{"id":285778,"date":"2025-07-23T17:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T17:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/285778\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T17:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T17:44:10","slug":"tour-de-france-pogacar-backlash-builds-while-milan-wins-stage-17-sprint-tour-de-france-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/285778\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France: Pogacar backlash builds while Milan wins stage 17 sprint | Tour de France 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Milan won a rain-soaked sprint finish in Valence to take his second stage win in this year\u2019s Tour de France<\/a>, after a treacherous finish from which race leader Tadej Pogacar, and nearest rival Jonas Vingegaard, both emerged unscathed.<\/p>\n

In what was probably the final stage of the 2025 Tour suited to the sprinters, others were not so fortunate after a downpour made the final kilometres through surburban Valence horribly greasy.<\/p>\n

When the inevitable touch of wheels came it took down half a dozen riders, including stage three winner Tim Merlier, and Biniam Girmay, winner of the points classification in 2024, who somersaulted down the wet road into the barriers.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Milan celebrates winning stage 17. Photograph: Sarah Meyssonnier\/Reuters<\/p>\n

As Milan celebrated his stage win, a predictable backlash was gathering pace against race leader Pogacar with just four days of racing to come, as Jean-Ren\u00e9 Bernaudeau, manager of the Total Energies team, <\/strong>accused the Slovenian\u2019s UAE Team Emirates XRG squad of arrogance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re arrogant towards those who just want to live simply alongside them,\u201d the Frenchman said of Pogacar\u2019s team. \u201cI expect their team manager to make that point to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pogacar was dismissive of the Frenchman\u2019s comments. \u201cArrogance is something, trying to win the Tour de France is another thing. I think a lot riders would see us as arrogant because we want to control every single kilometre of this race. We don\u2019t try to be arrogant, we just try to make our race as easy as possible. I think \u2013 this will sound super arrogant \u2013 but some guys can stay quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a day in which pro-Palestinian activists waved flags and unfurled banners in Dieulefit as the Tour peloton passed through, Pogacar was also questioned about his feelings on human rights in the UAE.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ride for UAE Team Emirates and if you go there, you\u2019ll see how the sport is growing,\u201d Pogacar said. \u201cKids love us, the locals love us when we ride with them. The sport is growing in the UAE, which I guess is why they have the team, to promote a healthy lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The roadside protest in Dieulefit saw houses draped with Palestinian flags and there were reports of protesters holding up \u201cStarving is Killing\u201d banners as the riders passed through. The town was honoured for sheltering Jewish people during the second world war.<\/p>\n

Last Wednesday a protester ran onto the finish line in Toulouse, wearing a T-shirt stating \u201cIsrael out of the Tour.\u201d He was tackled by Tour staff and is scheduled to stand trial for endangering the riders.<\/p>\n

After that incident, the Israel-Premier Tech team said that it \u201crespects everyone\u2019s right to free speech which includes the right to protest.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Pogacar remains in a league of his own, with Vingegaard clinging to his coat tails, the battle for the final podium spot is likely to become intense in the next 48 hours, with Scotland\u2019s Oscar Onley currently the meat in a Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe sandwich.<\/p>\n

Security members stop a man cycling towards the finish line at the end of stage 17 of the Tour de France. Photograph: Sarah Meyssonnier\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The German team\u2019s Tour debutant Florian Lipowitz is currently securely placed third overall, with Onley two minutes behind. But his teammate, Primoz Roglic, the most insouciant Grand Tour champion in the race, has now crept into the top five.<\/p>\n

Not everyone has been thrilled to see Roglic\u2019s re-emergence over the past few stages. \u201cWon\u2019t be buying Red Bulls anymore,\u201d Onley said on Strava, after the Slovenian moved to 38 seconds behind him, following the Mont Ventoux finish. \u201cNot funding those attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, volatile weather is predicted for the two remaining mountain stages, Thursday\u2019s high altitude finish on the Col de la Loze, at 2,304 metres and Friday\u2019s climb to the ski station at La Plagne, topping out at 2,o52 metres.<\/p>\n

As rain fell heavily on Valence and the Rhone valley, Francois Lemarchand, of race organisers ASO, said that change was in the air. \u201cA few days of cooler weather are coming and we could see a swing of 20 degrees. It will go from very hot to very cold, from one day to the next.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jonathan Milan won a rain-soaked sprint finish in Valence to take his second stage win in this year\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-285778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114903794519850723","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}