There aren’t many equivalents to Tadej Pogačar’s feats in the Tour de France. In the past three weeks, the road race UCI World Champion has again demonstrated that he is the strongest General Classification (GC) rider in the current era, after having already achieved a historic Classics campaign in the spring.
As the Slovenian superstar claimed his fourth overall victory at the Tour, he also improved his own record of being the first rider to always place on the podium in his first eight Grand Tours, two steps above the benchmark previously set by Jacques Anquetil, Raymond Poulidor and Bernard Hinault, who all podiumed in all of their first six Grand Tours.
By winning his fourth, Pogačar is one step closer to the all-time record of five Tour de France wins, held by Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Miguel Indurain. He also takes the title of youngest rider to ever win four Tours, a record previously held by Merckx. As for a podium finish in six consecutive Tours, this is also an unprecedented milestone. “This one feels especially amazing,” he contemplated, after yet another exhilarating day of racing in Paris, where he led his final assault in the rain and eventually saw Wout van Aert (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) take an emotional success.
Pogačar: “The second week was the decisive moment”
Pogačar does not make history alone. For the fifth consecutive year, the first two on the final podium are the same, which is also a previously unseen feat. Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) also finished 1-2 in no less than 15 stages at the Tour, another unprecedented set of results. In 12 of these battles, the Slovenian was victorious. It happened again this year in three of Pogačar’s four stage wins, as he got the better of his Danish rival in Mûr-de-Bretagne Guerlédan (stage 7), Hautacam (12) and Peyragudes (13), after a first success ahead of Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in Rouen (4).
“We went fighting from day 1 and after Mûr-de-Bretagne I knew I had good legs to compete for the victory,” Pogačar reflected. “We just kept on fighting and then I think the second week was the decisive moment, taking more advantage.”
Along with the prestigious yellow jersey, he takes the polka-dot jersey as winner of the King Of the Mountains standings, also ahead of Vingegaard.
Evenepoel wins and withdraws; newcomers rise
There are many ways to fight for glory in the Tour de France, and the battle for the white jersey of best young rider has been another highlight of this edition. Winner of the time trial in Caen (stage 5), the individual time trial (ITT) UCI World Champion and defending winner of the white jersey Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) had to abandon the race after stage 14 due to health issues. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) took over and proved to be more than up to the challenge.
The German former biathlete was riding his first Tour de France and only his second Grand Tour, after finishing 7th overall in the 2024 Vuelta Ciclista a España. His main opponents, Great Britain’s Oscar Onley (Team Picnic PostNL) and France’s Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), were fourth and fifth in the GC at this point.
Onley came close to taking the white jersey on stage 18, where he managed to ride within 22 seconds of Lipowitz. In the end, the German newcomer stayed in control and on the overall podium: Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard (+04’24’’), Florian Lipowitz (+11’09’’). Onley finished the race in fourth place overall, Vauquelin took seventh.
Sprinters deliver raw power
Three weeks earlier, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), winner of the green points jersey in 2023, made a statement as he won the opening stage in Lille. Following in his tracks was Biniam Girmay (Intermarché - Wanty), who won the points classification in 2024.
Philipsen gave over the yellow jersey to his teammate Mathieu Van der Poel, after the latter punched his way to victory in Boulogne-sur-Mer (stage 2). The Belgian sprinter took to the start of stage 3 in the green jersey, but crashed out of the race on that day. It was another sprinter, Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), who won the stage.
Second on the day, Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) took over the green jersey. With strong support from his team, he carried it to Paris, and added two stage wins, on days 8 and 17, to cap off a successful first Tour. Merlier also doubled down with a victory in Châteauroux (9).
Attackers take over
Naturally, attackers got their say, especially in the second half of the Tour. A favourite of the crowds with his many breakaways, Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) claimed his first stage win in a thriller in Toulouse (stage 11). Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) went one step further, winning in the Pyrenees (Luchon-Superbagnères, 14) and in the Alps (La Plagne, 19), after finishing 2nd behind Giro d’Italia winner Simon Yates (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) in the Massif Central (Le Mont-Dore Puy de Sancy, 10).
Ben O’Connor (Team Jayco AlUla) took the queen stage at Col de la Loze (18). His Australian countryman Kaden Groves (Alpecin Deceuninck) showed he is much more than a sprinter with a solo victory in Pontarlier (20). And it was breakaway expert Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) who was eventually named the most aggressive rider of the Tour 2025, adding another accolade to his win in Vire Normandie (6) and his two days with the leader’s yellow jersey in the second week. Also a top-10 finisher in the GC, the young Irish attacker showed new aspects of his impressive talent. But he had to settle for 2nd on Mont Ventoux, as Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) delivered the French fans a unique win on these legendary slopes.