Tadej Pogačar wins final Tour de France time trial at aplomb

Taking back-to-back stage victories for the first time at this year’s Tour de France, Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates-XRG soared to the win in the stage 13 individual time trial. In doing so, Pogačar extended his lead in the Yellow Jersey to over four minutes ahead of the second-placed Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike).

Pogačar chose a different approach to the majority of his general classification rivals on stage 13, opting to race a road bike rather than a dedicated time trial option. Aboard his Colnago Y1Rs, designed as the Italian manufacturer’s most aerodynamic road bike in history, the Slovenian made clear that his decision was the right one, with another dominant display on Friday afternoon.

With another victory at the Tour under his belt, Pogačar becomes the youngest rider in history to reach 21 Tour de France stage wins. The time trial victory also marked Pogačar’s 30th stage win in a Grand Tour, taking UAE Team Emirates-XRG to four stage wins in this Tour.

The race leader’s victory looked likely from the very first intermediate time check, with Pogačar going quicker than any other rider, despite the flat section favouring those riders on time trial bikes, on paper. From there on out, Pogačar was a rider in full flight, taking to the climb of Peyragudes with a spring in his step.

With Vingegaard producing a fantastic display in his own right and catching his two-minute man, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), Pogačar had to go above and beyond to deliver another stage win.

The Slovenian was the fastest rider on the climb itself, going uphill at an average speed of over 23kph. That gained him an advantage of 28 seconds over Vingegaard through the last 7km, with the eventual time gap between the two best riders on the day stretching to 36 seconds.

With that, the world road race champion heads into the second weekend with a race lead of over four minutes ahead of Vingegaard, with his buffer to the third-placed Evenepoel standing in excess of seven minutes.

Meanwhile, Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG colleague Adam Yates delivered a fine display of his own to take eighth place on the day. The British climber is only improving as the race draws on, and his talents in the mountains will prove pivotal as Pogačar goes in search of a fourth Tour de France title.

Saturday will bring an end to a trilogy of stages in the Pyrenees, with the peloton set to be challenged by a summit finish at Luchon-Superbagnères after a stage that holds over 5,000m of elevation gain.

Ahead of another test in the mountains, Pogačar spoke of his delight at another stage win in his post-race interview on Friday afternoon.

Pogačar: “[I am] super happy. This time trial was one big question mark right from December for me, and I wanted everything to be perfect. The team delivered, in the final moments, for everything to be on the top [level].

“I started the day good, I had an easy day in the morning, nice preparation and I was really targeting to do start to finish all out. I tried to smash as much as possible on the pedals, I almost blew up in the end but I saw the timer at the top and it gave me an extra push, because I saw that I was going to win.

“This was the biggest decision to make, which bike [to use] today. Obviously, we are racing on road bikes for the majority of the year, so in the end we did the calculations and if you cannot push on the TT bike as much on the road bike, then it was about the same time. I decided to be more comfortable, the way I was riding the last few stages, on the same bike. In the end, it worked out for me.

“I think already the first time gap today, I decided to go without radio because the tactic was all out from the beginning to the top. So I was just relying on the time checks, and I saw the first one [where] I was already five seconds in the green – this gave me motivation. The second one was a bit bigger, and then I knew that it was a good pace.

“At first, I was thinking not to blow up in the first part. I almost did in the end, but from 3km-2km to go, I took a deep breath, reset a little bit and dropped a little bit the power. I knew that the last kick was super super steep and I wanted to come to the last steep part with somewhat good legs.”

Tour de France 2025 stage 13 (ITT) results:

1. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 23:00

2. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +36″

3. Primož Roglič (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +1:20

8. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +2:15

Tour de France 2025 general classification after stage 13:

1. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 45:45:51

2. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +4:07

3. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) +7:24