The 2025 Tour de France continued Thursday with stage 12 – a 156.8-kilometer ride in serious mountain terrain as the peloton would enter the high mountains on a route from Auch to Hautacam. Stage 12 would be 180.6-kilometers long and would conclude on the legendary Hautacam climb, which is a beyond category. The stage route would start with a relatively flat stretch where breakaways could be established and would be continuously challenging in its second half as it featured Col du Soulor (Category One) as well as a Category 4 and a Category 2 climb.

Our cycling experts expected breakaway optimists and pure climbers to engage in early attacking efforts during stage 23, while the GC favorites would contemplate sending lieutenants into a breakaway as they could be used as outposts later in the stage if it came to a battle between the general classification favorites in the stage finale on the much-feared Hautacam. Meanwhile, previous GC outsiders, such as Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos-Grenadiers), and Ben O’Connor (Jayco-Alula), who had lost time in the first eleven stages, could possibly use a breakaway to either fight for a stage win or advance in the rankings.

Ben Healy was leading the general classification of this year’s Tour de France following the EF Education-EasyPost rider’s admirable breakaway quest in Monday’s stage 10. Tadej Pogacar was just second in the GC, 29 seconds behind Healy and the Slovenian rider had crashed in yesterday’s stage, which could possibly affect his climbing performance in today’s stage 12. Remco Evenepoel was third (1:29 minutes back), while Jonas Vingegaard was fourth in the GC, 01:46 minutes behind the impressive Irishman.

Stage 12 got off to a fast start after the riders had left the city of Auge on a day where French President Emmanuel Macron would be visiting and enjoying Le Tour. The speed in the peloton was intense and several attacks were being launched from the front of the peloton. When 160 kilometers remained, a large group of approximately fifty riders had broken the chains and left the rest of the peloton behind.

The group featured noteworthy riders such as Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling), March Hirschi (Tudor Pro Cycling), Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling), Thymen Arensman (Ineos-Grenadiers), Axel Laurance (Ineos-Grenadiers), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious), Maximilian Schachmann (Soudal-QuickStep), Ben O’Connor (Jayco-Alula), Michael Woods, and always active Thomas Gachignard of Team TotalEnergies.

The fifty-man front group had fought its way to a lead of approximately one minute when 155 kilometers remained to the summit of Hautacam, where the riders would finally be able to rest their exhausted legs following today’s challenging mountain stage.

The large breakaway group had increased its advantage to two minutes and Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) and Tiesj Benoot (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) were also spotted in the front group, so both Vingegaard, Pogacar, and Evenepoel had teammates in the break. GC leader Ben Healy had teammate Harry Sweeny in the group, so the EF Education-EasyPost team was also well-covered. Riders from UAE Team Emirates, EF Education-EasyPost and Uno-X Mobility were spearheading the chase effort in the stretched-out main peloton.

The front group had a lead of 01:40 minutes after more than sixty kilometers of fast racing. The many riders in the breakaway group were cooperating well, while the chase effort in the main peloton was still managed by riders from UAE Team Emirates, EF Education, and Uno-X Mobility.

Breakaway participant Bryan Coquard (Cofidis Team) stopped at the side of the road to receive treatment from the race doctor. The Frenchman straightened his finger at it appeared he had injured his hand in the feed zone while receiving a musette bag.

The large front group – sans Coquard - approached the first categorized climb of the day with a lead of 01:20 minutes over the chasing peloton. The category 4 Cote de Labatmale was just 1.3-kilometers short but featured gradients of more than ten percent.

Fred Wright of Bahrain-Victorious was the first rider to reach the summit of Cote de Labatmale and earned the points for the best climber classification. Laurenz Rex won the intermediate sprint shortly later, while Mathieu van der Poel finished second.

The front group approached Col du Soulor with 62 kilometers left of today’s stage. The Category 1 climb was almost 12 kilometers and featured an average gradient of 7.6 percent. The breakaway compatriots had a lead of almost two minutes and riders from Ineos-Grenadiers were working hard at the front of the group.

Riders from Visma-Lease a Bike moved to the front of the main peloton early on Col du Soulor to set a fast pace for their leader Jonas Vingegaard while hoping it would cause problems for competing GC favorites. Meanwhile, Ineos-Grenadiers set a fast pace on the climb in the front group, and it did not take long before the front group was reduced from fifty to twenty participants as many riders were finding it difficult to maintain the needed pace.

Remco Evenepoel surprisingly got dropped from the reduced main peloton on the climb. The Soudal-QuickStep team captain was expected to do better in the high mountains as he was a favorite to finish on the final Tour de France podium in Paris.

Five kilometers of Col du Soulor remained when Mattias Skjelmose attacked solo from the front group. The Danish rider from Lidl-Trek was aiming for a stage victory while trying to make up for time losses of past stages. Skjelmose was joined by Bruno Armirail, Aurelien Paret-Peintre, and Michael Woods. Meanwhile, the GC favorites group and main peloton had been reduced to about twenty riders, but without Remco Evenepoel and Enric Mas who were almost one minute behind.

Simon Yates was leading the GC favorites up the climb with four kilometers left of the climb and fifty kilometers of the stage remaining. GC leader Ben Healy was struggling to keep up and had a gap of a few meters to close before a fast descent, which would take the riders to the bottom of Col des Borderes.

The remaining riders in the front group reshuffled and Michael Woods tried his luck in a solo attack. Skjelmose, Storer, Rubio, Armirail and Aurelien Paret-Peintre were fighting to close the gap to the Canadian frontman. 

Ben Healy was suffering on the climb and his stunningly beautiful yellow Cannondale SuperSix Evo Lab71 bike was unable to offer the needed help for the Irishman from Team EF Education-EasyPost. The Healy hammer was hitting himself today, but his persistent fighting and refusal to give up was earning him great respect. Tadej Pogacar, on the other hand, was not showing any signs of troublesome injuries from his crash in yesterday’s stage.

Michael Woods was the first rider to reach the summit of Col du Soulor and it appeared the Canadian rider was on a mission to secure points for the climber classification. Mattias Skjelmose was the second rider to reach the top, while Australian Michael Storer followed later.

Woods was solo in front on the fast and very dangerous descent with many risky curves. Skjelmose later caught Skjelmose. Storer, Armirail, and Rubio were further back, while Buitrago, Arensman, Vlasov, Romeo and Paret-Peintre were further back. The main GC favorites group was about two minutes behind.

The riders were now climbing Col des Borderes, which was a category two climb. Armirail caught Skjelmose and Woods and left them behind. Other riders were chasing further back, while the GC favorites group was 02:14 minutes behind, but without Evenepoel who was suffering solo while trying to catch the other GC stars.

Decathlon-AG2R’s Bruno Armirail was showing great persistence on Col des Borderes and the Frenchman was the first rider to reach the summit. Armirail was now chasing a stage victory, but would he get caught by chasers from the original large break – or by GC favorites such as Vingegaard and Pogacar? A dangerous descent on damaged tarmac now awaited the rider and there was no time to relax as Skjelmose, Storer, Woods, and Rubio were closing in on the Frenchman.

Riders from UAE Team Emirates replaced Visma’s Simon Yates at the front of the GC group while it approached the summit of Col des Borderes.

While Armirail pressed on further up the road with 21 kilometers left of the battle, Skjelmose, Storer, Rubio and Woods had almost been caught by the chasing GC favorites group, which was spearheaded by Tim Wellens. Remco Evenepoel had impressively managed to rejoin the other GC favorites before the much feared and legendary Hautacam climb.

Armirail fought the best he could in the short valley stretch and then entered Hautacam with a lead of 01:47 minutes over the Pogacar-Vingegaard group. Pogacar was known to aim for achievements for the history books, so he would likely try to win the stage while avenging Vingegaard’s victory against him on Hautacam in a previous Tour.

The GC favorites group entered Hautacam and while Wellens was leading for Pogacar, Vingegaard was now isolated as the rest of the Visma-Lease a Bike team had been squashed and were now unable to assist the Dane on the climb to the finish line. Eight riders remained, including Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic, Florian Lipowitz, Pogacar, and Evenepoel. 

Jhonathan Narvaez launched Pogacar on the climb and Pogacar accelerated while dropping all other riders except for Vingegaard. Twelve kilometers remained. Vingegaard proved unable to follow the Slovenian rider from UAE Team Emirates shortly later. It would not take long before Pogacar would catch Armirail. So much for any hopes of a French victory in the stage where the French President was visiting the Tour de Frace.

Pogacar caught Armirail with 11.1-kilometers to the finish line at the summit of Hautacam. Vingegaard was eleven seconds behind at this point. Meanwhile, Roglic, Lipowitz, Gall, Onley, and Johannessen were chasing 52 seconds behind Pogacar, while Evenepoel had been dropped again and was 01:13 behind.

Pogacar showed no signs of suffering from any effects of his crash in yesterday’s stage. Perhaps the Slovenian rider would even take off his team jersey and show his abrasions to the spectators. What an impressive performance from the UAE rider even on the day following a crash. Perhaps the other GC favorites shouldn’t have waited for the Slovenian star rider.

Pogacar was fifty seconds ahead of Vingegaard when seven kilometers remained. A Roglic-led group was 01:43 minutes back and with Evenepoel suffering further back, Roglic was perhaps eyeing a chance of a podium spot for himself or German Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammate Florian Lipowitz. But Evenepoel was just eleven seconds behind the Roglic group at this point and perhaps the white jersey was giving him wings on the historic Hautacam climb.

UAE Team Emirates’ captain Pogacar continued to increase his advantage in the following kilometers and Denmark’s Vingegaard was 01:08 minutes behind when five kilometers remained to the summit of Hautacam. The Dane was suffering in the hot weather conditions. Lipowitz and Onley had attacked from behind and were 02:01 minutes behind Pogacar. Roglic and Johannessen were 02:06 back, while Evenepoel was chasing 02:02 minutes behind in a joint effort with Kevin Vauquelin.

Vingegaard continued to suffer on Hautacam and the Visma-Lease a Bike captain was 01:36 minutes behind when 2.5 kilometers to the finish line remained. Pogacar appeared on his way to a memorable and very dominant stage victory in this year’s Tour, while taking the GC lead and the yellow jersey.

While Lipowitz continued to advance from behind, Vingegaard was approximately two minutes behind Pogacar with five hundred meters to the finish line.

Tadej Pogacar continued to dominate the stage all the way to the finish line and the Slovenian rocket crossed the finish line solo in 04:24:19 as winner of stage 12 of Tour de France 2025. Jonas Vingegaard finally crossed the finish line 02:10 minutes later. Florian Lipowitz completed the stage podium 02:22 minutes behind the stage winner. Tobias Halland Johannessen finished fourth in a two-man sprint against Oscar Onley.

“Since I rode the recon, I’ve known I was looking forward to riding this climb. I almost forgot about everything and was just looking forward to today,” stage winner Pogacar explained to Roadcycling.com before being celebrated on the podium.

“People told me this was time for revenge and this time it was the reverse of the last time. You never know how a body reacts after a crash, but it was not too bad for me on the bike today. We did a really good job and my team delivered really well. It was a tough day for everybody, including Ben Healy, and I dedicate the win to the young rider from Jayco who lost his life,” Pogacar continued.

Tadej Pogacar is the new rider in the pole position of the general classification of this year’s Tour de France. Jonas Vingegaard is second, now 03:31 minutes behind the GC leader. Remco Evenepoel regained his strength and managed to advance to third in the GC, but 04:45 minutes behind Pogacar. Florian Lipowitz is fourth, Kevin Vauquelin is fifth, while Oscar Onley is sixth, and Primoz Roglic seventh.

The Tour de France will continue Friday with stage 13 – a 10.9-kilometer mountain time trial on a route from Loudenvielle to Peyragudes. Look for GC favorites such as Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar, and Remco Evenepoel to battle for time gains on the challenging route in Southern France.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from the 2025 Tour de France.