TOULOUSE, France (Velo) — Tadej Pogačar is ready to pounce in a decisive second week at the Tour de France that’s stacked with major summit finales across the Pyrénées where he hopes to smash and bury his yellow jersey rivals.
The three-time Tour champion handed off the maillot jaune to breakaway bandit Ben Healy on Monday and is already plotting how to take it back — ideally for good — in a trio of the Tour’s first searing summit finales stacked up in the Pyrénées this week.
“I’m really looking forward to the climb to Hautacam and the climbing time trial. Those two stages are key for me,” Pogačar said on Tuesday’s rest day. “We sit good on the GC and we are ready to attack the mountains.”
Pogačar exits the opening 10 days with two stage wins and a cushion on his closest threats. Remco Evenepoel trails by a minute, while Jonas Vingegaard — arguably the biggest danger — sits 1:17 adrift.
Pogačar plans to press that buffer to his advantage across an exceptionally decisive second week over the sun-seared, HC steeps of the Pyrénées, the first major climbs of the 2025 Tour.
“The main GC rivals are still behind and they will have to attack,” Pogačar said. “Hautacam, the time trial and Superbagnères, those are going to be three really nice climbing stages.”
Pogačar — who enjoyed the Tour’s first rest day with a hamburger and a haircut — now braces for week 2 in what everyone inside the UAE bus knows could decide this year’s yellow jersey.
‘Week 2 is quite decisive’
After surviving the first harrowing 10 days looking like his dominant self, Pogačar relishes pedaling into the Pyrénées in a near-ideal position.
Though UAE Emirates-XRG will be down one key lieutenant after João Almeida abandoned with injuries and Pavel Sivakov is also under the weather, that’s not shaking the confidence of the Slovenian superstar.
“When we arrived to Monday’s stage I was so happy because the first nine days were nervous and hectic,” Pogačar said. “I am so happy we survived that. Now that we are entering the climbing terrain, it will be less stress.”
Pogačar is hoping to drive the nail in the GC coffin across three straight summit finales.
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Starting Thursday with the HC summit at Hautacam, some see that summit as the tone-setting.
If Vingegaard can stay even with Pogačar, we might have a race. If Pogačar blows the wheels off everyone, it could be a scramble for the podium.
“This second week can already be quite decisive,” Pogačar said. “Normally the second week is semi-mountains and breakaways, this week this year is almost as hard as the final week.”
The trio continues Friday with the short but potentially race-cracking climbing time trial at Peyragudes.
That’s backed up by Saturday’s old-school “queen-stage” profile that marches over the HC Tourmalet, the Col d’Aspin and Peyresourde before the HC grinder at Superbagneres.
“I think we can see some big gaps in the GC in the upcoming days,” Pogačar said.
UAE wants to exit the second week by recapturing yellow and carry such a big lead into the final week that any sort of week-three weakness — if there is any — won’t really matter.
‘It will be a big fight’
All eyes will be on whether Vingegaard can match and even attack Pogačar in the Pyrénées.
Pogačar’s biggest gains against Vingegaard came in the stage 5 time trial, and so far, Vingegaard stayed pinned right on the Slovenian’s wheel in the key accelerations on the short, punchy finales that marked the classics-style first half of the Tour.
UAE will want to neutralize the imminent threat posed by ever-confident Visma-Lease a Bike across the Pyrénées.
“I feel it’s going to be an interesting week,” Pogačar said. “The Hautacam and the time trial at Peyragudes, these two stages I am looking forward to.”
The Killer Bees have built its entire tactic around making the Tour as hard as possible to later try to isolate and possibly attack Pogačar in the high mountains in the Pyrénées, and more importantly, in the Alps in week 3.
This is what sport is all about
Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard shook hands on the finish line of Stage 10 at the Tour de France after a great battle on the first mountain day.
Sprint Cycling
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#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/z1WjhLsfJA— Velon CC (@VelonCC) July 14, 2025
Visma believes it packs the strongest team, and that it can win back yellow by taking down Pogačar via a death of a thousand cuts.
That worked in 2022 and 2023 at the Tour, and again this year at the Giro d’Italia with Simon Yates, but there’s some debate whether that will be possible against an unflappable Pogačar in top shape.
Pogačar knows this and says the best way to neutralize that threat is to attack.
“We can see from Sunday who is where, but it is not a true indicator of the GC contenders,” he said. “The main goal for everyone will be this week with the big mountains and the uphill time trial.
“I think the field is quite packed, and it will be a big fight for the yellow jersey and the podium.”
UAE believes if Pogačar can leave the Pyrénées next week with yellow, it will be very hard for anyone take it off his shoulders.