has got the green jersey, so it looks like
he's going to take that all the way to Paris.
He's ahead of Taddy Pagatcha by a comfortable margin and
(08:10):
Benny and mcguy Goomai sorry is in third place. For that.
The Polka Dot jersey also goes to Taddy Pagatcha, with
Jonas bin a Guard in second and Lenny Martinez in
third just a few points behind. So it would be
interesting tomorrow there might be a few points on offer
(08:31):
Koen points not many, and interestingly, on the final day
of the mont Martra in Paris there's a few points
on offer. So it depends how Jonas bin a Guard
is feeling about that competition. There might be a bit
in it with Lenny Martinez. The white jersey, which is
the youth jersey, that is Florian Lipovitz looks like he's
(08:52):
going to take that. He's a minute ahead, quite comfortably
ahead of Oscar Onlly, so barring any major upsets, he
should take the white Jersey to Paris. So over to tomorrow.
So stage twenty, now, Stage twenty is a hilly stage.
There's a few hills in it, but it's not a
(09:14):
mountain stage. It's one hundred and eighty four kilometers in
length and it's from now don't quote me on this,
Nantua to Pontalia. There we go. So we're expecting a
bit of a sprint, so one maybe for the sprinters,
or it could be a breakaway. It depends. It's kind
(09:38):
of up and down. There's no respite on this one,
so we'll see how this one plays out. I think
it may be someone. It's obviously the chance for somebody
to make a name for themselves and win a stage.
So we could see a breakaway. It depends how everyone's feeling. Now,
it does seem like Pagatcha and Emirates are just protecting
(09:59):
their lead. You know, he's had he's had no kind
of compulsions to go after stage wins in the last
few days, and people are trying to read a lot
into into it. The fact is he absolutely doesn't have to.
He's done enough. He's done enough already, so he doesn't
have to go for the stage wins. He might be
saving himself. He did say in a press confidence the
(10:21):
other day that he was tired and he just you know,
he wants he wants it to where he wants to
go home type thing. So he's done all the hard
work and he's he's he's just consolidating his position. So
it might be that, you know, he hasn't got the
legs he might have, he's just i mean up to him.
He is the by far the best rider anyway, So
(10:41):
you know, UE are probably just going to be protecting
their riders tomorrow. Vizmar maybe wants to want to do
something tomorrow just to to try and make in roads
on on the GC. But yeah, it might be one
of the other teams that are going to come to
the fore maybe a little track or there could be
(11:03):
any one of the one of the other minor teams,
so we'll see how that plays out anyway, And waffling
on a bit tune in tomorrow where we'll do another
recap with today at the tour, and I shall see
you then, guys, bye for now,
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