Instead, it was his Classics rival Pogacar who distanced him, with team UAE Emirates-XRG setting an infernal pace up the final slope to whittle the field down to a select group of climbers, including Remco Evenepoel, local boy Kevin Vauquelin, and Briton Oscar Onley, who ultimately finished third.

Dane looks ahead to the mountains on stage 10 and into the second and third week, as he sits fourth on GC 1:17 behind close rival

Pogačar was happy to lose the yellow jersey by a single second to Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who went deep in the breakaway of the stage, won by Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), to take back yellow.

Less than a week after the Tour de France began, world champion Tadej Pogacar secured a second stage win at the top of a challenging climb and and reclaimed the yellow jersey on Friday.

Mathieu van der Poel made it two wins from two stages for Alpecin-Deceuninck at the 2025 Tour de France, winning a frantic stage into Boulogne-sur-Mer on Sunday afternoon and taking over the race lead from his team-mate Jasper Philipsen.

Visma-Lease a Bike had "no explanation" for why Jonas Vingegaard lost more than a minute to GC rival Tadej Pogačar in the time trial stage 5 of the Tour de France, with the Dane dropping to fourth overall.

Just three days into the race, it’s clear we’re about to be treated to an epic duel between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard for the yellow jersey.