Tour de France 2025: Thymen Arensman wins Stage 19 after dramatic mountaintop finish at La Plagne

Thymen Arensman clinched his second mountaintop win of Tour de France 2024 by narrowly beating Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard on Stage 19 at La Plagne. The shortened Alpine stage saw dramatic attacks and major GC shake-ups ahead of the penultimate stage.

Hyderabad: The human held out against the aliens – that was how Dutchman Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) described the finale of the sodden and shortened Stage 19 of the Tour de France as the plucky Arensman held on for a second mountaintop win of the race by just two seconds over his extraterrestrial pursuers.

With yellow jersey Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirtaes-XRG) and the polka dot jersey Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) closing in after a series of attacks from the white jersey of Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe), Arensman had just enough left in the tank to add an Alpine win at La Plagne to his Pyrenean success at Superbagneres last weekend.

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For the first time in the 112th edition of the Tour, Denmark’s Vingegaard finally got the better of his big rival Pogacar as he crossed the line for second place with the Slovenian race leader on his back wheel. Bonus seconds sees the two-time champion cut his deficit to a still considerable 4’24” ahead of Saturday’s lumpy penultimate stage in the Jura hills.

“Everyone knows that Tadej and Jonas are the strongest in the world – they’re almost like aliens. And just as a human, I still want to try to beat them,” an exhausted but content Arensman said after his victory. “I just can’t believe that I did beat them today. I tried to not look behind and go as fast as I could – and it was just enough. It’s crazy.”

German youngster Lipowitz settled for fourth place but seemingly secured the white jersey and the final spot on the podium after his late accelerations saw the elastic snap for Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL). The young Scot crossed the line over 40 seconds back and is now unlikely to improve on his nevertheless impressive fourth place in the overall standings.

Austria’s Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), meanwhile, rose into the top five at the expense of Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) after the Slovenian gambled big with an early bid to strike out in pursuit of a win on a stage that was shortened from 130km to just 95km over fears of a contagious cattle disease outbreak on one of the mountain passes.

Roglic was the big loser of the day, dropping to eighth in the standings after crossing the line the best part of 13 minutes down.

Elsewhere, Italy’s Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) all but secured the green jersey by winning the intermediate sprint, while Pogacar is one point away from mathematically guaranteeing the polka dot jersey along with the fourth yellow jersey of his illustrious career.

Milan’s pursuit of those green jersey points set the tone for the early part of the stage, with his Lidl-Trek team keeping a lid on matters until their man did what was expected ahead of Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty).

With the first of three climbs – the tough HC ascent of the Col du Pre – coming immediately after, Roglic made his early move with a metaphoric throwing of the kitchen sink in a bid to secure his first stage win on the Tour in five years.