Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) further extended his lead in the 2025 Tour de France, powering to his fourth stage win of the race in the 10.9km stage 13 individual time trial to Peyragudes and putting more time into his rivals.
Topping Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) by 36 seconds, Pogačar now has a lead of 4:07 over the Dane in the general classification, and he did it without using any aero bars - completing the stage on his standard climbing road bike.
"I'm super happy," Pogačar said. "This time trial was quite a big question mark already in December for me. I wanted everything to be perfect, and the team delivered just in the final moments for everything to be on top.
"I was really targeting to do from start to finish all out, and just try to smash as much as possible on the pedals. I almost blew up in the end, but I saw the timer on the top, and it gave me an extra push because I saw that I'm gonna win."
He explained that the choice of bike to use was the biggest decision of the day.
"Obviously, we're racing on road bikes like 99% of the time. So in the end, we did the calculations. If you cannot push on the TT bike as much as on the road bike, and they're about the same time, I decided to be more comfortable, the way I was riding the last 12 stages with the same bike. In the end, it worked well for me," he said, adding that he didn't even have a race radio during his ride.
"I decided to go without a radio because the tactic was all out from the beginning to the top. So I was just relying on the time checks. I saw the first one, I was already five seconds in green or something, and this gave me motivation. Then, the second one was a bit bigger, and then I knew that it's a good pace and I'm on a good time.
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"I was thinking not to blow up in the first part, and I almost did in the end - maybe the last three kilometers from three to two - I took a deep breath, reset a little bit, just dropped a little bit of power, because I knew that the last kick is super, super steep and I wanted to come to the last steep part still with somewhat good legs."
Vingegaard used aero bars and his massive, red-and-white Giro TT helmet, showed he is approaching top form with an impressive ascent that brought him powering past time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) before the summit. Putting more than two minutes into the Belgian, Vingegaard extended his advantage over Evenepoel in the GC standings to 3:17.
"It was bad," a downcast Evenepoel said. "It was obvious with a normal feeling I should end up with a top three on a day like this. It was really bad."
"I hope there won’t be an explanation. It’s just now a few days like this - hopefully not tomorrow. As I said, my start was pretty good but then five minutes into the climb I was feeling pretty bad and I couldn’t keep pushing the power that I had to. A really bad performance from myself."
The biggest surprise of the day, aside from Evenepoel's shocking time loss, was the return of Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), who was third on the stage at 1:20, notably 36 seconds quicker than his teammate Florian Lipowitz.
The performance only put a small dent in Roglič's GC demise, and he remains seventh overall at 8:50 while Lipowitz gained time over Evenepoel, closing within six seconds of the Soudal-Quickstep rider in the GC standings.
Evenepoel, third overall, will head into another clutch stage to Superbagnères with Lipowitz hot on his heels. Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNl), seventh on the day, kept his podium hopes alive, getting the better of Evenepoel by 33 seconds.
Even Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) made gains over the Olympic time trial champion, beating him by four seconds. The quartet, plus Roglič, are now separated by just 1:26 in the fight for third place.
Jonas Vingegaard took second on the day, though shed more time to his yellow jersey rival Pogačar (Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
Clear skies, seasonable temperatures and a tailwind on the run-out from Loudenvielle made the conditions perfect for a fast individual time trial to the Peyragudes altiport. Following stage 12's Hautacam obliteration by Tadej Pogačar, the Tour de France peloton would have to submit themselves to the Pyrenees once more for stage 13, albeit in the form of a solo mountain climb.
Rather than multiple ascents, stage 13 presented the riders with just one test, an 8km, 7.9% time trial ascent of Peyragudes featuring three flat kilometres to begin for a total of 10.9km. The mountain, concluding with steep 16% slopes at the altiport, was back on the Tour for a fourth time, following road stages in 2012, 2017, and 2022.
The 171 riders of the Tour would be spread out over a four-hour span. The first riders to head out on route included a raft of sprinters and domestiques at the bottom of the Tour de France GC standings, with lanterne rouge Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) the first man off. The Frenchman duly set the quickest time at the top, completing his ride in 30:01.67.
He would quickly be usurped by a host of others, including Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto). The Belgian climber was easily the fastest of the early runners at 27:49.88. His time would stand until Australian champion Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla), who powered through the second checkpoint after 7.6km a minute up, en route to setting by far the quickest time of 24:58.44.
Luke Plapp held the quickest time of the day for over three hours (Image credit: Getty Images)
The next challenger at the top of the leaderboards was polka dot jersey wearer Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), with the Frenchman shedding 10 seconds to Plapp at the intermediate.
He couldn't make up the time by the finish line, however, completing his ride with a time of 25:21.93, 24 seconds off hot seat holder Plapp. 20 minutes later, former world time trial champion Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers) slotted into third, albeit some way down with a time of 27:24.83.
The times of Plapp and Martinez proved unbeatable at the top of the standings for some time, with Clément Champoussin (XDS-Astana) going third a minute up on Foss with a time of 26:20.89.
Fellow Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor), the 105th rider to start, was also going well, jumping into third ahead of Champoussin at 26:03.28.
Meanwhile, French time trial champion Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) showed his form following his breakaway effort on the road to Hautacam, setting a time of 26:12.64, three seconds up on Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious), but also in third.
Next up to take third place was Harry Sweeny (EF Education-EasyPost), who became the third man to break the 26-minute barrier, crossing the line in 25:53.57. Shortly after the Australian finished his effort, however, it was, after hours of waiting, time for the big GC names to get underway.
Florian Lipowitz is firmly in the battle for the podium after a strong performance (Image credit: Getty Images)
22nd-placed Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) started out strong, threatening to break the Plapp-Martinez duopoly at the top, with the second-quickest time at the 7.6km intermediate checkpoint.
At the line, the Briton was quicker than Martinez but fell just short of Plapp's time, his time of 25:15.62, leaving Plapp as the only man under 25 minutes. Further down the mountain, a few of the other GC super-domestiques and riders 20 minutes off the lead put in maximal effort.
Visma-Lease A Bike domestique Sepp Kuss caught and passed his teammate Simon Yates just before the line, but his own time put him eighth overall. Cristian Rodríguez (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) also did well, going sixth at 26:08.64.
The GC battle
The race for the top 15 men in the general classification began with Enric Mas (Movistar), who put in a solid time for fifth, 25:59.0.
Down the mountain, meanwhile, the podium hopefuls and yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar had begun their rides, with world time trial champion Remco Evenepoel going through the first checkpoint quicker than the rest on his time trial bike with climb-friendly road wheels.
That time stood for a few minutes, at least, with Pogačar flying through on his aero-modified road bike five seconds up on the Belgian and three more up on Vingegaard, who was racing on a time trial bike like Evenepoel.
Back up at the summit, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease A Bike) came closest to unseating Plapp with a time of 25:03.01, while Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) was 20 seconds slower.
Plapp's time in the hot seat, numbering over three hours, finally came to an end when Roglič came through, going 28 seconds faster with a time of 24:20.97.
As Pogačar worked his way up the mountain, Vingegaard caught sight of Evenepoel in the final 500 metres – getting out of the saddle and sprinting up the steep final 100 metres, Vingegaard flew past the Olympic time trial champion and set the fastest time, 44 seconds better than Roglič at 23:36.88, the first man under the 24-minute barrier.
It wasn't long before the maillot jaune appeared in the final stretch, dashing Vingegaard's hopes of adding a stage win to his tally. Pogačar, who was 23 seconds up on the Dane at the second checkpoint, only added more time on the way to the line, finishing with a time of 23:00.19 and his team's 100th Grand Tour stage win in their history.
Remco Evenepoel would endure a day to forget, losing over two-and-a-half minutes (Image credit: Getty Images)
Laura Weislo is a Cyclingnews veteran of 20 years. Having joined in 2006, Laura extensively covered the Operacion Puerto doping scandal, the years-long conflict between the UCI and the Tour de France organisers ASO over the creation of the WorldTour, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong and his lifetime ban for doping. As Managing Editor, Laura coordinates coverage for North American events and global news.
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'I'm not saying that I have the ability right now to beat Tadej and Seixas and Vingegaard, but in the right situation I can see it happening' says Briton
