Arensman fastest on La Plagne, but Indurain’s record remains intact
The Tour de France returned to La Plagne for the first time since 2002 on stage 19, and Thymen Arensman claimed victory on the final mountaintop finish of the race.
The Tour de France returned to La Plagne for the first time in 23 years on stage 19, where Thymen Arensman claimed his second stage victory of this year’s race with an impressive solo on the final climb, holding off Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard.
Arensman joins Laurent Fignon (1984, 1987), Alex Zülle (1995), Michael Boogerd (2002) and Mark Padun (Critérium du Dauphiné 2021) as a winner at the ski resort.
La Plagne will always be renowned for Stephen Roche’s dramatic fightback and post-finish line collapse against Pedro Delgado on the 1987 Tour, but the most astonishing performance on the ascent was produced by Miguel Indurain in 1995, when he burned the race off his wheel in pursuit of the early escapee Zülle.
In 2025, the Tour peloton took a different route at the bottom of La Plagne, but the final 15.12km of the stage were identical to 30 years ago.
Indurain clocked 40:50 on that section in 1995, averaging a remarkable 22.23kph. Arensman was timed at 42:00 by Ammattipyoraily, with Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar coming in at 42:15.
