June 13 th 2025
A couple of days after he lost significant time in the ITT, Tadej Pogacar replied with a dominant performance on the first mountain stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2025. The reigning world champion attacked on the way up Côte de Domancy, forever associated with Bernard Hinault’s triumph at the 1980 Worlds. Nobody could follow Pogacar as he flew away towards Domancy, where he had suffered a crushing defeat to Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour de France 2023. This time, the Slovenian star opened massive gaps to win the stage ahead of his Danish rival (+1’01’’) and Florian Lipowitz (+1’22’’) while Remco Evenepoel dropped 1’50’’. After his 11th victory as the holder of the rainbow jersey, Pogacar reclaims the yellow and blue jersey. A very different challenge awaits him on Saturday, with three HC climbs on the menu.
Onto the mountains! After five intense days of racing from Domérat, the 144-man peloton of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2025 tackle the final three stages to decide the winners of the race. The road from Valserhône to Combloux is short but packed with climbing – 2,630 metres of elevation across 126.7 km – with a brutal uphill finish featuring the successive ascents of Côte de Domancy and Côte de la Cry to reach the line.
A hard battle for the break
Attackers are inspired, especially Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who initiates the first move right from the start. A few more attackers join him at the front but the peloton gets back at km 13.
A new move sets off at km 27 with Michael Shea Leonard (Ineos Grenadiers), Bruno Armirail (Décathlon-AG2R), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X), Pierre Thierry (Arkéa-B&B) and Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies). Alex Baudin (EF Education-Easypost), Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Romain Bardet (Picnic PostNL) immediately react to make it an 8-man breakaway.
The race explodes with 43 km to go
UAE Team Emirates-XRG pull the bunch and the gap never gets higher than 2’10’’ at km 34. It even gets down to 1’15’’ at the bottom of the first cat-1 ascent of this edition, Côte du Mont-Saxonnex (5.4km at 8.7%, summit at km 87.6). The race immediately explodes.
At the front, Alex Baudin – flying towards his home region – and Michael Leonard prove to be the strongest. In the peloton, Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) tests the waters, only to be immediately followed by Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates). Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) counter-attacks.
The German rising star is caught inside the last kilometre by a very reduced GC group. Tim Wellens sets the pace for Pogacar, with Jonas Vingegaard, Ben Tulett, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), Paul Seixas (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), Enric Mas (Movistar) and Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla) on their wheels.
Pogacar smashes the Côte de Domancy
Stragglers get back to the GC group on the valley. At the bottom of the Côte de Domancy, Leonard and Baudin are 1’15’’ away from a 27-man peloton. The French youngster sets off from the bottom. Behind him, UAE Team Emirates-XRG set a brutal pace.
Pogacar accelerates 1 kilometre away from the summit, over 7km away from the finish. Vingegaard tries to resist but the Slovenian flies away. The world champion catches Baudin and goes solo with 6.5 kilometres to go.
The gaps increase while his chasers battle it out for the podium position. Over the line, as Pogacar takes his 11th victory as the reigning world champion, Vingegaard trails by 1’01’’, Lipowitz by 1’22’’, Jorgenson by 1’30’’ and Evenepoel by 1’50’’. The overall standings are, once again, turned upside down. But much longer climbing challenges await them on Saturday.
Stage 7
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) 2h59’46”
- Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a bike) +1’01”
- Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull – Bora – Hansgrohe) +1’22”
GC
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) 21h35’08”
- Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a bike) +43”
- Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull – Bora – Hansgrohe) +54”
