It was the perfect balm for an old wound: Tadej Pogačar won stage 10 of the 2025 Tour de France to Le Lioran—exactly where, two years ago, he had shown his most recent real moment of weakness. Back then, the Slovenian cracked after an attack, Jonas Vingegaard closed the gap, and won the sprint through tears of joy, shortly after his return from a serious crash in the Basque Country.
This time, Pogačar left nothing to chance: With an attack on the Col de Pertus, some 15 km from the finish, he rode away from his rivals in the Massif Central at over 35 degrees Celsius, unstoppably. A 44-second lead over Vingegaard, who finished only seventh, and an overall advantage of 3:36 minutes now underline the dominance of the defending champion from UAE Emirates-XRG in impressive fashion. The third stage win at this year’s Tour de France is his 24th Tour triumph and the 124th professional victory of his career. Should Pogačar reach Paris, he would enter the history books as a five-time Tour winner—level with Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain, and Eddy Merckx.
It was also a positive day for Florian Lipowitz: The Ulmer from Red Bull Bora-hansgrohe finished a strong fourth, 34 seconds behind Pogačar, on the same time as Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM) and behind teammate Remco Evenepoel (0:32 minutes back). In the general classification, Lipowitz moved up to sixth place, Evenepoel to third—Isaac del Toro, Pogačar’s super-domestique, lost contact and showed weaknesses (+1:31).
The race over 166.6 km with seven climbs, two of them Category 1, initially dragged on: For a long time, no stable breakaway group formed. It wasn’t until 113 km from the finish that 31 riders broke away, including eight Frenchmen dreaming of a home win on their national holiday—the first since 2017. The UAE train, with Nils Politt setting the pace, shattered those hopes and reeled in the last escapee 38 km from the finish. Olympic champion Richard Carapaz then launched a solo attack, building a one-minute lead—only for Pogačar’s assault on the Col de Pertus to abruptly end that adventure as well.
Stage 11 promises a change of mood: After the ride through the Massif Central, the sprinters will take center stage again on stage 11. With only two Category 4 climbs, the peloton faces no major challenges, and it’s set to be a finale for the explosive riders.
