Tadej Pogacar between heavy supremacy and strange tactics

For two weeks, Tadej Pogacar had been unfolding his superiority, as if he were single-handedly writing the script for a Tour de France 2025 that was already wrapped up. Then, without warning, the story unraveled before our eyes: the panache turned into blur, the clarity into enigma, and the yellow jersey, until then so legible, became the first mystery of a race that no longer seems to quite know what it's about. The world champion took 3rd place in the 19th stage between Albertville and La Plagne, in Savoie, won by the Dutchman Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), on Friday, July 25.

"It was very strange ," admits Zak Dempster, sports director of the British team of the winner of today's stage. "The gap wasn't that big between the favorites and Thymen Arensman. But we gradually started to believe in victory." At the start of this last day in the high mountains and two days before the finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, Tadej Pogacar was the overwhelming favorite. During the 93.1 kilometers of the race - the stage was shortened due to a cattle slaughter - his team, UAE Team Emirates-XRG kept the various breakaway attempts under control.

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