Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar rode the final major climb of the Tour de France expecting the other to be the one to launch an attack that never came.
Cor Vos
Even after Tadej Pogačar summited the Col de la Loze ahead of him on Thursday’s stage 18, Jonas Vingegaard stuck to the mantra that has guided him since he started losing time in the first week of the Tour de France. “The Tour is not over,” Vingegaard told the world as he looked ahead to Friday’s final mountain stage.
Fans who tuned in for stage 19, then, might have been disappointed to watch Vingegaard glued to Pogačar’s wheel almost the entire way up the final climb to La Plagne. At least as far as the general classification battle was concerned, it was pretty clear that the Tour was, in fact, over. When all was said and done, all Vingegaard achieved was nabbing two seconds on Pogačar at the finish line (on bonuses), and thus ended the battle for yellow at the 2025 Tour de France: not with a bang but with a whimper.
In the aftermath of the stage, which was won by an attacking Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), Visma head of racing Grischa Niermann confirmed that his team had ultimately opted against making a low-probability GC bid on the final mountain stage.
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