{"id":294554,"date":"2025-07-27T00:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T00:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/294554\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T00:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T00:11:11","slug":"tour-de-france-tadej-pogacar-poised-to-seal-fourth-title-amid-fears-of-ice-rink-finale-tour-de-france-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/294554\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France: Tadej Pogacar poised to seal fourth title amid fears of \u2018ice rink\u2019 finale | Tour de France 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Pogacar exited the final mountain climbs with his lead over Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> intact and now stands on the threshold of achieving a fourth Tour de France triumph in six seasons.<\/p>\n

With the threat of neutralisation due to rain now hanging over the final stage in Paris on Sunday, routed over the cobbled climbs of the Butte Montmartre, the weary Pogacar may be almost home and dry. He leads his long-standing rival Vingegaard by almost four and a half minutes and barring any last day mishaps, the Slovenian\u2019s fourth yellow jersey seems assured.<\/p>\n

Tour organisers ASO confirmed in Pontarlier that any decision on neutralising the final stage would not be taken until Sunday afternoon and possibly during the stage itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything can happen,\u201d Pogacar said of the final day\u2019s combination of climbing and sprinting, \u201cbut I\u2019m not promising I\u2019ll go for it. We\u2019ll try to enjoy the yellow jersey in Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alpecin-Deceuninck\u2019s Australian Kaden Groves won the penultimate stage, from Nantua to Pontarlier, after breaking clear of a lead group in the final 16km. \u201cThere\u2019s so much pressure in the Tour. All I ever get asked is: \u2018Am I good enough to win in the Tour?\u2019 Well, now I\u2019ve shown them,\u201d Groves, a stage winner in the Giro d\u2019Italia and Vuelta a Espana, said.<\/p>\n

The peloton is feeling the strain after a gruelling Tour with a draining first 10 days and too many long transfers. Photograph: Sarah Meyssonnier\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The decisive action came on the descent of the final climb, the C\u00f4te de Longeville, 24km from Pontarlier. In the aftermath of a crash on a tight left-hand bend, Groves was among a group of three who moved clear. The 26-year-old then attacked alone in the final kilometres to win by almost a minute.<\/p>\n

After well over three thousand kilometres of racing, an ingrained fatigue is now stalking the peloton with numerous riders sharing Pogacar\u2019s obvious weariness, without enjoying the rewards of his success. Many admit to being wrung out by a Tour with a draining first 10 days and too many long transfers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like a nap as soon as getting on the bus,\u201d the Lidl-Trek rider Toms Skujins said during the Alpine stages. Pogacar said: \u201cIf you look at the power files throughout the whole Tour, it\u2019s been really amazing and tough. Even though it was one of the hardest I ever did, I enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much has also been made of the Tour\u2019s decision to augment Sunday\u2019s traditional processional laps of the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es with three laps racing over the cobbled climbs in Montmartre. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good idea,\u201d Vingegaard said. \u201cMontmartre seemed very beautiful at the Paris Olympics, with a great atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when the riders arrived there, there were 50 in the peloton. Now there will be 150 of us fighting for position on a very narrow climb. It\u2019s going to add more stress than we\u2019d like.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the threat of rain overshadows the plan and even the Tour\u2019s director of racing, Thierry Gouvenou, acknowledged that the Parisian cobbles can be treacherous when wet. \u201cWe know with the slightest drop of rain, Paris is a real ice rink,\u201d he said before the Tour. \u201cWe saw it in the Olympic Games time trial. It can turn into a catastrophe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaden Groves celebrates his stage success. Photograph: Beno\u00eet Tessier\/Reuters<\/p>\n

If it does rain, then the Tour is likely to \u201cfreeze\u201d the overall standings, to ensure that the general classification is not affected by a last-day crash. \u201cThe stage will be run, but the time will be frozen,\u201d Gouvenou said.<\/p>\n

Others have been dismayed by a Tour route that failed to crack the seemingly unflagging Pogacar, but instead shattered the reserves of many in the peloton. \u201cThe transfers have been longer and more poorly organised than any I have ever witnessed in some 20 Tours,\u201d Jonathan Vaughters, manager of the EF Education EasyPost team said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of trying to progress into a modern professional sport, ASO is looking for ways to regress the sport backwards in time. Ultimately, taking care of the athletes leads to better recovery, better health, and better racing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Pogacar exited the final mountain climbs with his lead over Jonas Vingegaard intact and now stands on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-294554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294554","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=294554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}