Tour de France 2025 **spoilers**

I think he was seriously peed off with Vingo, he covered Arensman's first couple of attacks while Vingo sucked his wheel and then went f you I'm not towing you up to him so you can jump me for the stage win.

Vingo jumping him for 2nd proved him entirely right. That said if Vingo had helped he knew he was probably handing the stage to Pog too. A vicious circle but absolute plaudits to Arensman for attacking the Yellow jersey, chapeau!

I just read that UAE says he's doing it but it'll be reviewed when the TDF finishes.

He won’t be riding it , plenty of decent accounts on X have more or less confirmed it’. Worlds will be his priority.

maybe team instructions to ride conservatively to protect GC is bothering Pog when his instinct is to attack attack

He looked miserable on the podium, looks fed up of the tour and just wants it over with. Vingegaard is a really fustrating rider to watch, even when he has nothing to lose he still doesn't take risks, yesterday he was in a great position to win the stage, but, left it far too late, it's not the first time he has done this either, I remember a similar situation the year he won by 7 minutes, the stage was there for him to win and he just rode to the line. He will leave this tour without a stage win and totally broken by Pog!

PCS have agents tell them stuff and team contacts. They’re usually a very good indicator to be fair to them, but of course team line ups can change at any stage.

UAE’s boss said last week that the plan was for Pog to do the Vuelta but that they’d reassess after the Tour.

The last couple of days have been very hard and the weather has been shite. I’d say they’re all dying for some time off. Wouldn’t read too much for the rest of the season from demeanour or body language

If I had bet on the outcome of this stage, I can't imagine ever picking KG to win via solo breakaway. Bizarre final 30km, tired bodies everywhere, superb ride by the winner.

I agree with you in that this way of riding bores him, but, with very little extra effort he could have won at least 2 more stages, even won the green and Polka dot Jerseys, with little risk of losing the overall lead. I suppose its very easy to say this sitting at home watching him, but, it does look like he has held back his natural racing instincts in the last week. Hopefully we see some fireworks tomorrow!

You gotta be greedy to be the greatest. I think anybody criticising somebody for winning as often as they can is just jealous.

I never competed at a level like that but I completed at a fair level in a couple of sports and I always wanted to win. There were some people who didn't like that when I went on a run in the two individual sports I played. Obviously they didn't say it to me but friends told me.

They didn't like the teams when we won a couple of titles close together. Outside of the supporters that's commonplace.

Outside of Katie Taylor, it's quite normal to hear lots of detractors of successful sports stars from our own country. It's very sad but I really think it's jealousy.

The detractors I referred to relate to elite Irish sports people if you read it correctly.

As regards what I did, hearing about people not being happy drove me on, made me want it more.

Jonas Abrahamson was second apparently. Think he’s the only one who could argue about Ben

What do we think of this year’s Tour overall?

Not a vintage Tour for me. Kind of reminded me of the Armstrong and even the Indurain years, all a bit joyless and soulless. Seemed to be a lot of negative racing this year, summed up by yesterday’s stage.

I’m not convinced Pog had the legs in the final week to go for the stage wins. Although I think he’ll go for the stage today. He’s great to watch but he even seemed a bit bored with the race.

GC was very poor this year. Whole tour felt like a procession The fight for third spot and top 10 for Ben added a bit of jeopardy to it.

Mont Ventoux was the stage of the tour for me. Healy and Paret-Peintre knocking lumps out of each other.

Looking forward to see how today’s stage plays out.