Tour de France 2025 **spoilers**

How did Jonas give up minutes to Pogacar today?

Take out Jonas' 2 bad days*, it could've been a much more interesting race, as there wasn't that much between them. We'll never know whether Pog was just being cranky in the final week, or whether he was genuinely suffering, as ultimately he didn't have to do too much. He didn't launch at times full on Pog would've. Wasn't much "joy" from him third week anyway.

*obviously GC riders can't afford bad days, but I wouldn't be that surprised if they tried something new nutrition or supplement wise. Thomas effectively lost a Giro as they decided to try bicarb the day of the final TT.

He was working when I was watching - he was at the front controlling one of the laps of the champs. It was a classics stage and one of the stars of the classics, who also rides GC went for it. Rog stopped to put on his jacket he was that unarsed with the stage.

we’ll never know about ifs or buts. All we know is the favourite coming in won easily enough.

Overall I enjoyed it. I was worried Pog would end up with 10 stage wins at one point but happy to see breaks win most of the big stages. Obviously Ben’s success helped.

Loved the last day too. Seems all the riders did too. Wonder if they would have if GC wasn’t neutralised but again, we may never know

Perhaps, but having a kick at the finish isn't the same as having the energy to go from way down the mountain. Sure Jonas outkicked Pog on La Plagne?

Only going on what Jonas said really. His (and most of the teams) TT was well below par, and whatever about Pog being a level above (which he is), I'm not sure Hautacam is that reflective of the difference. I think cranky third week Pog gives Visma and others something to think about anyway. The Visma tactic of making the entire race hard seemed to have some effect, even if not enough.

I'd agree with all of that.

I think a lot of people are being a bit tough on Vingo, for all sorts of reasons (not 100% coming into the Tour, team not quite at the level of UAE's for maybe the first time, up against one of the all-time greats). Playstation comment is quite apt - if only it was as easy to just decide to attack when you happen to have been trying to hold Pog's wheel for km after km up a mountain on the Tour. What I found noticable this year compared to previous years (and it seems to be getting worse each year) is the lack of any real contenders for GC overall. Vingo was pretty much the only one coming into it with a chance, and nobody else made any attempt to step up. Yes, some great individual performances to achieve career-high placings, but compare it to ten years ago, even when Froomedog was hitching an armchair ride on the skytrain… you had the likes of Nibali, Contador, Quintana, Valverde, Porte, Yates, Dumoulin, Aru, Uran, Landa. Yes, few of them ever quite matched up to Froome or Contador, or would be considered all time GC greats, but when they were team leaders enough of them always stuck their heads above the parapets to have a go. Even Bernal has (for understandable reasons) dropped off the GC radar.

The last few years have simply been Visma -v- UAE. That's a lot of pressure on Vingo, where most of the other teams and riders have given up any pretence of challenging Pog for overall and seem to be reshaping themselves as stage hunting teams on sprint or classic-style stages. The days of TT specialists winning TT stages even seems to be disappearing where we now expect to see the top GC guys battling for the stage win.

If Visma had another team or two willing to try and take Pog/ UAE on, maybe we'd see more exciting stage racing.

I'm claiming the title of "Best of those who didn't pick Ben Healy!"

I think that this is my main take away from this Tour (and the previous few as well - since Roglic could compete). All the young riders who were talked about 3/4 years ago are nowhere to be seen.

Riders who are between the ages of 26-30 in the GC standings (not including the top 2): 5. Felix Gall - will never podium; 10. Jordan Jegat - won't come close to top 5; 11. Ben O'Connor - finished as GC contender; 13. Narvaez - domestique etc.

Basically theres no one in their prime even remotely close to the podium.

Who was missing: Almeida - would have been there or thereabouts with Evenepoel for third. But he's a domestique. Del Toro - great promise, but will be a domestique in the Tour for the next few years. A fit Evenepoel - still young but will be able to be good enough for 3 weeks of the Tour? Am I missing anyone?

The good young riders from this Tour:

Lipowitz - 25 years old in September - is he just a podium/top 5 contender for the next few years? Has made good progress, but I don't see him passing out even Almeida

Onley - 23 years old in October - the most likely of this year's youngsters, but that's largely because he's the youngest. He'll be 27 when Pogacar is 31. But will be Pogacar's domestique by then?

The hoovering up of the good young cyclists by just a couple of teams is the main problem. If Almeida didn't crash out, then I think that Pogacar would have claimed a few more stages. So his absence leveled the playing field a bit. If Almeida was in a different team, then things would have been even more interesting. If Almeida was in the same team as Lipowitz, then small openings of opportunity are created for Vingegaard, rather than relying on his malfunctioning team. Unfortunately though, there's every chance that next year UAE could have Del Toro and Almeida in support of Pogacar.

Red Bull and Decathlon throwing money into the sport is currently the only chance of a good spread of talent. (I will never wish to see Ineos back near the top)

Lemond probably would've if not being shot in fairness. Coulda/ Shoulda won 85, won 86, missed 87 & 88, won 89, 90. Fignon is a very underrated rider and a personal favourite of mine*, but he also benefitted from Hinault's injuries, especially his first win.

Big Mig era way worse than this - Prologue, plus 2 long TT's where he took minutes in each and that was tour over. Plus a week of flat sprint stages, with the TT, before the mountains. It's actually a blessing we only had half hour highlights and chiappucci to shout for.

*8 seconds from a Giro/ Tour/ Monument treble in 89!

I think VLAB undercooked their riders. Neither Kuss nor Jorgensen were performing at the level their palmares would have you expect. And I don't know if the new "beefy" Vingo is a deliberate strategy or more a reflection of his badly-interrupted Spring.

I used to wonder how I was ever satisfied with the half hour highlights and then remembered it was the Indurain years.

ITV had a nice compilation at the end of their last ever TDF highlights show last night, showing the tour over the years. They had some great archive packages throughout the tour this year.

Sad to see them go. End of an era.

(Pog actually said it might be his last tour too when ITV told him he was their last ever interview.)