3 hours ago
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A breathless Jonas Vingegaard slumped exhaustedly over his bike on another baking Pyrenean afternoon, after Tadej Pogacar inflicted a further crushing defeat in the mountain time trial to the altiport at Peyragudes.
The second time trial in the 2025 Tour was expected to further confirm Pogacar’s supremacy over the peloton and so it proved, as the defending champion extended his lead to over four minutes with his fourth stage win in this year’s race and the 21st Tour stage of his career.
Riding a standard road bike instead of a time trial set-up, he was the fastest at every time check on the 10.9km climb, in many ways a carbon copy of Thursday’s ascent to Hautacam, where he also triumphed.
“I’m super-happy,” he said. “This time trial was a big question mark from December from me. I wanted everything to be perfect and the team delivered. I had an easy morning and a nice preparation. I was really targeting an all-out start and finish, and to smash the pedals as much as possible. I almost blew up, but I saw the timer at the top and it gave me an extra push because I knew I was going to win.”
Back-to-back summit finishes have now seen the Slovenian open a yawning divide between himself and the rest of the peloton. At Hautacam he took two minutes and 10 seconds out of Vingegaard in 12 kilometres; as he crossed the line at the Pyrenean altiport, he had further distanced the Dane and now leads overall by four minutes and seven seconds. With Vingegaard three minutes ahead of third-placed Remco Evenepoel, only seven riders are now within 10 minutes of Pogacar.
“I didn’t have the legs I wanted,” a drained Evenepoel said. “Within a few minutes of starting, I just felt empty. I’m pretty disappointed.”
Scotland’s Oscar Onley remains stubbornly in contention for a high finish, climbing up t0 fifth place, after finishing seventh on the stage. “I was suffering a bit after yesterday,” Onley said, “but we’re all suffering. With the steep runway at the end, you really had to hold back a bit. It wasn’t an easy time trial to manage.”
With Pogacar almost out of sight, the real battle now may be for the podium. Roglic, who began the Tour saying his main interest was in getting to Paris and drinking champagne, is now progressing steadily up the overall standings. The 35-year-old, famously toppled by Pogacar in the 2020 Tour’s final time trial when on the cusp of overall victory, set the best time on the 10.9km test until first Vingegaard, and then inevitably, Pogacar, surpassed him.
Meanwhile, French sprinter Bryan Coquard, the rider who collided with Jasper Philipsen on stage three and caused the Belgian sprinter to crash out of the race, has himself decided to quit the Tour after breaking bones in his right hand while trying to take his food bag from a team helper during Thursday’s stage to Hautacam.
Coquard rode the time trial with his right hand heavily strapped and then stepped off the bike to leave the Tour and head home for surgery. “I wanted to ride the time trial today, but for the sake of safety, I can’t start tomorrow,” he said. “I can’t brake with my right hand, which isn’t an issue racing alone in an uphill time trial, but in the peloton, that’s obviously dangerous.”
With Pogacar in such imperious form, the race organisation remains keen to emphasise that all is still to play for. The truth is that Vingegaard will need much more of a spring in his step if he is to stay even within touching distance of his rival.
Pogacar won the 2024 Giro d’Italia by just under 10 minutes and also took six stages. The time trials may be done with, but with four summit finishes still to come, this could become the Slovenian’s most emphatic Grand Tour victory to date.
Meanwhile, Roglic is not the only one already thinking of Paris. The dancers from the Moulin Rouge have announced that they will take to the street and dance the can-can as the peloton passes through Montmartre on the Tour’s final stage. Maybe Roglic will jump off, raise a flute and join in.
