Key events
56km to go: There is heavy rain falling at the finish.
57km to go: “I live in Thailand, so not many opportunities to watch cycling live,” emails Ann. “But went to the Singapore crit (yes, yes, I know about crits), mainly so I could see my hero Mark Cavendish is his last ever event.
“Lots of opportunities to meet riders – but as an, erm, “elderly” woman I’m not familiar with taking selfies; messed up the one with Cav, but he did say “oh, bless!” when I told him I’d been cheering for him since the HTC days!
“Tried to take a selfie with Primoz – but I knew there was something wrong, and said “I’ve messed this up, don’t know how to take selfies” – he said “Don’t worry, I’ll do it,” and lent over to press the button on my phone. I actually had it set on video – “Oh we make a little video together!” he said. Lovely man!”
I too am a big fan of Roglic. I interviewed him once, briefly, at a small race in Spain. He was nice. Go Primoz!
60km to go: There is a bit of up and down now before the second climb kicks up: the Cormet de Roselend (1,968m), a category-two.
Lots of action on the road, with Roglic, Paret-Peintre and Martinez leading the rest. They have 35sec on the maillot jaune group.
64km to go: Martinez wins the KOM points on the Col du Pré, the first of three categorised climbs on this shortened stage. Roglic isn’t interested in sprinting for them and Paret-Peintre is just happy to be there. If a bit out of breath.
64.3km to go: Valentin Paret-Peintre has put in a huge effort to get over to Roglic and Martinez. The gap has grown to 50sec in front of the yellow jersey group.
65km to go: The yellow jersey group is 82 riders strong. Pogacar, Vingegaard, Lipowitz, Onley, Gall and Vauquelin all there. The gap to the break is being held at about 36sec.
66km to go: Roglic and Martinez power on, working together, now a little over 2km from the summit of this HC climb.
“Onley can’t afford to get involved in this chase at all,” commentator Sean Kelly says of Roglic’s efforts for Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe early in this shortened stage.
Paret-Peintre is chasing the front two, only 7sec behind.
67km to go: “Rogla wants to shake up the GC, but you have to be smart.” That is the message to Martinez from the Bahrain Victorious team car, over the radio.
67.5km to go: The penultimate kilometre of the climb is 11.3% average gradient, says Hannah Walker on TNT Sports.
Wellens is still working on the front of the yellow jersey group. Marc Soler is there too, working for Pogi.
68km to go: Roglic is full of beans again, spinning a small gear with a high cadence and leading his fellow attackers up the climb.
Martinez then takes it up with Roglic on his wheel.
69km to go: Valentin Paret-Peintre makes it to the front, creating a five-man escape group.
There are lots of switchbacks coming on the ascent in the next 5km.
69km to go: Roglic, Rubio, Armirail and Lenny Martinez are now out front on their own, a group of four.
70km to go: Tim Wellens is riding on the front of the yellow jersey group, working for his team leader Pogacar. The lead group has 25sec.
In regard to Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe, Rolf Aldag said earlier he was pleased to have tactical flexibility with third and fifth in GC. It would be possible, of course, for Roglic to have licence to go for the win and Lipowitz still to have plenty of support in his battle with Onley.
71km to go: The Milan group, off the back, is 2min 16sec down on the front of the race already. Just over 7km to go to the top.
Roglic goes on the attack at the front of the race.
“It’s strange, in these three week Tours, you see the same guys going in the moves,” Matt White says of Roglic. “When someone comes into form at the back end of a grand tour, they get multiple opportunities to show their wares.”
72.5km to go: Warren Barguil is dropped from the front group.
Presumably, Roglic isn’t going to do exactly what he did yesterday, and freestyle to an attempted stage win, leaving Lipowitz (and presumably teammates) to do their own thing?
73.5km to go: It’s 10sec or so for this front group.
A reminder that Thierry Gouvenou of ASO said this climb, in his opinion, is the most difficult of this year’s race.
74km to go: The commentators mention that Onley and Lipowitz, predictably, are riding alongside each other.
75km to go: There is a big group off the front. Roglic, T Johannessen, Jegat, Healy, Arensman, Barguil, Campanaerts, Scotson, Rubio, Storer, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Armirail, Stannard are all there. But it’s about 18 riders there.
The pace at the front is putting plenty of riders into the red back down the road.
76km to go: The bunch hits the first climb. Abrahamsen is caught. Alex Baudin attacks … then Julian Alaphilippe … and Primoz Roglic is up there, too!
78km to go: “Greetings from South Carolina AKA Caroline du Sud,” emails JW Dunn.
“Heard on team radio that someone said something to the effect of ‘teams don’t want Pogacar to win green’. Any thoughts on this?
“Certainly seemed like there was not much of an effort to keep Milan from getting maximum points on the intermediate sprint. Same today?”
Indeed, there wasn’t much of a sprint at that intermediate, but personally I think that’s because Lidl-Trek had controlled it so well before, and Girmay and co. know that Milan has their number in a straight, mid-stage sprint.
I also think Steven de Jongh’s message on the radio yesterday, about teams not wanting Pogacar to win green, may have been a bit tongue in cheek? Even if there is truth in it too.
79km to go: Jonas Abrahamsen of UnoX-Mobility (who else?) has clipped off the front on his own. He has 10sec.
Jonathan Milan wins the intermediate sprint
Top 3 at Villard-sur-Doron:
1) Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek)
2) Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty)
3) Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies)
That makes Milan’s lead 95 points in the green jersey classification.
82km to go: Only a kilometre remaining until the intermediate sprint …
Lipowitz is being moved up to a prominent position in the peloton – the first climb, the Col du Pré, starts just 5km from the sprint.
83km to go: A problem for Alexey Lutsenko (Israel–Premier Tech). A puncture, it seems. Bad timing to say the least if he was hoping to get in the break, as he has done on previous stages.
84km to go: “It’s going to be so fast, it’ll be difficult for breakaways to get away,” says Kelly on commentary. “In a longer stage, Lipowitz might have a bit of an advantage over Onley.”
That’s the opposite of what Rowe said, in regard to Onley v Lipowitz.
87km to go: As per usual, there are 20pts on offer to the winner of the intermediate. Expect another success for Milan.
88km to go: Lidl-Trek continue to drive it on the front of the peloton. Slightly further back down the road, Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe are visible, massed together.
89km to go: The “official start” will come after the intermediate sprint, observes Rob Hatch on commentary. Unofficial, I think would say, but yes.
91km to go: It’s not just the podium on offer for Onley, of course. If he overhauls Lipowitz today by gaining more than 22sec, he’ll be wearing the white jersey tomorrow, too and will look to defend it for the last couple of days.
Stage 19 begins
Here we go. A short, sharp 93km to race, finishing in La Plagne at an altitude of 2,052m.
Quinn Simmons leads the peloton up an early incline.
There is an intermediate sprint after just 12.1km today, at Villard-sur-Doron. The racing will be bright and breezy early doors. The peloton is massed behind the race director’s car. And they’re off!
Points classification top five
1. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) 332
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 257
3. Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) 196
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) 165
5. Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) 156
“We want to battle until Paris,” says Visma’s Marc Reef. “We tried at Mont Ventoux, we tried yesterday. It will be an explosive stage. So far he [Pogacar] has been stronger than Jonas … normally he will be ready to counter everything, but we’ll have to see what we can do … the race is only over when it’s really over.”
KOM classification top five
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 105
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) 89
3. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) 72
4. Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) 65
5. Ben O’Connor (Team Jayco AlUla) 51
(Looks like Martinez was docked 72pts for a few sticky bottles on the first big climb yesterday, by the way.)
The neutralised roll out has begun.
Onley said that if he feels good, he will attack, but that it’s also about being smart and making every effort count.
Rolf Aldag, Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe sports director, speaks to TNT:
“Oscar Onley is riding a fantastic race. Yesterday better than ever. There was a change of emotion for us yesterday in the race. It looked really really brilliant for us, for a moment, then it turned into looking not so good anymore. So we take the fight on, Onley is our direct competitor, let’s see what we can do. Remember we are not only third, we are also fifth.”
What is Roglic’s role today? “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, Primoz would say. It gives us tactical flexibility. Why not try to be in a break?”
Does the shorter stage suit them? “It’s super hard to judge. In general Lipowitz is very consistent in his efforts … Talking about recovery, after a super hard day yesterday for him, maybe the shorter stage is good to him. But I wouldn’t worry about the length of the stage, it’s super-hard, it’s going to be very intense, so it remains the same.”
“I thought it was perfectly reasonable for Roglic to attack and try and get a podium place,” says McEwen of those Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe tactics yesterday. “But after yesterday, now, today, they need to focus on securing a podium place. As a team, they best thing they can do is that Primoz does stick with Lipowitz.”
“I don’t understand why Roglic wasn’t required to support Lipowitz yesterday,” emails James. “From a Red Bull team perspective, it may end up costing them a podium place. It was fantastic seeing Onley emerge through the mist yesterday and stay with the top two when Jonas launched his attack near the top.”
Luke Rowe points out that the shortened stage is bad news for Oscar Onley’s podium charge. “If you want to make up time, you want more climbs, a harder day,” he says.
Thierry Gouvenou, of ASO, says there was a risk of contagion after the outbreak of disease among cattle, and that having spoken to the farming community, they “wanted us to be aware of their despair”.
Hence the route change.
“Honestly, for me, it doesn’t change much,” he says of the sporting stakes.
“The Col de Pré is the most demanding of this year’s Tour and a perfect place to launch an attack. But will the riders have the energy?”
“I’m not sure they made a mistake,” Matt White said of Red Bull’s-Bora Hansgrohe’s tactics (speaking on yesterday’s TNT highlights). “I think they were probably looking for that elusive stage win. And I think Florian Lipowitz just spent too much time on his own, on the toughest day of the Tour de France. The big question is does he recover for tomorrow? Because he did look very strong today. And he missed a couple of opportunities where he could have been dragged over in a group in front there, that would have given him a lot more recovery. But if he pulls up well tomrorow, it’s going to be a very, very close battle for that final place on the podium, and a life-changing experience for either of those gentleman [Lipowitz or Onley].
PA Media’s story below on today’s route:
Changes have been made to Friday’s stage 19 of the Tour de France due to the culling of cows taking place in the Col des Saisies area. The discovery of a contagious disease amongst cattle has meant the route will be shortened from 129.9 kilometres to 95km with two climbs – the 11.3km Cote d’Hery-sur-Ugine and the 13.7km Col des Saisies – removed.
An outbreak of nodular dermatitis meant the affected herd has needed to be culled and race organisers have taken the decision to divert the route in light of “distress” amongst those farmers concerned. In a statement ahead of the Albertville-La Plagne stage, the Tour said: “The discovery of an outbreak of contagious nodular dermatitis affecting cattle in a herd located specifically in the Col des Saisies has necessitated the culling of the animals.
“In light of the distress experienced by the affected farmers and in order to preserve the smooth running of the race, it has been decided, in agreement with the relevant authorities, to modify the route of Stage 19 (Albertville-La Plagne) and to avoid the ascent to the Col des Saisies.
“The ceremonial start will take place as planned at the exit of Albertville. After a 7km parade, riders will head towards the D925, where the official start will be given. The race will then rejoin the original route shortly before Beaufort (at km 52.4 on the original schedule).
“Due to this change, which notably bypasses the Col des Saisies, the stage will now cover a total distance of 95km instead of the originally planned 129.9km.”
During Thursday’s stage 18, Tadej Pogacar conquered his demons on the Col de la Loze to stretch his advantage in yellow amid a hailstorm, as Ben O’Connor wrapped up the stage win.
On the mountain where Pogacar famously cracked in 2023 as Jonas Vingegaard rode away to his second Tour crown, Pogacar was the one gaining time two years later as a late dig at the summit saw him add 11 seconds to an overall lead that now stands at 4min 26sec.
“Hard to disagree with Adam Blythe’s take on Visma’s tactics,” emails Peter. “But what were Bora doing, leaving Lipowitz to lose time, riding alone up Col de la Loze, with Roglic also dropped by the leaders and no hope of moving up on GC?”
Thanks for your email Peter and yes, I think this is a very interesting question. What are Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe playing at? What were their instructions to the riders yesterday, and what will they be today? Were those instructions ignored? Lipowitz will presumably be knackered after riding on his own for so long yesterday, but he also knows if he successfully man-marks Onley today then he will take a massive step to wrapping up third on the podium.
If Roglic attacks again, though, will teammates help him, or will they help Lipowitz, or what? The rest of the Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe team seemed to go AWOL on the road to Courchevel. If anyone has any insight on the situation at Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe feel free to let me know on email.
“Clearly the only strategy Visma have left is to try to run Pogacar over with their team car,” emails Bob. “That will definitely work.”
“Oh.”
Good question about the shortened stage. On the one hand, you might think the riders would be happy to see 30km or so and a couple of climbs taken out, given all they’ve been through since Lille. On the other hand, maybe it’ll mean it’s much faster and furious-er, and all the more painful for it?
I think we would have seen attacks regardless, with plenty of stage hunters on the loose, so I am not convinced it’ll make all that much difference.
“What’s the equivalent of a cycling Hail Mary?,” emails Joe. “Surely that’s what Visma need now …”
“And what changes will teams be making tactically with the shortened stage, do you think we’ll have a load of attacks from the off from those who it might be the last chance for a stage win?”
From the second rest day, here’s an ITV Cycling interview with Onley, via the magic of Twitter:
“The team have a lot of confidence in me. Maybe sometimes I need to have a little bit more confidence in myself”@friebos sat down with Oscar Onley to assess the first 2 weeks and look ahead to the Alps in week 3 🏴#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/qSSvtLV19J
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 21, 2025
Earlier in the race, Jeremy Whittle wrote about the young British talent at this Tour.
Oscar Onley now has the podium in sight – especially if Lipowitz and Roglic appear to have been given the OK by their team to fight each other, which it seems will simply open the door for the young Scottish rider to find his way on to the podium.
“For Oscar Onley, his second Tour has been a world apart from his debut, in 2024, when he finished 39th. The 22-year-old from Kelso admitted that he was overwhelmed on his first appearance in the race. “I really struggled during the first week,” he recalled. “I was wondering: ‘What am I doing here?’”
“This year, Onley has coped much better, holding on to a high overall placing through one of the toughest and fastest opening weeks in Tour history. “Once you’re racing, it’s just another bike race,” he said, “but it’s the scale of everything around it, the expectations, the media.”
“His steady progression has been marked by stage wins in the 2025 Tour of Switzerland, second place overall in the Tour of Britain and third place overall in this year’s Swiss national tour. Onley’s team expects there may be a drop-off in his performances as he goes deeper into the Tour, the longest race he has ever ridden, but he is already looking further ahead.
“I rode Mont Ventoux recently for the first time, which may not be a good thing, but I’m looking forward to going there in the Tour.””
GC top 10 before Stage 19
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 66hr 55min 42sec
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) +4min 26sec
3. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) +11min 01sec
4. Oscar Onley Team Picnic PostNL +11min 23sec
5. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) +12min 49sec
6. Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R-La Mondiale) +15min 36sec
7. Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) +16min 15sec
8. Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) +18min 31sec
9. Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) +25min 41sec
10. Ben O’Connor (Team Jayco AlUla) +29min 19sec
We’ve got plenty of time before the stage starts. So let’s discuss one of the key talking points from yesterday. People were piling in on Visma-Lease A Bike’s tactics, but one of the TNT Sports pundits (Rowe or Blythe, I can’t remember who) said there wasn’t much they could have done differently.
It did play into the hands of Pogacar to be reunited with Adam Yates and Jhonatan Narvaez on the final climb. But the flip side of that is, had Visma kept the hammer down completely from the Col de la Madeleine, then Vingegaard and Pogacar may well have been duking it out alone from very early on the final ascent to Courchevel. And there would only be one winner there. Right?
The problem with all these supposed tactical masterplans is that Pogacar is simply on better form than Vingegaard and is capable of dealing with pretty much anything thrown at him, on his own if necessary. In theory it would make sense to isolate Pogacar and have multiple Visma riders set an infernal pace on a long climb, but achieving the first bit of that plan (isolating him) is the hardest thing, in the heat of a Tour de France stage.
Anyway, if you were the Visma-Lease A Bike sports director, what would you have done differently yesterday? And what would be your plan today? You can email me.
Meanwhile, what’s the vibe in the bike race? Ben O’Connor produced a stunning solo win on the climb to Courchevel yesterday:
Tadej Pogacar not only covered the attacks from Visma-Lease A Bike, again he was strong enough to skip away from his rival Jonas Vingegaard at the end, and nab a few seconds in the overall race. His advantage is now 4min 26sec, and Vingegaard is the only rider within 10 minutes of the reigning champion. In short, it is utter dominance.
Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) is third overall, 11min 01sec behind Pogacar, while the 22-year-old Oscar Onley is knocking on the door, 22sec behind. This is from Jeremy Whittle’s report:
“That’s not much,” Picnic PostNL’s Onley said of the slim margin between him and the third-placed German Lipowitz, on the eve of the Tour’s final summit finish at La Plagne. “We’ll give it everything tomorrow.”
“After being dropped by Pogacar and Vingegaard towards the top of the Col de la Madeleine, Onley stayed calm and finally rejoined the main group on the valley roads leading to Courchevel. “Visma set a hard pace,” Onley said of Vingegaard’s team, “I just did what I could.”
He added: “I wouldn’t say I kept my cool, but I still felt good. I’m just not at the level of those guys when they attack. It showed at the end when they went pretty hard up there.””
If you missed it: read Jeremy Whittle’s exclusive on the latest questions hanging over Team Ineos/Team Sky.
“David Rozman, a long-term member of Ineos Grenadiers’ staff, has left the Tour de France after the International Testing Agency (ITA) launched an investigation into alleged messages he exchanged in 2012 with the subsequently convicted German doping doctor Mark Schmidt.
“The allegations stem from a recent documentary made by the German TV outlet ARD, which linked Rozman to Schmidt but did not name him, with further media reports including alleged texts between the Ineos staff member and Schmidt from June 2012 when the team were racing as Team Sky.”
Preamble
Today’s stage is hard. No change there. Although the route between Albertville and La Plagne, the last proper mountain stage of this year’s Tour, has been shortened at the last minute due to an outbreak of disease among cattle in the local area.
Initially the route was 129.9km, but the riders will now cover a little under 95km. A news update on the official Tour site reads: “The discovery of an outbreak of contagious nodular dermatitis affecting cattle in a herd located specifically in the Col des Saisies has necessitated the culling of the animals. In light of the distress experienced by the affected farmers and in order to preserve the smooth running of the race, it has been decided, in agreement with the relevant authorities, to modify the route of Stage 19 (Albertville–La Plagne) and to avoid the ascent to the Col des Saisies.”
There are three categorised climbs on the revised route: the Col de Pré (HC), the Cormet de Roseland (category two) and the HC climb to the ski resort of La Plagne to finish. The GC looks to be sewn up but there is plenty more up for grabs, especially after the Scottish rider Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) rode to within 22sec of third-placed Florian Lipowitz on yesterday’s stage to Courchevel.
The official update on Le Tour website explains more on the route: “The ceremonial start will take place as planned at the exit of Albertville. After a 7km parade, riders will head towards the D925, where the official start will be given. The race will then rejoin the original route shortly before Beaufort (at km 52.4 on the original schedule).
“… As a result, the start in the neutral zone will be given at 2:30pm, one hour later than originally scheduled.”
C’est comme ça. Let’s go/Allez!
Stage start time: 13.45 UK/14.45 local time