Tour de France 2025: Arensman holds off Pogacar and Vingegaard for solo stage win
The Dutch rider, a close second to Simon Yates on the stage to Puy-de-Sancy, entered the final five kilometres almost two minutes ahead of his closest rivals and, despite being pursued by Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, was able to hang on to take his first stage win in the Tour. Pogacar added 4sec to his overall lead, now 4min 13sec ahead of Vingegaard.
With almost five thousand metres of climbing packed into 125km of racing, it was one of the most brutal stages in recent Tours and it took its toll, with Remco Evenepoel, in third place at the start of the day but struggling with illness, the most high-profile casualty.
In wet and misty conditions, Pogacar was happy to let an earlier breakaway, which included Arensman, move clear, with Lenny Martinez, chasing yet more points in the King of the Mountains classification, also in the move. Crucially, the French rider was first over the mammoth and mist-shrouded Col du Tourmalet and harvested enough points to move into the polka dot jersey lead as the Tour exited the Pyrenees.
Evenepoel, clearly at the end of his rope after Friday's time trial to Peyragudes, was drifting behind well before the peloton arrived at the foot of the Tourmalet, but as the 19km climb began, it became apparent his race was run and he quit the Tour.
The Olympic road and time-trial champion will now not make it to Paris, scene last summer of the biggest successes of his career. Nor will Denmark's Mattias Skjelmose, who crashed after 53km and despite remounting, was forced to abandon, like Evenepoel on the lower slopes of the Tourmalet.
An Ineos Grenadiers team car hit and knocked down a spectator during the stage, TV footage showed. The team car was in the middle of the road to the Col de Peyresourde, about 200m from the top of the ascent, when it struck the spectator, who was cheering the riders on.
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The Guardian
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- The Guardian
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2 hours ago
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