Tour de France 2025: Pogacar reclaims yellow jersey with dominant solo win at Hautacam

Tadej Pogacar reclaimed the yellow jersey in emphatic fashion with a solo win on the iconic Hautacam climb in Stage 12 of the Tour de France. The Slovenian now leads Jonas Vingegaard by over three minutes with five summit finishes remaining.

Hyderabad: Perhaps Tadej Pogacar’s rivals should not have waited for him in Toulouse, after all… One day after the world champion was granted a reprieve following his late crash near the end of Stage 11, Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) wrested control of the Tour de France with a victory of such quality at Hautacam that the rest of the peloton might as well pack their bags and go home now.

Three years after he effectively lost the race to Jonas Vingegaard on the same Pyrenean climb, Pogacar gained his revenge with an unstoppable attack 12km from the summit to make light work of his tumble on Wednesday.

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Making his clinical move at the start of the first major climb of this year’s Tour, Pogacar left all his rivals in his wake as he soloed to a third win of the race and the 20th Tour triumph of his career. This after overnight leader Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) had already dramatically blown up in the searing heat with over 50km of a crazy 180km Stage 12 remaining.

With UAE team-mates Tim Wellens, Adam Yates and Jhonatan Narvaez leading out the Slovenian to perfection on the early slopes to Hautacam, Pogacar threw down the hammer in a move for which even two-time champion Vingegaard had no answer.

Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike team-mates had looked to assert their authority on the race on the earlier ascent of the Col du Soulor. But in temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius in south-west France, Visma soon burned all their matches and were forced to take their feet off the gas to allow both Matteo Jorgenson and reigning Giro d’Italia champion Simon Yates back on.

When it came to dictating play themselves, Pogacar and his UAE train had no similar troubles. And with just one rider from the day’s huge breakaway of 52 riders still up the road, Pogacar struck out. For a few pained pedal strokes, Vingegaard did his best to stick to his rival’s back wheel. But the Dane soon succumbed to the inevitable, unable to match the Slovenian’s relentless pace.

In an instant, Frenchman Bruno Armirail’s two-minute lead had disappeared and Pogacar had swept past the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider on his way to a victory for the ages.

Such was the intensity of his effort on the 13.5km climb, that even Pogacar’s usual serene face was etched in effort as he approached the summit. But his grimace soon turned to a grin as he crossed the line under the approving gaze of French president Emmanuel Macron to add another victory to his name – his 102nd in the pro ranks.

For his part, Vingegaard looked utterly destroyed as he limped home over two minutes in arrears, closely followed by the impressive German Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe), who closed in on the white jersey of Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step).

Evenepoel was dropped on the Soulor before battling back ahead of the final climb – only to see himself quickly distanced as UAE turned the screw. But the double Olympic champion rallied to seventh place on the stage to retain his place on the current podium – albeit now the best part of five minutes down on the new race leader.

With Ireland’s Healy cracking in the heat and coming home over 15 minutes in arrears, Pogacar moved back into the yellow jersey on the eve of Friday’s 11.9km uphill time trial to Peyragudes, for which he will now be the overwhelming favourite.

Pogacar leads Vingegaard by a whopping 3’31” with five summit finishes of the 112th edition of the Tour still left to ride. The 28-year-old also took back the polka dot jersey from the Frenchman Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) on a day of complete dominance for a peerless rider in his pomp.