Tadej Pogacar banishes Hautacam demons to take Tour de France yellow jersey with stunning solo win on Stage 12 as Jonas Vingegaard challenge falters

The 2025 Tour de France came alive on Stage 12 as Tadej Pogacar delivered an outrageous solo win on Hautacam. Jonas Vingegaard battled valiantly up the final climb but must overturn three and a half minutes if he wants to get his hands on a third Tour triumph. It was a sobering day for Remco Evenepoel, who was twice dropped, and Ben Healy, who blew up spectacularly and lost the yellow jersey.

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 dramatic late crash near the end of Stage 11, Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) wrested complete 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.

Tour de France

'I've shown it's possible' - Pedersen believes in ability to beat Pogacar and Van der Poel

13/12/2025 at 13:54

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 claimed a third win of the race and the 20th Tour stage victory of his career.

This was after overnight leader Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) had already sensationally blown up in the searing heat with over 50km of the 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 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.

Healy drops back as Visma pace proves too fast for their own riders

Video credit: TNT Sports

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 initial 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 uphill 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 to savour.

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.

Pogacar claimed a brilliant victory in Stage 12 of the Tour de France on Thursday

Image credit: Getty Images

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 above Lipowitz on the current podium – albeit now the best part of five minutes down on the new race leader.

Norway’s Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X) and Britain’s Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) came in three minutes down to complete the top five ahead of the battling Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels), while Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) struggled in the final kilometres to finish over four minutes back in ninth and behind Austria’s Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).

With Ireland’s Healy cracking in the heat and coming home over 13 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.

'He has smashed them!' - Pogacar drops brutal early attack on Hautacam

Video credit: TNT Sports

Pogacar leads Vingegaard by a whopping 3'31" with five summit finishes of the 112th edition of the Tour still left to ride. The 26-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 performer in his pomp.

Martinez was one of those 52 riders who managed to infiltrate themselves in the day’s breakaway, which formed shortly after the start of the stage in Auch. The presence of Spain’s Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) – who started the day in 12th place in the standings – ensured that the break, however large, was never given too much rope.

With Healy’s EF protecting their yellow jersey and the Uno-X team defending the tenth place of Tobias Johannessen, the gap never grew above two minutes – until the Col du Soulor, the second of four climbs, where the fuse was finally lit.

It was on the Soulor where a combination of the overbearing heat and the fast and furious racing – which had seen the peloton cover 52km in the opening hour – took their toll, not least on Visma-Lease a Bike and their efforts to rattle Pogacar.

If Canada’s Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) led over the summit, the shoe was soon on Armirail's foot on the descent – with the veteran Woods forming a chase group alongside Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Einer Rubio (Movistar).

Armirail worked hard to stretch his lead to just over two minutes after the Col de Borderes as the GC fireworks exploded behind.

'Hello, hello!' - Evenepoel dropped on first serious climb of Tour de France

Video credit: TNT Sports

After Healy completely hit the wall, Evenepoel battled back along with the likes of Jorgenson and Simon Yates, who had both been momentarily distanced when their Visma team-mate Sepp Kuss set too hefty a tempo on the unforgiving Soulor.

But with Belgian champion Wellens dropping back from the breakaway, UAE had the power in numbers ahead of the climb to Hautacam – easily reeling in the chasers and remnants of the day’s break before teeing up their man to land his killer blow.

Three years ago, Vingegaard blasted up the climb to Hautacam - with a little help from Wout van Aert in green - in a time of 36’35" to all but end Pogacar’s hopes of a third Tour title while effectively securing his own first victory in the world’s biggest bike race.

But on Thursday, the tables really were turned as Pogacar shaved off 1'27" from Vingegaard’s time to complete the climb just 30 seconds slower than Bjarne Riis’s long-standing (and highly debatable) record from 1996.

It was a ride for the ages that cemented his status as the out-and-out favourite to win this year’s Tour. Over 12 minutes now separate Pogacar and tenth-place Jorgenson, the big loser of the day along with Healy, who dropped 10 places to 11th at 13'19".

Wednesday’s crash in Toulouse is a reminder that anything can happen on the rocky road to Paris, but with his team in such form and Pogacar apparently unstoppable once he opens up, it will take a minor miracle to stop the Slovenian now.

Next up comes Friday’s mountain time trial to Peyragudes where anything but a fourth stage win on this Tour would be a huge surprise. Pogacar – who dedicated his latest win to the young Italian rider Samuele Privitera, killed following a crash in the Giro delle Valle d'Aosta on Wednesday – looks well on his way to a fourth Tour triumph.

'I was thinking in the last kilometre about him' - Pogacar pays tribute to Privitera after win

Video credit: TNT Sports

- - -

Stream the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes live on TNT Sports and discovery+

Tour de France

Pogacar considered withdrawing from 'stressful' Tour de France due to knee injury

13/10/2025 at 18:33

Tour de France

Vingegaard 'wasn't a competitor', Evenepoel 'definitely not' - so who can challenge Pogacar?

29/07/2025 at 14:02