Key moments from the Tour de France so far in pictures

The Grand Départ of the 2025 Tour de France is in the rearview mirror, with the race well underway plenty of narratives already emerging as the peloton makes its way west across the north of France.

It has been an action-packed start, with echelons on the opening day, Classics-flavoured punchy stages, crashes, and a potentially pivotal time trial.

Alpecin-Deceuninck have been nothing if not involved. They won the opening stage through the Tour's most successful sprinter of recent years, Jasper Philipsen, before their Classics star Mathieu van der Poel went from provider to leader to take out the punchy second stage. But Philipsen was out of the race the next day, suffering a violent crash at the intermediate sprint and leaving Tim Merlier to claim the honours at the finish.

Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard underlined their status as the two runaway favourites as they gained time on most of the other contenders on the stage 1 crosswinds and made the podium on stages 2 and 4. However, it's advantage Pogačar after Vingegaard's uncharacteristically sloppy display in the stage 5 time trial.

The Tour has been sent off in style and, and we can't wait to see what's in store in the rest of the opening week. For now, though, we can look back at the first few days and their defining moments thanks to these stunning images from our photographers.

GAME ON

Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard have shared the past five yellow jerseys between them, and the common consensus is that it's a two-horse race for this one. Not that anyone's complaining. This is a rivalry that is already guaranteed to go down in history, and we're about to watch its next chapter written in real time. Their three-week battle started with a handshake, which we can already read into... Pogačar's warm smile versus Vingegaard's inquisitive stare, which manages to pierce both sets of shades. This feels in keeping with their characters. The puppyish Pogačar has reached new heights in the past 18 months but his (over?)-exuberance has been ruthlessly exploited in the past by the colder, more calculating Dane. What happens next?

PHILIPSEN STRIKES FIRST

Jasper Philipsen wasn't afraid to get involved in the crosswind action on stage 1 and, having taken his two most dangerous rivals – Tim Merlier and Jonathan Milan – out of the equation, the Belgian duly mopped up in Lille. It was a display of his all-round quality, having won Milan-San Remo and twice finished runner-up at Paris-Roubaix. It was also a display of team quality, with Alpecin placing Mathieu van der Poel and Kaden Groves into the front group – two riders who were able to roll out the red carpet that led to the yellow jersey.

ROLE REVERSAL AS CLASSICS REVISITED

The yellow jersey contenders were drawn out to play in the short sharp hills around Boulogne and while the time gaps were inconsequential, the way it played out was nevertheless revealing. “I did it for fun,” said the rider who’d just attacked over the top of one of the climbs. Sounds like Pogačar… but no, it was Vingegaard, the rider who has been accused in the past of lacking ‘the balls’ to truly race (according to a certain Remco Evenepoel). Pogačar, so often the animator, was conspicuous by his absence from the front, preferring to sit back and mark his rivals. Has there been a role-reversal?

Having kept his powder relatively dry, Pogačar duly latched onto the wheel of Mathieu van der Poel in the rising finale, and gave him a good run for his money. The pair have been the outstanding Classics riders of the pasta few years, sharing all of the past eight Monuments and 16 of the past 21, and this was another taste of their own unique rivalry. Pogačar kicked hard but Van der Poel, having expertly marshalled the final kilometre, had enough to claim his first Tour de France stage win since 2021 – a stat that feels out of kilter with his achievements elsewhere. And don't forget about Vingegaard – not known for his finishing kick but that's him just behind, finishing a very impressive and perhaps ominous third.

TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK

For all his star status, Mathieu van der Poel has never been too haughty to sacrifice himself for his teammates. In fact, Jasper Philipsen owes a decent chunk of his own palmarès to his Dutch teammate, who teed up his Milan-San Remo win and has provided top-tier lead-out services for many of his 10 Tour de France stage wins. "He facilitates our teamwork because thanks to him, everyone knows they must give in order to receive," said Alpecin-Deceuninck boss Philippe Roodhooft. "If the greatest one sets the example, the others will want to show that they can offer something." Philipsen was about to hand over that yellow jersey but the look on his face spoke volumes about the relationship between the two stars and the team spirit at Alpecin-Deceuninck.

BLOOD ON THE TRACKS

Stage 3 was a quiet day from a racing perspective, with the main action boiling down to a number of crashes. One of them deprived us of the green jersey and stage 1 winner Jasper Philipsen, who was victim of a touch of wheels at the intermediate sprint and crashed violently onto his shoulder. On the run-in, a pinch-point triggered a spill that drew blood to the faces of Jordi Meeus and Emilien Jeannière, who's pictured here chewing on a bandage with blood on his jersey. Even in the final bend there were riders flying into the barriers. A day that showed more of the Tour's brutality than its beauty.

A CLOSE CALL

This was a thrilling sprint into a headwind that produced a photo finish, even if Tim Merlier correctly called it as he raised his arm beyond the line – a hell of a call from someone at max heart rate. The headwind made the run-in especially chaotic, with the sprinters facing a tricky balancing act between going too early and risking running out of gas or leaving it late and risking getting swamped. Merlier and Milan both earned their shot at victory, in contrasting styles – Milan stomping on the pedals with his mega-watts, Merlier sling-shotting through in more aerodynamic fashion. It was a cracking contest in the absence of Philipsen but the Belgian's presence will be missed in the future sprints.

MIND GAMES

Before stage 4 gave us our first true taste of the Pogačar-Vingegaard rivalry, we had a taste of the tussle for superiority between their respective teams – the flames of which had been fanned by the Dane’s assertion that he had the stronger seven men around him. Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG men were prominent for much of the last 50km but it was Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike who burst through to really ignite things later on, setting a searing pace up and down the hills and splitting the bunch through Victor Campenaerts before handing over the Tiesj Benoot for the final climb. However, UAE then imposed themselves once more through Jhonatan Narvaez and Joao Almeida, and there was certainly a swaggering statement in the way they so calmly took over again. On the run-in, Visma had a danger man in Matteo Jorgensen but Almeida was there to put out that fire. Honours even for now, then, but the mind games have definitely begun.

WHO REALLY WON?

Over to the battle between the two main men, and this one was just as hard to call. Pogačar won the stage, even beating Van der Poel in the sprint, but you could argue that Vingegaard will have been the happier of the two men at the line. The teal battleground was the vicious climb of the Rampe Saint-Hilaire a few kilometres before. Pogačar had distanced everyone, including Vingegaard for a short time, but the Dane clawed his way back at the top, just as Pogačar was showing a small sign of suffering. As mentioned earlier, this punchy stuff is much more Pogačar’s playground, but Vingegaard would later boast about his best-ever one-minute power output. Not only that, but he finished on the podium in a sprint with Pogačar and Van der Poel for the second time at this Tour – again, not his forté. Pogačar had the win and the bonus seconds but Vingegaard had sent an even stronger message.

DOWN BUT NOT OUT

Vingegaard's struggles in the stage 5 time trial sent shockwaves through the race. After all, Vingegaard had obliterated Pogačar in the – albeit much hillier – TT at the 2023 Tour, and beaten him at the very recent race against the clock at the Dauphiné. But he was all out of sorts in Caen, shipping time at every point on the course to eventually concede 1:05 to his arch-rival. That significantly changed the narrative of the race. Up to this point, Vingegaard had conceded eight seconds to Pogačar in bonuses but he had fought over-and-above himself on his opponent's terrain. Those displays may well have sent a frisson of nerves through the UAE camp – if Vingegaard was so strong there, what's he going to be like elsewhere? Those nerves will have been eased on Wednesday, but not eradicated – Vingegaard has taken huge swipes in the high mountains in the past, and this Tour is still young.

HELLO YELLOW

Tadej Pogačar just seems to belong in yellow. After taking the maillot jaune on stage 4 last year, he waited a touch longer this time but eased his way into cycling’s most famous jersey after the stage 5 time trial in Caen. Pogačar didn’t win the stage but nevertheless gained the solitary second he needed on Mathieu van der Poel, while holding off his chief rival Jonas Vingegaard. Thursday will be the 41st day the Slovenian spends in yellow, out of 109 days raced at the Tour in total. And having put more than a minute into Vingegaard, the odds of him taking it all the way to Paris once again just shot up.