Tour de France: Healy the Magnificent, Pogacar and the Punchers, Vingegaard's Black Hole... Favorites and Critics from Our Special Envoys
ANALYSIS - After ten stages, the Tour de France takes a break with a rest day. A review after a roaring start to the 2025 edition.
Favorites
Healy sees doubleThe freshness card of this first part of the Tour de France. Ben Healy, with his unorthodox style, won the sixth stage between Bayeux and Vire before donning the yellow jersey on Monday , taking third place in the stage. The Irish rider from the EF Education-EasyPost team and his unwavering determination were the pleasant surprise of these first ten days of racing alongside the specialists expected to win the stage, such as Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogacar, Tim Merlier, Mathieu van der Poel, Philipsen, and Jonathan Milan.
Skip the adA great start in the frenzy of Lille ( the best TV audiences since 2000 with a peak of 50.6% audience ), a million spectators in the North despite the rain, a real madness in the ascent of Mûr-de-Bretagne where 40,000 spectators had gathered giving the impression of being in Alpe d'Huez, Normandy which welcomes the local children Guillaume Martin and Kévin Vauquelin in a boiling atmosphere and the enchanting setting of Saint-Malo. The 100% French Tour (a first in five years) captivates. A total success on the side of the roads.
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Vauquelin, the torchbearer for Arkéa-B&B HotelsThe young Norman with the d'Artagnan goatee enlivened the first week of racing by climbing onto the podium and sticking with the best on the many climbs before cracking a little on Monday in the first mountain stage. A weakness that made him fall off the podium (he occupies 6th place) before a day of rest that will do him a world of good. The puncher with the big heart celebrated in great jubilation in Bayeux where he was born also shines to perhaps allow his team, Arkéa-B&B Hotels to find sponsors and continue the adventure beyond 2025. The future of 150 employees may depend on him.
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As every year, crashes accompanied the first week of the Tour de France and wreaked havoc in a nervous peloton. Some were forced to abandon the race just after biting the dust (Jasper Philipsen, Filippo Ganna). Others tried to overcome the pain as long as possible before throwing in the towel. João Almeida withdrew on Sunday (fractured rib) and Georg Zimmermann on Monday, after a nightmare day. A few survivors found the resources to continue even though they were in a pitiful state, like Louis Barré, who finished the seventh stage with a grated buttock and a bloody elbow . A " warrior ," his Intermarché-Wanty team emphasized.
Also read: Tour de France: Are there really more crashes than before?
Punchers, the new stars of the pelotonThey are the headliners of the summer blockbuster on the roads of the Tour de France, capable of putting in lightning-fast bursts of acceleration to break away from the peloton and climb the short, high-gradient climbs at the end of the stage. Days reserved for sprinters have become rarer over the years, in favor of hilly courses riddled with small difficulties with finishes designed as climbs. During the first week, four of the first nine stages were tailored to these dynamite riders, whose profile is increasingly appreciated by spectators, like Tadej Pogacar, of course, or Mathieu Van der Poel.
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Scratches
Skip the adThe Dutch team led by Jonas Vingeaard and his red and white helmet hoped to be able to overshadow Tadej Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates. The Dane's completely botched time trial in Caen (stage 5 ) forced his team into an indecisive chase. Vingegaard will have more favorable terrain, but the Tour is passing quickly and things are looking very bad. Visma has regained its color and its smile with Simon Yates' stage victory at the summit of Mont-Dore. Hoping to have set foot on better days. To go on the attack. And not just pretend.
The poison of social networksUnintentionally causing Jasper Philipsen's crash , who was forced to abandon the race during the 3rd stage arriving in Dunkirk, Bryan Coquard, deeply affected by the incident, saw the hostile messages rain down on social media. Jasper Philipsen then exonerated the French sprinter of any responsibility for his crash and brought back some calm. The dissemination of certain messages and their proliferation are unnecessarily adding fuel to the fire.
Falls, the traditional burdenThey're part of the race, but the crashes still chill the participants, spectators, and TV viewers, before being replayed on a loop online. The speed, the colossal stakes, the excessive risk-taking, the ever-more sophisticated performance of the equipment, the parade of road features bristling like traps create a cocktail that invariably sows discord and fear in the peloton. Before trailing images that send shivers down the spine and fuel nightmares. A recurring problem. A burden.
Also read: Tour de France: Are there really more crashes than before?
Alaphilippe, a failed startHis return to the Tour was eagerly awaited. Absent in 2024 (he had opted for the Giro and the Olympics), Julian Alaphilippe returned to the Tour with emotion. And the public still shows him special affection. But ill, at the start of the Tour, he was only able to show his face in Boulogne-sur-Mer ( 5th in the 2nd stage). He remains committed to his initial objective: a stage victory. Hoping to have digested the efforts of an early Tour that leaves little room to escape, dream, and shine.
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