7 things the 2025 Tour de France really taught us

It began in the north, in Classics country. After a frenetic opening few days that saw early gaps emerge on GC, early departures, and a war of words between the race’s primary players, the race moved into the mountains, and the GC was effectively shut down as a contest. 

While this may serve as an adequate elevator pitch for the 2025 Tour de France, as always, the myriad storylines and talking points served up by a three-week long Grand Tour can never be unfolded in just a few sentences. A subsection of fans may have already written the race off as ‘boring’ because of the lack of doubt, over who would ultimately go home in yellow. Yet there is so much more to glean from a race of such length, depth and complexity, outside of the ultimate maillot jaune. From the fighting spirit of Ben Healy, to the valiant breakaway duo of Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Rickaert; the chaotic finale of stage 11 that saw Jonas Abrahamsen claim victory just weeks after ruling himself out of the Tour with a broken collarbone, to Ben O’Connor overcoming disappointment at not being in GC contention to take a stunning solo stage victory. 

With 14 teams taking home honours, nine breakaway wins, and a thrilling contest for the final podium spot and the white jersey, there are a host of talking points from the top to the bottom of the standings. Here are just some of the key takeaways that prove it was truly a Grand Boucle to write home about.

Two super teams, one three-week long grudge match.

Much of the pre-race chat centred around the clash of the titans – not just Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard themselves, but the squads they would bring with them to try and help them win the Tour de France. Debates raged over the relative strengths of the two teams, but the proof would only be visible on the road.

It was clear from the outset that Visma’s tactic was a sustained assault of combined aggression and attrition, with the sole intent to tire and isolate Pogačar – their only hope of breaking down a seemingly unassailable competitor – knowing that their tactic may backfire on them, should they weaken their own resources. Yet it was a tactic they clearly believed in, and persisted with from start to finish.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG did not have a particularly easy Tour, nor did they present quite the impenetrable force that they have in recent Tours in support of Tadej. The early loss of João Almeida was a body blow – others had to step up in his stead, and by contrast to previous years, Marc Soler was relatively quiet, while Pavel Sivakov suffered with illness and didn’t look good. The menacing image of Nils Politt was often present – but though his impact was significant, the overall demeanour of the team stood in contrast to prior years, where UAE have set a devastating tempo day after day, and kept the race entirely under their control. This year they sat back and let Visma serve this role, and Visma revelled in the chaos, Victor Campanaerts driving on into slender gaps during breakaway formations, unsettling the bunch, and the team executing their satellite rider strategy regularly.

Visma spent three weeks trying to break Pogačar down on and off the bike, but ironically, the sole beneficiary of these tactics - within the Visma team at least - was Wout van Aert, when after three weeks of enduring repeated unsuccessful attempts to drop him, Matteo Jorgenson launched an attack on Pogacar just ahead of Montmartre, and Wout Van Aert dropped the hammer blow up the climb.

The star of the UAE show was arguably Jhonatan Narvaez, deployed sparingly but effectively as a punchy lead-out for Pogačar, enabling to deliver short, sharp attacks – efficient and devastating – on his way to his fourth Tour victory.

Jonas Vingegaard gave a hint as to what he’d been working on behind the scenes when he launched a cheeky attack off the front on stage 1 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, taking everyone by surprise. Anticipating a punchy, explosive first week, with plenty of opportunities for Pogačar to shine, Vingegaard polished his punch and took off the gloves, metaphorically speaking, giving himself every opportunity to go toe-to-toe with his rival, and try to give him a run for his money on his own turf. 

It worked, to an extent, with Jonas limiting his losses, but it was to no avail. Though he stayed with his adversary on the rolling stages, he was outclassed in areas which in the past, he has managed to overturn Pogačar – against the clock, and in the high mountains. His daring and explosivity were lost when it came to the crunch, head-to-head, and he lacked conviction when he finally had a chance to drop Pogačar, on stage 19 – though it still would have been too little, too late.

It's a tough pill to swallow for the absolute best GC rider in the world – bar one. Coming to the Tour fully fit, after a 2024 in which he really wasn’t at his best, only to find Pogačar had taken yet another step up, must be greatly frustrating. It’s back to the drawing board for Visma, though given Pogačar’s attitude towards the end of the race, it’s maybe simply a case of waiting him out, when it comes to looking for the next victory… 

Just as we saw a different side to Jonas Vingegaard this Tour, we also became acquainted with an iteration of Tadej Pogačar that was ultimately more psychologically nuanced than the one we’d all become accustomed to. Already a Jekyll & Hyde type character – part happy-go-lucky good guy, part stone-cold cannibal – a new facet of Pogačar emerged through the course of the Tour, foreshadowed by his comments prior to the race that he was getting bored with racing the Tour, and was only doing it to fulfil sponsor obligations. Despite this claim, it was no surprise to see Pogačar ripping into the race with his usual gusto in week 1, but by the time the end of the race drew closer, an altogether new Tadej took the place of the boisterous, all-out racer that we’re so used to seeing. 

Still wearing heavy strapping on his arm following his stage 11 crash, and having complained of cold symptoms earlier in the race, it’s highly possible that Pogačar was not feeling 100%, and that his uncharacteristic restraint in the final stages was simply a matter of conserving energy and ensuring he would make it all the way to Paris. Ruthless efficiency, perhaps. However, there seemed to be more going on beneath the surface, and when he revealed that he just wanted to go home, heading in the final week, more hints of a man who is tiring of the commitments that he must fulfil suggested that the novelty of his success is perhaps finally starting to wear off, a few months shy of five years since his first Tour victory.

It's easy to be drawn into over-analysing Pogačar’s malaise in week 3, despite the rider’s honesty over his feelings. In past years, we’ve seen Pogačar merrily blast his opposition off his wheel and storm away solo up mountains, winning races by minutes. It seemed immaterial if it was a Grand Tour, or a one-day race. Visma’s antics certainly caused Pogačar a degree of irritation, and combined with the relentless media circus surrounding him, the psychological fatigue was apparent. Physically, Pogačar admitted himself he was tired – it was a high-paced, frenetic race for all involved, and unlike in previous years, that wasn’t all down to Pogačar and UAE themselves.

Beyond that though, it seemed that it was the fizz of the competition itself that had fallen flat for Pogačar. Having proven beyond reasonable doubt that he was better than Vingegaard, and furthermore, entirely capable of handling whatever Visma decided to throw at him, there was nothing left for him to thrive on. While he may have had it in him to charge down breakaways at will, the appetite for doing so had diminished. Perhaps he was tired of the accusations of greed levelled at him by the media, genuinely concerned about his image, or about being liked. 

More probably, he was simply fed up that there was no-one left at the race who could give him a run for his money. The only man left on the planet who seems capable of beating him now, is Mathieu van der Poel. The characteristic verve and vigour of Pogačar was clear for all to see in week 1, with such a worthy adversary to spar with. Though van der Poel would not have been able to compete with Pogačar in the mountains anyway, his presence in the race gave Pogačar the will to fight. By the time the fight was over, in GC terms, so were the opportunities to face-off against van der Poel. If Pogačar-Vingegaard rivalry may be a thing of the past, van der Poel and the Classics may be where we must look, to see Pogačar doing Pogačar things in the coming years.

In recent years, the white jersey competition has been won by default. When you have a rider like Tadej Pogačar, shining brightly at such a young age, white was swept up in his wake, along with the KOM jersey too, in many cases.

This year, there was something of a different complexion to the white jersey competition. With the top two spots on GC all but set in stone, the race for the podium would be fierce. Over the course of the first week of racing, it became clear that the contenders for this place were all young riders – that the race for the podium would also serve as the battle for white – and that it wasn’t just Remco Evenepoel who was vying for supremacy. 

There were five different white jersey owners during the race. Biniam Girmay was the first, in probably the brightest spot for the Eritrean in a race that didn’t unfold as hoped for his team. After that, week 1 belonged to Arkéa-B&B Hotels’ Kévin Vauquelin. With his punchy racing, lack of fear and just enough hubris to believe that Evenepoel was scared of him, Vauquelin was the star of the show in his home region of Normandy, and wore the white jersey for three days, remaining in contention until the long climbs began to take their toll.

The favourite for the podium, and for white, Remco Evenepoel took up his expected position following the time trial on stage 5. It was the pinnacle of the race for him, with a stage win in his favoured discipline, and he prepared to serve as third wheel to Pogačar and Vingegaard, as he had in 2024. It wasn’t to be for the Belgian though; he abandoned in the Pyrenees, leaving the contest wide open.

One of the standout riders of the race, Ben Healy, took white by default after his stunning raid on stage 10 which turned everything on its head, throwing in his lot with the GC boys for a few days. As he fell away, the race became a head-to-head between arguably the in-form GC rider outside of Pogačar and Vingegaard, 24-year-old German Florian Lipowitz, and 22-year-old Scot Oscar Onley. This battle became the competition by proxy; with Pogačar holding such a huge lead in the race for the maillot jaune, the true thrill of the race was encapsulated in the white jersey race.

The contrasting approaches of these two riders and their teams made the contest all the more fascinating, with Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe rolling the dice and gambling with co-leadership to the last, not demanding Lipowitz or Primoz Roglic should ride for one another, while on the other hand, Team Picnic-PostNL threw everything behind Onley’s campaign, united behind a single goal. 

Ultimately, the age and experience of Lipowitz won out in the end – despite him being left to labour alone for much of the race – but Onley can be extremely proud of his fourth-place finish, and the two will surely go head-to-head for GC victories for many years to come. 

In the end, with four white jersey contenders in the final top 9 of the GC standings, the future looks very bright.

A race route that took place entirely in France. No cobbles, no gravel. Two time trials, one uphill. Stages for sprinters (perhaps not enough), puncheurs (perhaps too many), and visits to the Massif Central, Pyrenees and Alps to take on some classic climbs. Back to Paris: it was originally billed a rather traditional Tour de France route, without too many surprises. One for the purists, perhaps. 

It unfolded somewhat differently The thoughtfully planned tour of the northern regions of France that have received less attention in recent years was a huge success. A pair of weekend flat stages raised uproar among fans, who were disappointed to see the bunch taking it easy – the one day, perhaps, that they were able to, in the entire Tour – and this gave rise to the route planner Thierry Gouvenou threatening even less for the sprinters in years to come. With that, and the final jubilant stage in Paris, in which a twist on the traditional Champs-Elysée finish added a touch of spice, perhaps the balance leant more towards the progressive. Are we seeing a shift away from bunch sprints, in favour of high-octane finales that tempt out GC riders early? 

In any case, whether route planning was responsible for the generalised chaos that ensued, is unclear. It certainly raised the stakes in the opening days, by contrast to 2024’s gruelling opening stage – all bets were off, and a certain kind of desperation prevailed, manifesting itself in different ways as the race unfolded, from the bizarre crash of Thomas and Vercher in the fight for KOM points on stage 1, to silly crashes, and unnecessary sticky bottle incidents – everyone was fighting tooth and nail to get something – anything – out of the race.  

Officially confirmed as the fastest Tour de France ever, the peloton had us thinking they’d all rather be somewhere else, the speed at which they were taking on each day of the race. With accusations of the loss of the unwritten rules of racing, attacks rolling off at will and groups splitting and reforming like shoals of panicked fish, as other commentators have noted, it appeared as a series of 21 one-day races. Is this the mentality induced by Pogačar’s dominance – everyone fighting for scraps in what remains of the race, unclaimed by the Slovenian?

Or perhaps it’s indicative of a continued improvement in gear, nutrition, science and so on – it’s interesting to note that not one rider suffered at the hands of the time cut this year, or was even troubled by it, save for the last-minute panic over the increase of the percentage, on the mountain time trial stage that would have seen eight riders fall foul of it. Those at the top end of cycling are simply becoming better - faster, more versatile, and capable withstanding more.

With nine breakaway victories, this year’s Tour had one of the highest success rates for escapees in recent years. By contrast, there were only five last year, and even at the Giro d’Italia earlier this year, with neither of the sport’s top two riders present, there were only seven.

Many factors had a role to play in this – with less sprint stages, the spoils were there for the taking. UAE Team Emirates weren’t as overbearing as they have been in recent seasons, and the relative strength of breakaway riders was very high. Ben Healy, Ben O’Connor, and Thymen Arensman all exhibited the kind of climbing strength that could have seen them in the top 5 of the GC had they been able to sustain their efforts over three weeks. Valentin Paret-Peintre sealed the sole victory for France in a stunning battle on Ventoux, and Tim Wellens and Kaden Groves were worthy solo victors after two immensely strong rides. Simon Yates’ victory stands out as being arguably the savviest among the winners, given he perhaps expected to be serving as a satellite rider for Jonas, before finding himself part of a group that contained a belligerent Ben Healy in search of yellow, leading him to exerting relatively little in the way of energy - the mark of a smart racer. And a lucky one.

Wout van Aert’s win rounded off the race with one of the only definitive attacks on Pogačar that actually stuck, to make it two stage wins for Visma, a consolation perhaps for their second place on GC. All in all, it offers hope for the future: Pogačar may have won four stages and obliterated the GC, but in doing so, there was still room for the daring to make their mark on the race.

Despite the relative proliferation of breakaway wins, the Tour was notable for the narrow selection of teams who could claim victory. Just 9 of the 23 teams shared the spoils of the 21 stage wins between them, with UAE taking five, Soudal-QuickStep four and Alpecin-Deceuninck three, the top three in the rankings. At the other end of the spectrum, it was a relatively bleak Tour for the home teams, with no French teams taking a stage win. 

A number of teams will still be pleased with their efforts despite not climbing a precious stage won. Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe and Team Picnic PostNL battled for the white jersey, and the podium, and will be proud of the outcome. And though French teams could not claim a win, both Arkéa-B&B Hotels and TotalEnergies can chalk up Kévin Vauquelin’s 7th place and Jordan Jegat’s 10th as jobs well done. 

On the flip side, Groupama-FDJ continue their stage win drought at the Tour – they were already the team who had gone the longest without celebrating success, with this run set to continue into 2026. Intermarché-Wanty came in with one goal – to support Biniam Girmay to defend the green jersey he won in 2024 – but Girmay failed to show the kind of form he needed and his team were stricken by a series of nasty crashes. And Cofidis were utterly doomed throughout, from the crash of Benjamin Thomas on stage 1 to the theft of their bikes, Bryan Coquard’s difficult race, a series of other crashes, and not a sniff at a win to ease the burden.