And so it begins. Just four days into the 2025 edition and Tadej Pogačar is once again a Tour de France stage winner. Is it the first of many in the coming weeks?
His victory in Rouen, achieved after he edged out Mathieu van der Poel in an uphill sprint also doubled up as Pogačar’s 100th career triumph, and moves him to eighth in the all-time list of Tour stage wins with 18 victories. He’s only 26. Mark Cavendish had won 20 stages at the same age – you wouldn’t bet against Pogačar equaling or bettering that figure come the end of this month.
Though Pogačar’s not in yellow yet – he is tied on time with Van der Poel but the latter holds it on countback – he’s already coming good on his pre-race favourite status. His biggest rival, Jonas Vingegaard, placed third on day four, and sits eight seconds adrift.
How does Pogačar view the race for yellow at this early juncture? “I don’t check the GC right now, but tomorrow [a 33km flat time trial] is the real test for everybody,” the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider said.
“Today was really punchy and you cannot tell where people are for the big mountains, but tomorrow is the first test of how good each rider’s shape is.”
He's right: it is too early to start drawing definitive conclusions after only four stages. But patterns are already emerging: Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike have come prepared for the fight; Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s co-leaders Primož Roglič and Florian Lipowitz are off the pace, as are Ineos Grenadiers; and Soudal Quick-Step's Remco Evenepoel, 58 seconds off Pogačar, requires a brilliant time trial to bring him back into contention.
“I think he will even progress through this race,” Pogačar said of Evenepoel. “In my opinion tomorrow is the perfect time trial for him. He can take some seconds back and no doubt he is the best time triallist in the world.
“Tomorrow I’ll go full gas from the start to the finish line and see where it places me. Tomorrow is the race of truth, and we will see with the results. We cannot count Remco out, or anyone else who is around one minute [back]. It can turn around pretty fast.”
In February 2019, aged 20, a baby-faced Pogačar took his first professional victory on stage two of the Volta ao Algarve. It was only his ninth race as a pro. Six-and-a-half years later, he took win number 100 in Rouen. Starting as a little-known Slovenian, he's now firmly established as one of the sport’s greats – if not the greatest – and the reigning world champion.
“My first pro victory in Algarve was something incredible for me – I will never forget it,” he reflected. “And today 100 victories later, it still feels super good to cross the finish line first, especially a stage like today sprinting against Mathieu van der Poel is amazing.
“It was like a pure, classic Tour de France stage: super big adrenaline in the final, a lot of riders attacking and a big field of competitors.”
And yet again he rose to the top as the best of that field. His team said earlier this week that there wouldn’t be any trademark long-distant attacks until the arrival of the mountains, but even after just four stages it’s clear that Pogačar has arrived in race-winning form.
“So far the Tour for me and the team has gone super great,” he said, “and I hope we keep continuing to ride like this… we'll see where this leads us. So far the Tour is quite fresh, I’d say.”
