“I decided to go without a radio today" - Tadej Pogacar trusts his pacing successfully in another dominant win on stage 13 of 2025 Tour de France

Tadej Pogacar has extended his grip on the 2025 Tour de France with a commanding victory in the mountain time trial to Peyragudes — just 24 hours after a ruthless solo triumph on Hautacam.

The 16km course was short, steep, and relentless — the kind of terrain where Pogacar thrives. Once again, he proved untouchable on the climbs, tightening his hold on the yellow jersey with another decisive display.

“I’m super happy. This time trial — there was quite a big question mark already in December for me. I wanted everything to be perfect and the team delivered just at the final moments for everything to be on the top,” Pogacar said after the finish. “I started the day good, I had an easy morning and wanted to do start to finish all out – to try to smash it as much as possible. I almost blew up in the end, but I saw the timer on the top and it gave me an extra push because I saw that I was going to win.”

Pogacar made a bold strategic call before the start, opting to ride his standard road bike rather than a time trial setup — prioritising comfort and power delivery over aerodynamics. “Choosing which bike to use was the biggest decision to make. Obviously, we’re racing on road bikes most of the year – 99% of the time,” he explained. “In the end we did the calculations and if you cannot push on a TT bike as much as on a road bike then it makes no difference. I decided to be more comfortable, and I rode the last 10 stages on the same bike, so it worked for me.”

He also chose to go without race radio early on, trusting his pacing and only checking his times at the official splits. “I decided to go without a radio today, so I was just relying on the time checks at the time points. I saw that I was ahead in green at the first check. The second one was a bit bigger, so I knew I was doing a good time trial. I didn’t want to blow up so I reset for the final three kilometres because I wanted to come to the last steep part with good legs.”

With each passing stage, Pogacar is turning this year’s Tour into a personal showcase. And unless something dramatic changes, his path to a third Maillot Jaune looks increasingly assured.