Place Name: Route De Plagne Villages
Address: 414 Route De Plagne Villages, 73210 La Plagne Tarentaise, France
Details: July 25, 2025
The Tour de France is getting shorter, in number of days remaining and kilometers to be ridden. Stage 19 is also shorter than originally planned, trimmed from 130KM down to 93KM due to a contagious cattle disease affecting the farmers on the Col des Saisies. The organizers said in a press release that "In light of the distress experienced by the affected farmers and in order to preserve the smooth running of the race, it has been decided ... to modify the route of Stage 19 and to avoid the ascent to the Col des Saisies." With that in mind, the race still starts in Albertville but skips the Côte d'Héry-sur-Ugine and the Col des Saisies and makes a direct line to Beaufort to pick up the original route. From Beaufort starts the 12.6KM Col du Pré. It averages 7.9% but the second half is all over 9%. The riders stay up high at 1,600M on a plateau for the start of the 6KM, 6.5% Cormet de Roselend. The riders reach the top with 52KM to go and have a 20KM descent into the Tarentaise Valley for a 10KM false flat downhill road to Aime-le Plagne. The final climb to La Plagne ski resort is 19.4KM at over 7%. The shortened stage should provide fireworks. A break might be hard to get away and establish enough of a gap to make it to the finish so we could be seeing a GC and stage battle wrapped up in one.
Like in previous days, the intermediate sprint came early at just kilometer 12 so Lidl-Trek brought the full team forward to control. Jonathan Milan took the sprint and now sits 95 points ahead of Tadej Pogačar which should be enough to keep the Green Jersey if he makes it to Paris. The attacks came 3KM later at the start of the Col du Pré with Alex Baudin of EF-Education EasyPost who is from Albertville. He had a huge fan club out on the climb to support. The group was around 20 riders but they couldn't get organized and were reabsorbed. A new group formed with 5KM to climb containing Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious, Einer Rubio of Movistar, Bruno Armirail of Decathlon AG2R, Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep, and Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe.
Roglič and Martinez distanced themselves from the rest but Paret-Peintre clawed his way back on to make 3 riders at the front with 30 seconds to the chase group and 50 seconds to the peloton. Martinez led over the top to start a 3KM descent down to the Lac de Roselend. UAE-XRG led the peloton which was now down to around 30 riders. They caught the remaining chase group with 59KM to go, 1KM from the base of the Cormet de Roselend. Uno-X Mobility took over and rode hard in the peloton because Kévin Vauquelin of Arkéa-B&B Hotels was distanced on the descent of the Col du Pré, giving Tobias Johannessen a chance to move up a spot in GC. With the increased pressure, the gap to the leaders came down to 45 seconds as Martinez took the maximum points at the top with 51KM to go.
Roglič descended like a stone down to Bourg-Saint-Maurice and by the bottom with 32KM to go, he had put 25 seconds into Paret-Peintre, 37 seconds into Martinez and had 1 minute on the peloton. The weather closed in and the rain began pouring down through the valley but Roglič's lead was evaporating. UAE-XRG rode hard, catching Martinez and Paret-Peintre and eventually Roglič with 21.5KM to go. Tim Wellens of UAE-XRG led the favorites group onto La Plagne with 19KM to go and a lead of 1 minute 35 seconds back to the Vauquelin group. After just 500M, Roglič was distanced and was unlikely to hold his fifth overall with so far to go. Decathlon AG2R went to the front for Felix Gall to put as much time into Roglič as possible with Aurélien Paret-Peintre and Callum Scotson doing the damage.
When Scotson pulled off with 14.5KM to go, the group was down to eight riders, Gall, Tadej Pogačar of UAE-XRG, Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike, Oscar Onley of Picnic-PostNL, Florian Lipowitz of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Ben Healy of EF-Education EasyPost, Tobias Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility, and Thymen Arensman of Ineos. Arensman was first to attack and the others hesitated but a few moments later, Pogačar attacked and flew passed the Dutchman. Vingegaard hung on the wheel and they slowed back down. Arensman came back and counter attacked but Pogačar wasn't going to let him get away. Arensman went a third time and finally got a gap. With 11KM to go, the groups were coming back together. Frank van den Broek of Picnic-PostNL did a big pull and brought Onley, Lipowitz, Healy, and Johannessen up to Gall. That group then caught Vingegaard and Pogačar leaving only Arensman off the front by 30 seconds.
The gap to Arensman hovered around 35 seconds for a bit as the kilometers ticked by. Pogačar put in a dig with 7KM to go and trimmed the group down to Vingegaard, Onley, and Lipowitz. Pogačar sat on the front and slowly started to wind Arensman back. At 5KM from the finish, his gap was down to 23 seconds but he still held 20 seconds 2KM later. Onley started to lose contact with 2KM to go and Lipowitz immediately went to the front to drive the gap wider. Arensman went under 1KM to go with 15 seconds. Meter after meter passed with Pogačar and Vingegaard both sitting tight to Lipowitz. Only at 250M did Vingegaard come around but it was too late for the stage win. Arensman crossed the line for his second win in a week after a very impressive win from the favorited group. Vingegaard took second place just 2 seconds behind Arensman with Pogačar in third on the same time.
Onley had to give up the dream of a podium finish but he solidified his fourth overall with Lipowitz now 1 minute 3 seconds ahead. In other GC moves, Vauquelin lost 6 minutes and Roglič lost over 12 minutes which allowed Gall to move to fifth place and Johannessen up to sixth.
Tags: Tour de France, 2025, July, Stage 19, Tour de France 2025, Albertville, La Plagne, Tadej Pogačar, Alex Baudin, Lenny Martinez, Einer Rubio, Bruno Armirail, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Primož Roglič, Tobias Johannessen, Tim Wellens, Felix Gall, Jonas Vingegaard, Oscar Onley, Florian Lipowitz, Ben Healy, Thymen Arensman, Frank van den Broek, Aurélien Paret-Peintre, Callum Scotson