{"id":199191,"date":"2025-07-28T08:31:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T08:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=199191"},"modified":"2025-07-28T09:34:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T09:34:26","slug":"some-takeaways-from-a-chaotic-shambolic-and-utterly-thrilling-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2025\/07\/28\/some-takeaways-from-a-chaotic-shambolic-and-utterly-thrilling-tour-de-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Takeaways from a Chaotic, Shambolic and Utterly Thrilling Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Poga\u010dar (UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma\u2013Lease a Bike) fought yet another tooth-and-nails duel for three weeks, though some of the suspense fell out of it after the Dane lost 1:05 to his Slovenian nemesis in the stage 5 time trial. Vingegaard\u2019s deficit after that stage was 1:13, which was not an impossible gap to close \u2013 except against the now four-time Tour champion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Vingegaard didn\u2019t find his best legs until week 2 and showed for the rest of the race that he was almost his rival\u2019s equal. But that\u2019s a big almost. Poga\u010dar never tired \u2013 though he was slowed by a cold in the final week \u2013 and eventually Vingegaard must have known that second was the best he could achieve. Perhaps that explains his puzzling behavior on the last of the two mountain stages. Thursday\u2019s stage 18 and Friday\u2019s stage 19. He had vowed to go for broke on the two summit finishes of these stages, but when he had his chances on the climbs to, respectively, the Col de la Loze (26.4km @ 6,5%) and La Plagne (19.1km @ 7.2%), he did not fire a bullet in anger until it was too late.<\/p>\n

Oddly, Poga\u010dar uncharacteristically didn\u2019t try to win either stage, but rode calmly to the finish, sure of his ultimate victory. According to TNT Sports, he had been suffering from a cold. But this lack of action by the main protagonists of the race added a feeling of anti-climax to a race that had more dramatic climaxes than a Shakespeare festival. The numerous hilly stages, especially in the first week, were chaotic, shambolic and utterly thrilling. That continued with Saturday\u2019s stage 20, with breakaway groups forming, falling apart and reforming, before Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) rode a 16km solo to win his first Tour de France stage and put him in the elite company who have won stages in all three Grand Tours.<\/p>\n

Van Aert gets Visma revenge as Poga\u010dar wins fourth Tour<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It was only poetic justice that the last stage of this wild and woolly Tour de France should be the wildest and wooliest. Of the 132.3km from Mantes-la-Ville to the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es in Paris, only 67.9km consisted of actual racing. The rest of it, the first half, more or less, was spent in celebrating the fourth Tour victory by Tadej Poga\u010dar and his UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG. Photos were taken, champagne was consumed and applause was heaped on the winner.<\/p>\n

Then the racing began on the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es. The usual six laps of this iconic (and expensive) boulevard were completed, including for the first time three cobbled ascents of the C\u00f4te de la Butte Montmartre (1.1km @ 5.9%, with a max of 9.6%). Rain had fallen in Paris and made the asphalt and smooth Parisian cobblestones treacherously wet. As a result, the times for the stage were taken after the fourth Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es circuit, with the rest of the race run for the fun of it. Because it was the last chance for winless riders and teams to leave the Tour with a prestigious victory on the most famous cycling finish in the world, many riders threw caution to the winds and three main groups eventually formed, with the lead group containing the insatiable Poga\u010dar and two riders from his rival Visma\u2013Lease a Bike team, Wout van Aert<\/a> and Matteo Jorgenson.<\/p>\n

Of course, the world champion initiated the final fireworks of the race by attacking on the second Montmartre ascent, with 23.4km left to ride. He was followed by five riders, including van Aert and Jorgenson. Poga\u010dar attacked again on the last Montmartre climb, 7km from the finish. But only 500m later he tasted a rare misfortune: he was overtaken and passed on a climb. It was van Aert, riding at his best again, who zoomed past and quickly opened a gap. With 4.5km left to ride, his lead was 10 seconds; at 2km, it had doubled. He stormed to the finish line, taking his tenth Tour de France stage \u2013 the second on the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es \u2013 and his team\u2019s second of this Tour. Poga\u010dar finished fourth, 19 seconds adrift, the same time as Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana) and Matej Mohori\u010d (Bahrain-Victorious).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a special day out,\u201d van Aert said after the stage. \u201cIt was special to win here on the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es again and on the first occasion where we climbed to Montmartre.\u201d Asked if he had wanted to win this stage especially and had targeted it, he said, \u201cTo be honest, I also wanted the 20 stages before today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
Zobrazit p\u0159\u00edsp\u011bvek na Instagramu<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

P\u0159\u00edsp\u011bvek sd\u00edlen\u00fd Tour de France\u2122 (@letourdefrance)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n