Cycling

Tour, last climb. Arensman takes the stage, Wingegaard is second. But Pogacar is king

The two rivals, along with Germany's Lipowitz and Scotland's Onley (practically the podium of this Tour) looked at each other for the umpteenth time and decided that it was OK

25 July 2025

3' min read

Between the two quarrels, the third enjoys. And wins. In the last mountain stage, the one that could have added something to a Tour dominated by Pogacar, almost nothing happened.

And so the only two thrills came from the new victory of the Dutchman Thymen Arensman, known as the 'Pelican' due to his long build (192 cm x 60 kg), and from a daring collision at the finish line between a strongman security guard and his majesty Tadej Pogacar.

A totally fortuitous clash, almost like a Laurel and Oil comic, which added a dash of humour to a truly boring stage, almost always controlled with the scales by the yellow jersey and Vingegaard, the two eternal rivals, who now move every day in this Tour in pairs like carabinieri.

With the petrol in reserve (even Pogacar reveals his human side), neither felt able to start a brawl. And so, in this stage shortened by 35 km compared to the 130 planned due to an outbreak of a bovine epidemic, the two leaders preferred a venomous truce. Which more or less goes like this: I can't win this stage, but neither can you. A programmatic framework, well understood by Arensman, who halfway up the last climb towards La Plagne dared to take the initiative by stretching out over the big boys by some thirty seconds.

The two rivals, along with Germany's Lipowitz and Scotland's Onley (practically the podium of this Tour) looked at each other for the umpteenth time and decided that it was OK. That Arensman's victory, his second in this Tour, solved a delicate diplomatic problem between the yellow jersey and his cumbersome shadow.

In the finale, which was complicated by the rain and the slippery asphalt, the Dutchman, gritting his teeth, managed to get two seconds ahead of Vingegaard and Pogacar, who were, as always, stuck together. A little further back (4 seconds) came Lipowitz who, with another stretch, managed to consolidate third place by taking advantage of a slight crisis of the Scot Onley, now more than a minute behind the German. For Lipowitz, it was a proud revenge after the previous stage's gamble. A place on the podium is practically guaranteed for him too. And the white jersey shouldn't be taken away from him either. Finally, Roglic's black day should be noted. First he showed off and then he sank with a delay of over 25 minutes, which dropped him to eighth place in the general classification.

"I'm absolutely devastated," said Arensman with eyes out of his head. "I can't believe it. I already couldn't believe I won in Superbagnares, let alone a second in one of the toughest stages of the Tour. I saw that the classification men were checking each other out, so I went straight ahead without thinking too much about it. Those are two champions, Tadej and Jonas. Everyone knows what those two are capable of inventing. I'm only human, but I wanted to try to beat them. And I succeeded. I went as fast as I could without looking back. A dream..."

What a beauty. All's well that ends well. Pogacar is happy because he has now won his fourth Tour. Vingegaard because he proved to be the only real opponent of the Martian, even managing to beat him to the finish this time. Without winning the stage, however, but in short you have to be content.

And finally he is happy, this nice flying Dutchman, known as the Pelican, who looked up beyond the fight of the two rivals and realised that this could become his big day of glory. His second in this Tour. Not peanuts.