Thymen Arensman made a canny attack relatively early on the final major climb of the 2025 Tour de France to take a satisfying second stage win at the race, just holding off an elite chase group containing yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar to take the win.
The Ineos Grenadiers rider made his move out of the elite yellow jersey group, in the rain with 13 km still to go in the 19.1 km ascent to the finish line at La Plagne, taking advantage of the tactical situation behind with UAE Team Emirates-XRG's Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) eyeing each other. Those two followed Arensman once but let him go after another acceleration from the Dutch climber.
Pogačar and Vingegaard later broke clear with white jersey hopefuls Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL). Although Arensman never had more than 30 seconds' advantage over the quartet, a relative stalemate – broken only by one brief acceleration from Pogačar and a late move by Lipowitz when Onley was dropped – helped him just preserve his advantage at the line. Vingegaard finished second with Pogačar just behind in third, easily retaining his yellow jersey, while Lipowitz firmed up his hold on the white jersey for Best Young Rider.
[race_result id=17 stage_id=86014 count=10 gc=0 year=2025] [race_result id=17 stage_id=86014 count=10 gc=10 year=2025]How it happened
- Racing got underway later than usual after an outbreak of a contagious cattle disease around the Col des Saisies forced a re-route and a shortening of the stage.
- Lidl-Trek controlled the start to set up a successful intermediate sprint for Jonathan Milan, who further secured his lead in the points competition. In the usual lull that followed, opportunistic riders quickly launched off the front in hopes of a breakaway, and the one that eventually formed included Bahrain Victorious' Lenny Martinez, in a desperate, low-likelihood bid to take back the polka dot jersey, and Lipowitz's Red Bull teammate, Primož Roglič, in search of a stage win.
- But with Roglič relatively high up in the overall standings, Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad kept a tight leash on the move, with Tim Wellens' Belgian national champion's jersey an ever-present fixture at the front of the race as he worked to keep the gap to a minute.
- Martinez scored top KoM points over the Col du Pré and Cormet de Roselend, and Roglič was a surprise aggressor on the long descent to the valley before the final climb. Not known as an ace descender, he went clear of Martinez and stage 16 winner Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal-Quick Step.
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