The 2025 Tour de France continued Friday with stage 19 – the final mountain battle of this year’s Tour would be contested on a 93.1-kilometer route from Albertville to La Plagne. The original route had been shortened and a climb removed due to a form of livestock disease in the area, which was affecting the local farmers and the local cheese production.

The shortened route would further reduce the chances of Jonas Vingegaard replacing Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) in the yellow jersey as the Dane was more than four minutes behind GC leader Pogacar but had reiterated his intention to dethrone Pogacar at the end of yesterday’s stage saying, “The Tour isn’t over yet.” It appeared Pogacar had already won the Tour, not least due to a lackluster performance from Vingegaard in this year’s Tour and a strange, continuous postponement of attacking efforts, and comprehendible race strategy from his Visma-Lease a Bike sports directors.

With Pogacar almost certain of winning Tour de France 2025 and Vingegaard finishing second on the final podium in Paris, it appeared the most exciting battle would be for the third spot on the podium. Florian Lipowitz would be aiming to defend his third place in the GC as the German Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider was only 22 seconds ahead of Oscar Onley of Team Picnic-PostNL and 01:48 minutes ahead of team captain Primoz Roglic, who had shown great persistence and improving form.

The shortened stage 19 got off to a controlled start after the riders had left Albertville. In a repeat of yesterday’s stage start, the Lidl-Trek team led the main peloton as it approached the intermediate sprint, which would be contested very early in the stage. Points competition leader Jonathan Milan wanted to earn the maximum points before taking it slow in the Alps in the remaining kilometers of the stage. Biniam Girmay of Intermarche-Wanty would likely be a main contender in the sprint, as he had been in yesterday’s stage.

Jonathan Milan won the intermediate sprint in Villard-sur-Doron as expected, while Biniam Girmay was the second rider to cross the intermediate sprint line. Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) launched an attack immediately after the sprint and with eighty kilometers remaining. The shortened stage length reminded of stages in the Women’s Tour de France and it would not take long before the men would reach the stage finish at the summit of La Plagne.

Twins Tobias Halland Johannessen and Anders Halland Johannessen were the next riders to try their luck, and the duo catapulted itself away from the peloton on Col du Pre (Beyond Category). The two Norwegian optimists were joined by several other riders, but the riders in the main peloton were very attentive and several agendas were on today’s racing menu. The attackers were, therefore, caught.

Lenny Martinez was aiming to secure additional points for the KOM classification and attacked with teammate Robert Stannard. The shortened route has also reduced the available KOM points, which made it harder for the Frenchman to reclaim the polka-dot jersey as Pogacar was close and could earn more points by winning today’s stage.

Martinez and Stannard had were joined by other riders, including Primoz Roglic, who appeared to vomit while on his bike as some riders were finding it difficult to process their breakfast while racing so intensively early in the stage.

Victor Campenaerts, Tobias Foss, Michael Storer, Einer Rubio, and Bruno Armirail joined Lenny Martinez and Primoz Roglic in the front group on Col du Pre. Germany’s Nils Politt was controlling the action in the main peloton in support of UAE Team Emirates captain Pogacar. Vingegaard lieutenant Sepp Kuss got dropped from the main peloton.

Martinez, Roglic, Rubio, and Armirail left the other breakaway optimists behind as Campenaerts and Storer were now chasing the frontmen. Valentin Paret-Peintre was chasing more success for Soudal-QuickStep and joined the front group. The main peloton was 24 seconds back.

Roglic and Martinez dropped the other riders and had formed a strong front duo with three kilometers of Col du Pre and 67 kilometers of stage 19 remaining. Roglic was aiming to fight his way to a GC podium spot or protect the interests of teammate Lipowitz, while Martinez was aiming to secure maximum points for the KOM best climber classification.

Frenchman Martinez secured the maximum KOM points at the summit of Col du Pre. Martinez, Paret-Peintre and Roglic joined forces on the descent while approaching Cormet de Roselend, which is a Category 2 climb.

The front trio entered Cormet de Roselend, while the GC favorites peloton was thirty seconds back and spearheaded by riders from Uno-X Mobility. Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea B & B Hotels) had been dropped from the GC favorites group and was chasing in a group one minute behind the front trio. The Uno-X Mobility team was hoping it could snatch the seventh spot in the GC from the Frenchman in today’s stage.

Paret-Peintre and Roglic approached the summit of Cormet de Roselend, but Martinez caught the duo with seven hundred meters to the summit line. The Frenchman was hungry and wanted more KOM points. Martinez moved to front position and earned the maximum points while followed by Valentin Paret-Peintre and Primoz Roglic. The GC favorites group was 47 seconds behind at the summit line. A dangerous, long and winding descent now awaited the riders, and it had even started raining slightly.

Primoz Roglic left the Paret-Peintre and Martinez duo behind on the descent and was showing great initiative and determinism on the downhill stretch. What a courageous effort from the Slovenian rider. Roglic had also been known as a daredevil in his ski jumping era.

Tim Wellens was spearheading the GC favorites group on the long descent in support of his team captain Pogacar. Fortunately, this year’s Tour had been spared of very serious downhill crashes this far.

Roglic continued his fast descent and was increasing his advantage over Paret-Peintre, while Martinez got swallowed by the peloton. Eventually it also caught Paret-Peintre. Roglic was now 44 seconds ahead of the GC favorites group.

The riders were exposed to serious rainy racing conditions in the valley and all riders were soaked from top to toe. Roglic was still solo in front with 26 kilometers to the finish line at the summit of La Plagne.

The brave solo effort from Roglic did not pay off for the Slovenian rider but had won him many hearts of cycling fans around the world. The GC favorites reached La Plagne in joint fashion and eighteen tough climbing kilometers now awaited the riders in the final real mountain stage of this year’s Tour de France.

Approximately twelve riders remained in the GC favorites front group when seventeen kilometers of the climb to the finish line remained. Pogacar still had teammates Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narvaez with him, while Vingegaard was joining forces with Simon Yates. Florian Lipowitz, Ben Healy, Felix Gall, Thymen Arensman, Oscar Onley, Tobias Johannessen, and the Paret-Peintre twins were also spotted in the group. Roglic had sadly been dropped and was more than a minute behind the group.

Two riders from Decathlon-AG2R were proudly leading the GC favorites group on the rainy mountainside with fifteen kilometers.

Felix Gall attacked and was joined by Pogacar, Vingegaard, Onley, Johannessen and other riders. Thymen Arensman counterattacked. Pogacar then launched an attack and Vingegaard clung to his rear wheel. Fourteen kilometers remained.

Arensman caught the Pogacar-Vingegaard duo and immediately counterattacked. It did not take long for Pogacar to reel in the Dutch rider from Ineos-Grenadiers-TotalEnergies.

Arensman tried again with thirteen kilometers to the finish line. Very courageous and animated racing from the Ineos-Grenadiers-TotalEnergies climber. Gall was chasing solo further back, while Lipowitz, Onley, Johannesen and Healy were forming a group further behind.

Arensman had increased his lead to thirty seconds with eleven kilometers left. Meanwhile, Pogacar and Vingegaard had been reeled in by Gall followed by Healy, Lipowitz, Onley, and Johannessen. The Vauquelin group was now more than three minutes behind, while Roglic had dropped more than four minutes.

Pogacar attacked from the GC favorites group with seven kilometers remaining. Only Vingegaard and Onley could follow him immediately, while Lipowitz closed the gap slowly – though riding for the Red Bull team, the German rider was not full of explosive energy on his bike.

Arensman maintained a thirty-second lead when six climbing kilometers remained to the summit line of the Beyond Category climb.

Thymen Arensman remained in front with four kilometers to go. He now had an advantage of 23 seconds over Pogacar, Vingegaard, Lipowitz, and Onley. Gall and Johannessen were 54 seconds behind, while Healy was 58 seconds back. Vauquelin had now dropped more than five minutes. It was still raining.

A rain-soaked Onley was starting to suffer in the Pogacar group with 2.2 kilometers left to climb. He had been dropped at the 1.6-kilometer mark and this was encouraging for Lipowitz, who still stuck with Pogacar and Vingegaard.

Arensman was just seventeen seconds ahead of Lipowitz, Pogacar, and Vingegaard with one kilometer to the finish line. The next meters caused him to drop valuable seconds of his advantage.

Thymen Arensman crossed the finish line as winner of stage 19 for Ineos-Grenadiers-TotalEnergies. Great courage had paid off for the strong rider. Jonas Vingegaard launched a sprint in the final meters and crossed the line ahead of Tadej Pogacar, who completed the stage podium. Florian Lipowitz finished fourth, while Oscar Onley placed fifth in the stage.

“It was already unbelievable to win one stage in the Tour and to now have taken a second stage win is absolutely unbelievable for me,” proud stage winner Thymen Arensman explained to Roadcycling.com after the stage.

“Tomorrow is another opportunity, and I had arranged with Tobias Foss to split the opportunities between us. I wanted to see what I could do today and tomorrow I’ll help my teammate Tobias aim for a win. I simply refused to accept this stage was all about Jonas and Tadej, so I just went as fast as I could and the result is just crazy. I got sick in the third week of the Giro. I managed to get to Rome, but I had lost my GC hopes by then,” Arensman continued.

Tadej Pogacar remains general classification leader following the stage. Jonas Vingegaard is 04:24 minutes behind in second place, while Florian Lipowitz is in third place, now 11:09 minutes behind the leader. Oscar Onley is fourth in the GC, Primoz Roglic is fifth, Felix Gall is sixth, while Kevin Vauquelin is seventh. Tobias Halland Johannessen is eighth, while Ben Healy remains ninth and Ben O’Connor is tenth in the GC.

The Tour de France will continue Saturday with stage 20 - a 184.2-kilometer ride in continuously hilly terrain on a route from Nantua to Pontarlier. Expect breakaway optimists in the Tour peloton to fight for the stage win.

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