Tour de France 2025: Pogacar blows field away on stage 12 summit finish in Pyrenees – as it happened
That’s the lot for today.Merci for reading, and for your emails.Can anyone stop Pogacar? It’s looking highly unlikely.Bye for now.Tuck into our snap stage 12 report here:On or near the podium, Macron and Pogacar shake hands.
The handshake lasts a remarkable amount of time,Macron maybe making sure the photographers have got the shot? I time it at 31sec,New record?Roglic, seventh on GC, is asked about the pace that Visma-Lease a Bike set on the Hautacam,“It was just fast,Way too fast for me.
It was a big battle in the last 7km to come to the top.”“How do feel now?” asks another reporter.“Tired.”Roglic smiles.“When you have the legs, you have to go,” Roglic says of his teammate Lipowitz, who finished third on the stage and moved up to fourth in GC.
“He had the legs today so yes, great job from him.”As team leader, how does Roglic feel to see Lipowitz ride so well? Roglic looks a little puzzled.“I’m happy.I’m really happy.I hope he keeps the level to the finish.
”And what about his socks today, or lack thereof?“Yeah, it’s hot, no? So I work on it for the summer, a bit, without the lines, no?”Armirail, who led into the last climb, finished 17th on the stage, 10min 46sec behind Pogacar.1) Pogacar 27pts 2) Martinez 27pts 3) Woods 22pts 4) Healy 16pts 5) Armirail 15pts1) Pogacar 45hr 22min 51sec 2) Vingegaard +3min 31sec 3) Evenepoel +4min 45sec 4) Lipowitz +5min 34sec 5) Vauqelin +5min 40sec 6) Onley +6min 05sec 7) Roglic +7min 30sec 8) Johannessen +7min 44sec 9) Gall +9min 21sec 10) Jorgenson +12min 12secGrischa Niermann of Visma Lease A Bike speaks to TNT Sports: “Jonas was feeling well, but on the last climb Pogacar was clearly the best, and he also suffered a lot.It was a very hard day and in the end the best rider won.“It was for sure not Jonas’s best day.He is still the best of the rest.
But congratulations to Tadej and to UAE, they showed who is the strongest rider here.”Was Pogacar out for revenge? “I knew first time I rode Hautacam, for recon, it’s a super nice climb,” Pogacar says.“Then it came in 2022.I was trying with my “head through the wall” to get back the yellow jersey, but Visma were too strong back then.I forgot about this, I was just looking forward to today, but then all the people were saying [before this stage]: ‘It is revenge time, blah blah blah.
’“When we approached the bottom of the climb, it was just a reverse of a few years ago, one Belgian guy on the front, Tim [Wellens] … I’m super happy to win on this climb, and to take time.Did he have doubts after yesterday’s crash? “For sure you don’t know how the body reacts after the crash.It was not too bad.I feel my hip but only when I do acrobatics.But here I am just riding the bike.
I sweat a bit more, but maybe it’s good.“We did a super job.The team rode really well.yeah, chapeau also to Ben Healy and EF.They were trying to defend the jersey, they showed big spirit, and also Uno-X, they fight for their own GC, so it was a hard day for everybody.
But in the end we were super-strong,We had this stage in mind a long time, and we did it,“I think this stage can go today for Samuele [Privitera, the 19-year-old Italian cyclist who died yesterday] and to all his family,It was really sad, it was the first thing I read in the morning, and I was thinking in the last kilometre about him and how this tough sport can be,And how much pain it can cause.
”“Did Amirail drop off the face of the earth?” asks Beau Dure.Fair question, I’ll check where he was in the final reckoning …1) Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 4hr 21min 19sec 2) Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease A Bike) +2min 11sec 3) Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe) +2min 23sec 4) Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) +3min 5) Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) +3minThat is Pogacar’s 20th Tour de France stage win.Vingegaard eventually comes home 2min 11sec behind Pogacar, that will add up to three and half minutes in the overall.Lipowitz finishes third.Complete and total domination from the defending champion.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, is there by the finish line to applaud,And it looks like Vingegaard has blown up, somewhat, back down the road …1km to go: Pogacar rides under the flamme rouge,He’s riding imperiously to another phenomenal stage win, and all with a considerable amount of road rash on his left arm and body,“I was expecting a much bigger battle, a much closer one,” says Sean Kelly on commentary,1.
5km to go: Pogacar’s lead continues to grow.It’s up to 1min 48sec.The fans roar their approval.It’s a phenomenal ride by Pogacar but it’s not pointing at it being a very close overall race …Meanwhile Lipowitz now leads Evenepoel by a minute, and is looking very strong.2km to go: “What is Richard going to do with his baguette now he won’t be eating it?” asks Bob.
“Drop it in the Large Hadron Collider?”2,5km to go: Vingegaard gets out his saddle and then settles back into a rhythm as typically idiotic fans run alongside him in reckless fashion,The gap to the leader is 1min 36sec,3km to go: Now, towards the summit, there are thousands of fans packing the road side,A Republic of Ireland flag is waved in Pogacar’s face as he rides through the crowds.
“It won’t be an unassailable lead but it will be such a comfortable position after one proper mountain stage,” remarks Rob Hatch on commentary for TNT Sports.3.5km to go: Pogacar was 29sec behind Healy before today.Evenepoel was third in GC, exactly a minute down on Pogacar.As it stands Vingegaard will go second in GC tonight but he might be three minutes behind the race leader.
4km to go: Pogacar now has 1min 20sec on his rival Vingegaard, and his closest challengers are 2min 15sec down.This is utter dominance, but it’s not a surprise.4.5km to go: Florian Lipowitz attacks Onley, but the young British rider responds.They are eighth and seventh on GC respectively with 10sec between them.
5km to go: The hot tarmac on the mountain has been daubed with various messages in chalk and paint.Pogacar rides over one message that says “JONAS” in yellow with a Danish flag.5.5km to go: Pogacar will take the headlines but I take my hat off to any athlete that finishes today’s stage within the time limit.It’s been absolutely relentless and brutal.
Thank God it’s a nice easy mountain ITT tomorrow …6km to go: “He doesn’t look like he’s anywhere near the limit,” Kelly says of Pogacar, just before we see a spectacular helicopter shot of some buzzards just sitting there, maybe enjoying the action.“When you think about the pace of the stage today this is crazy stuff.It’s mind-boggling.”6.5km to go: Pogacar now has 53sec on Vingegaard.
That’s some gap and he rides relentlessly onwards, in that unmistakeable rhythm.The chasers behind are gaining a bit on Vingegaard but they are 1min 49sec behind the stage leader.7km to go: “This is absolutely amazing.Imperious,” writes David Alderton.“What a day so far!”7.
3km to go: “He’s just got to limit his losses,” says Sean Kelly on commentary.“In the losing position, it’s very hard to hold your head and keep working at it.And as Robbie said, you just never know what can happen.”7.5km to go: “Pogacar now reminds me of Drago,” emails Tim.
“He’s not human,He’s like a piece of iron,But on a carbon bike,Fearsome,I can understand why Trine Vingegaard wants Jonas to call it a day.
”8.5km to go: “We’ll see how I recover,” Pogacar said last night.“Normally the day after a crash you’re never at the best, but I will give my best and we’ll see.I think we’re ready as a team for Hautacam.”Yes, it would seem so.
9km to go: Pogacar grabs a drink from the neutral service motorbike,Vingegaard rides on behind, all alone, desperately trying to limit his losses on the first major mountain stage of this year’s race,10km to go: Pogacar is now riding among the thousands of fans lining the final climb,“Should they have waited for Pogacar yesterday?” asks Robbie McEwen on commentary,“Because this is what he had in store for them.
”Pogacar leads his rival by 22sec.Evenepoel is more than a minute behind Pogacar.11km to go: Pogacar powers on alone up front, looking very composed and in complete control.He leads his rival Vingegaard by 9sec.The Visma Lease A Bike rider has settled into a rhythm.
And he’s refusing to panic,It’s not a rhythm that looks likely to win him the stage …11km to go: “Can Richard Hirst point to the soundness of the Richard Hirst theory, despite the scepticism displayed in some quarters?”You can probably guess who sent that email,Yes, absolutely Richard, you can,12km to go: Jhonatan Narváez takes it up for UAE,Armirail’s lead is 45sec
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