TOUR DE FRANCE 2025 – STAGE 12: AUCH - HAUTACAM

Thursday, July 17th, 12th stage: Auch > Hautacam – 

The first mountain stage of the 2025 Tour de France saw Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) assert his dominance on the slopes of Hautacam. The Slovenian dropped everyone with 12.5 kilometres to go and went on to claim his 20th stage win, his eighth in the Pyrenees and his first at Hautacam, where Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) had inflicted a significant defeat on him in 2022. This time, Pogacar opened up a gap of 2’10’’ on his Danish rival and regained the Maillot Jaune, just a day after he hit the deck in Toulouse. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) emerged as the third strongest rider on the day, finishing just 11 seconds behind Vingegaard. Ben Healy was dropped on the Col du Soulor, with more than 50 kilometres to go, and had to relinquish the Maillot Jaune after two days in the overall lead.

Pogacar’s stunning response at Hautacam

The stage film July 17 th 2025 - 18:00

Tour de France 2025 | Stage 12 | Auch > Hautacam

The first mountain stage of the 2025 Tour de France saw Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) assert his dominance on the slopes of Hautacam. The Slovenian dropped everyone with 12.5 kilometres to go and went on to claim his 20th stage win, his eighth in the Pyrenees and his first at Hautacam, where Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) had inflicted a significant defeat on him in 2022. This time, Pogacar opened up a gap of 2’10’’ on his Danish rival and regained the Maillot Jaune, just a day after he hit the deck in Toulouse. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) emerged as the third strongest rider on the day, finishing just 11 seconds behind Vingegaard. Ben Healy was dropped on the Col du Soulor, with more than 50 kilometres to go, and had to relinquish the Maillot Jaune after two days in the overall lead.

Onto the mountains! After eleven fast and furious stages, the peloton enter the Pyrenees with a 180.6-km stage from Auch to Hautacam, finishing atop the first HC climb of this edition (13.5km at 7.8%). There are 171 riders at the start after XDS-Astana announced Cees Bol would retire due to illness.

A climber-studded 52-man breakaway

In line with his glorious assault on Toulouse yesterday, Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) attacks as soon as the peloton pass km 0. But this time, he’s rapidly reeled in. After a flurry of attacks, a 52-man group get away at km 17.

Part of this bunch of attackers, Carlos Rodriguez is the main GC threat: a top-10 finisher in 2023 (5th) and 2024 (7th), the Spaniard is the best classified in the overall standings (12th, +5’44’’). And he has four Ineos-Grenadiers teammates with him: Thymen Arensman, Tobias Foss, Axel Laurance and Connor Swift.

On the move to defend his polka-dot jersey, Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) is also up there with three teammates: Santiago Buitrago, Robert Stannard and Fred Wright. The group also features strong climbers such as Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet (Groupama-FDJ), Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Michael Woods (Israel Premier Tech)…

The Soulor takes a high toll

To control such a threatening group, EF Education-EasyPost, UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Uno-X Mobility work together. The gap hits its maximum of 2’20’’ at the bottom of the first cat.-1 ascent of this Tour, Col du Soulor (11.8km at 7.3%).

Visma-Lease a Bike immediately up the ante. And the race explodes. At the front, Michael Woods goes solo at the top (km 134.1). Skjelmose and Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) catch him on the downhill. The Frenchman, hailing from the Pyrenees, accelerates ahead of the climb to Col des Bordères (3.1km at 7.7%). At the bottom, he has a lead of 10’’ to his chasers. At the summit (km 145.7), the gap is up to 50''.

In the meantime, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) are already dropped halfway through the ascent. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) struggles to keep up but survives with the help of Simon Yates. At the top, Evenepoel trails by 45’’ and Evenepoel by 2’45’’.

Pogacar flies away

On the downhill towards Hautacam, the GC contenders get back together. The chasers are caught and Bruno Armirail tackles the final climb with a lead of 1’40’’. UAE Team Emirates-XRG set a brutal pace at the bottom and Jhonatan Narvaez propels Tadej Pogacar’s attack with 12.5 km to go. Nobody can follow and Armirail is rapidly reeled in and dropped.

The Slovenian gradually increases his lead until he takes victory on a summit where he had lost 1’04’’ to Vingegaard three years ago. This time, the Danish climber trails by 2’10’’ and crosses the line just ahead of Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), the third strongest man of the day, with a gap of 2’21’’. Healy eventually finished more than 10 minutes later, relinquishing the Maillot Jaune to Pogacar after two days in the overall lead.

Stage 12

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20: POGACAR EQUALS NICOLAS FRANTZ

Tadej Pogacar raises his arms for the 20th time on the Tour, tying Luxembourg's Nicolas Frantz for the 6th place among the riders with the most wins. His next target: the 22 victories of Frenchman André Darrigade. Tadej Pogacar has now won at least 3 stages in 5 of his first 6 Tours. A record he shares with Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Mark Cavendish.

2'10": POGACAR STRIKES BACK

"I thought about 2022", admitted Tadej Pogacar after his victory. Three years ago, the stage that finished in Hautacam was won by Jonas Vingegaard with a 1'04" lead over the Slovenian. He took his revenge at the same place by winning with a 2'10" lead at the summit.

3: LIPOWITZ FOR GERMANY

Recently 2nd in Paris-Nice, Florian Lipowitz is competing in his first Tour and earned his first top-3 finish by being 3rd in Hautacam. He is the first German on the podium in a mountain stage since Lennard Kamna's victory in Villard-de-Lans in 2020 (stage 16).

152: BRUNO SOLO

In the breakaway, Bruno Armirail then tried his luck by going solo, before being caught by Tadej Pogacar. His 152-kilometer attempt earned him the combativity award for the second time in 2025, after being rewarded in stage 2. France already has 7 combativity awards in 2025 (Armirail x2, Mattéo Vercher x2, Lenny Martinez, Ewen Costiou, Mathieu Burgaudeau), as many as in 2020.

2009: BIG FIGHT WITHIN THE YOUNG RIDERS

The best young rider classification is fiercely contested. Remco Evenepoel now leads ahead of Florian Lipowitz (+49") and Kévin Vauquelin (+55"). This is the first time the podium has been so close after 12 stages since 2009, 16 years ago! At the time, Tony Martin was in the lead ahead of Andy Schleck (+49") and Vincenzo Nibali (+54").

7: HAUTACAM, A GOOD SIGN FOR POGACAR?

This is the 7th time that a Tour finish has been judged in Hautacam, where Tadej Pogacar had never won. The last winners here – Vincenzo Nibali in 2014 (stage 18), Jonas Vingegaard in 2022 (stage 18) – went on to win the Tour three days later, but they were already leading the general classification before the start. The last time the Yellow Jersey changed at Hautacam was in 2008, when Cadel Evans snatched it from Kim Kirchen. The Australian, however, lost it later.

38: MICHAEL THE FIGHTER

Michael Woods was first at the summit of the Col du Soulor. At 38 years, 9 months, and 5 days, he is the oldest rider to lead a Cat.1 climb since Jens Voigt at Mont Revard in 2013 – the German was 41 years, 10 months, and 3 days. In 2010, Christophe Moreau conquered the Col du Tourmalet and the Col d'Aubisque (HC) at 39 years, 3 months and 8 days, a week after doing the same at the Col de la Colombière (Cat.1). They are the three oldest riders to have achieved these feats on such challenging summits since World War II.

6-0: VINGEGAARD'S BLACK SHEEP

Jonas Vingegaard is now on a strike of 8 stage podiums without a victory. Six of these 8 podium finishes are 2nd place behind Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian leads the Dane 6-0 in their last doubles. Four in 2024 (Saint-Lary-Soulan, Plateau de Beille, Col de la Couillole, Nice) and two in 2025 (Mûr-de-Bretagne, Hautacam). The 14th Pogacar-Vingegaard Tour 1-2 (in either order) recorded today is a new record for two riders. The Slovenian has won 11 times ahead of the Dane, While Vingegaard has only won three times ahead of his black sheep.

3: BACK IN YELLOW

Since the start, Tadej Pogacar had taken the Yellow Jersey twice, but also lost it twice. He took it for the third time today. The last rider to do so was Greg LeMond in 1989: the American wore the Yellow Jersey from stages 5 to 9, lost it to Laurent Fignon, then regained it for stages 15 and 16, lost it again to the Frenchman, before finally winning it on the final day. Only two other riders have experienced similar numbers: André Darrigade in 1956 (16th at the finish) and Eddy Merckx in 1974 (winner).

17: IT WAS WRITTEN SOMEWHERE

This Thursday, July 17, marked Tadej Pogacar's 117th stage. on the Tour. By winning for the 20th time, he has a 17% success rate!