Race analysis
A decade of Tours broken down: the winning margin, the day the race turned, and why the result happened.
2015–2025
Pogačar took the race by the scruff early and then rode conservatively, letting UAE's depth smother attacks rather than chasing every stage. Vingegaard was close on paper but rarely looked capable of taking minutes back.
Decisive
The mountain time trial and the Pyrenean summit finishes, where small daily gains compounded.
Nobody had done it since Pantani in 1998. Pogačar arrived from a dominant Giro and won six stages, exploiting a Vingegaard still rebuilding from a serious crash in the spring.
Decisive
Stage 15 to Plateau de Beille and the closing time trial to Nice.
The race was separated by seconds for two weeks. Then Vingegaard rode the Combloux time trial at a power output that reframed the entire Tour and left Pogačar 1:38 down in 22 km.
Decisive
Stage 16 time trial, then Col de la Loze the following day.
A two-against-one on the Col du Granon broke Pogačar after days of relentless pressure from Roglič and Van Aert. It was the first defeat of Pogačar's Tour career and a masterclass in team racing.
Decisive
Stage 11 to Col du Granon.
Crashes wrecked the first week for most contenders. Pogačar won the Tignes stage and the two Pyrenean days, and the podium fight became more interesting than the yellow-jersey fight.
Decisive
Stage 5 time trial to Laval and stage 8 to Tignes.
Roglič led into the penultimate day with 57 seconds in hand. Pogačar, aged 21, took 1:56 out of him in a single uphill time trial — the most dramatic single-day swing of the modern era.
Decisive
Stage 20 uphill time trial.
Julian Alaphilippe wore yellow for 14 days and captivated France. Stage 19 was halted by hail and landslides on the Iseran, freezing the times — and Bernal in yellow as the first Colombian winner.
Decisive
The shortened stage 19 over the Col de l'Iseran.
Sky went in with Froome chasing a fifth title and left with Thomas, who won back-to-back Alpine stages including Alpe d'Huez and never cracked.
Decisive
Stages 11 and 12 in the Alps.
A defensive Tour on a route light on high mountains. Froome lost time in the Alps but recovered it in Marseille's time trial against Rigoberto Urán.
Decisive
Stage 20 individual time trial in Marseille.
Froome attacked on a descent, won a time trial, and famously ran up Mont Ventoux after a motorbike collision. Total control on every terrain.
Decisive
The stage 13 and 18 time trials.
Froome's La Pierre-Saint-Martin ride effectively won the race in week two; the final week was a rearguard action against Quintana, who took time back on Alpe d'Huez but ran out of road.
Decisive
Stage 10 to La Pierre-Saint-Martin.
The bigger picture
Average winning speed has climbed from around 39 km/h in the 1990s to over 41 km/h, on routes that are no easier. Aerodynamics, nutrition and race-day power data all contribute.
Riders now consume 100–140 g of carbohydrate per hour, roughly double the 2010s norm. That has made the third week far less attritional and turned the Tour into three weeks of racing rather than survival.
Modern routes rarely exceed 60 km of racing against the clock, favouring pure climbers over the Indurain-style rouleur who could sit in the mountains and win the race in a skinsuit.
The Tour has spent six seasons as a duel — Pogačar against Vingegaard — the tightest sustained rivalry since LeMond and Fignon.
The largest WorldTour budgets are now roughly five times the smallest, which shows up as the depth of mountain domestiques a leader has in the final hour of racing.
Twenty-seven Grands Départs have been staged outside France. Barcelona hosted in 2026, and Edinburgh takes it to the UK in 2027.