Tour de France 2025: in the car behind Mattéo Vercher, the unfortunate last-place finisher

This Friday, July 18, in the Pyrenean heat, near Lake Génos, we slipped into a TotalEnergies team car, during a hill time trial. Having seen Pogacar triumph almost every day , we wanted to spend a little time behind a human whose performances we understand. Who better than Mattéo Vercher, currently last in the standings? Between Loudenvielle and Peyragudes, in Haute-Garonne, a stone's throw from Spain, the Italians nicely call today's stage a cronoscalata . They have a gift for poetically naming horrors: this day, 10.9 km including 8 of climbing at 7.9%, and the last 500 meters towards a traumatically steep altiport.

During the first stage , Mattéo Vercher fell in front of the world. A stupid accident during an intermediate sprint in the North.