Van der Poel beats Pogačar to stage win
But first things first. Mathieu van der Poel won Sunday’s stage 2 by holding off defending champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates–XRG) and two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike) in an exciting finale that featured three short, steep climbs over the last 30km and an uphill finish. The reigning cyclo-cross and gravel world champion won his second Tour stage and the second yellow jersey of his stellar career.
It was Vingegaard, of all people, who kicked off the frantic finale when he burst out of a small lead group on the final climb, the Côte d’Outreau (880m @ 8.8%), with 5km left to ride in the 209.1km course from Lauwin-Planque to Boulogne-sur-Mer, the longest stage of the race. Eventually, an 8-rider lead group formed that also included Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa–B&B Hotels) and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro).
As the rest of the peloton closed in, Alaphilippe jumped first, with 500m to go, then van der Poel took off 400m from the finish, followed closely by Pogačar and Vingegaard. The Dane faded slightly, but Pogačar kept pace but was beaten by half a bike length. Van der Poel now leads the GC standings by 4 seconds over the UAE team leader, with Vingegaard another 2 seconds behind in third.
Pogačar didn’t come out of the stage empty-handed as he will be wearing the King of the Mountains jersey on Monday’s stage 3. And he seems to have enjoyed the battle. “It was everything: rain, stress, hectic, danger, short climbs, just like a Classic, and I was feeling good in the end’” he said. “As a team, we rode really good, but Mathieu was stronger at the finish line today.”
Vingegaard also had reason to be happy with his performance. “The result was better than what I expected,” he said on TNT Sports. “I didn’t expect to come third on a stage like this. I’m really happy with my legs, and with how it went.”
Oh, those pesky crosswinds
However, the other GC contenders are not very happy. Evenepoel sits in 18th place, 49 seconds adrift, while Primož Roglič (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) is 21st, with the same time. The reason for the surprising gap is Saturday’s dramatic stage 1.
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Van der Poel’s teammate Jasper Philipsen won that stage with a dominating bunch sprint, taking his tenth Tour stage victory and the first yellow jersey of his career. After being led out by both van der Poel and Kaden Groves, he beat last year’s Skoda green jersey winner Biniam Girmay by about three bike lengths. Uno-X Mobility’s Søren Wærenskjold finished third.
But where were the rest of the world’s best sprinters, such as Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla) and Jordi Meeus (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe? Why, they were in the peloton, which finished 39 seconds behind the winner and the group he was in. Just like Roglič, Evenepoel. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and other podium pretenders, they were caught out on a stretch of exposed road buffeted by strong crosswinds when Vingegaard and his teammates surged to the front with 17km left to ride. They then imposed a furious pace that opened up several gaps behind them due to the echelons. Only 35 riders managed to stay in the lead group, which slowly increased its lead over the peloton and held it until the finish line.
Regrets, crashes and breakdowns
Evenepoel and Roglič’s team blamed their stage 1 setback on a lack of alertness. “I think we were not really expecting [crosswinds] anymore,” Evenepoel said. “We fell asleep a bit and I must say we were a bit too relaxed.”
“The guys were asleep,” Red Bull sports director Enrico Gasparotto told TuttoBici. “We talked about that stretch, the wind and the related dangers, but they were surprised… I think we are all aware of the opportunity we wasted: Roglič and [Florian] Lipowitz lost the chance to gain time on Remco. Of course, we learned an important lesson.”
There were also a number of crashes in the stage, with both Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) and Stefan Bissiger (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) forced to abandon the race after crashing mid-stage. Tour novice Thibau Nys also hit the deck in the same crash and limped to the finish line 6:31 behind the winner. “It was horrible. I had prepared myself for the worst, and I think that’s what I got,” he said.
No doubt due to the high speeds, there were also an unusually large number of flat tires and other mechanical malfunctions that forced many riders to expend lots of energy fighting the winds to get back to the bunch. Not all of them made it. Simon Yates (Visma–Lease a Bike), for example, finished 6:31 adrift while the 22-year-old French hope, Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious), apparently laboring with an undisclosed ailment, finished dead last at 9:11.
This Tour de France looks as if it will be a three-week war of attrition. It’s been only two days so far and there are already riders licking their wounds and regretting their errors.
Results of Stage 2, 2025 Tour de France
- Mathieu van der Poel, Alpecin-Deceuninck 4:45:41
- Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirate–XRG “
- Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike “
- Romain Grégoire, Groupama-FDJ “
- Julian Alaphilippe, Tudor Pro “
- Oscar Onley, Picnic-PostNL “
- Aurélien Paret-Peintre, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale “
- Kévin Vauquelin, Arkéa–B&B Hotels “
- Simone Velasco, XDS Astana “
- Jenno Berckmoes, Lotto “
2025 Tour de France General Classification After Stage 2
- Mathieu van der Poel, Alpecin-Deceuninck 8:38:42
- Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirate–XRG +0:04
- Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike +0:06
- Kévin Vauquelin, Arkéa–B&B Hotels +0:10
- Matteo Jorgenson, Visma–Lease a Bike “
- Enric Mas, Movistar “
- Jasper Philipsen, Alpecin-Deceuninck +0:31
- Joseph Blackmore, Israel–Premier Tech +0:41
- Tobias Halland Johannessen, Uno-X Mobility “
- Ben O’Connor, Jayco-Alula “
