The boss of this Tour de France 2025It is Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)! The Slovenian was once again imperial this Thursday, on the occasion of the 18th stage, despite the multiple attempts to attack his rival Jonas Vingegaard and his training Visma | Lease a Bike. Isolated in the Madeleine pass and put under pressure in the descent after the summit by Awesome and his teammate Matteo Jorgensonhe never panicked. In the valley preceding the final climb of the Col de la Loze, the attack on Ben O’Connor (Team Jayco-Alula), final winner of this 18th stage, followed by Matteo Jorgensoneven completely disorganized the yellow jersey group, allowing Tadej Pogacar to recover all his teammates returned from the rear. In the last kilometer of the Col de la Loze, he even allowed himself a final attack which allowed him to finish in 2nd place and to resume 11 seconds (including enhancements) to Jonas Vingegaardmore helpless than ever in front of the Slovenian, which approaches day after day of a fourth Tour de France.
“I wanted the stage victory, but the priority is the yellow jersey”
After the arrival, he returned with great lucidity on this beautiful day for him: “To be honest, I wanted the stage victory today, but the priority was of course to keep the yellow jersey. When the Visma accelerated in the Col de la Madeleine, I told myself that we were going to be able to play the stage. But they may have gone a little loud, in the descent too, they were going so quickly. In the end, the group was so reduced, everyone started to tackle, there was no cooperation in the valley. I was waiting for my teammates to return, but they took a long time to come back “.
He continues: “At the bottom of the last climb, when the screw started to accelerate, I thought that we may be able to catch up with the escapes. But I think Ben (O'Connor) was incredibly strong today, all day and on the last climb. I could not win this stage, but I am happy to have had good legs in the Col de la Loze and always go yellow. Hardly, tomorrow is the second most hard step.he concludes.
