Mathieu van der Poel holds off Tadej Pogacar to win thrilling stage 2 at the 2025 Tour de France
Cycling
For the second time in his illustrious career, Mathieu van der Poel has won a stage of the Tour de France. In a thrilling finale to stage 2, the Dutch star held off Tadej Pogacar to win in style.
Four riders got up the road and into the early break on a really miserable day in Northern France. Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) was in the break for the second day in a row, joined this time by Yevgeniy Fedorov (XDS Astana Team), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), and best placed on GC at only 49 seconds down, Brent Van Moer (Lotto).
With 100km to go, the break was around 2:38 up the road on the peloton, who had been slowed themselves by a big crash in the peloton that brought down the likes of Lennert van Eetvelt, Fred Wright and Jordan Jegat among others.
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In the intermediate sprint, there were still some points left for the peloton to sprint for after the breakaway had hoovered up the first four positions. That's when things got heated. Leading the peloton's charge for the sprint, Lidl-Trek's Jonathan Milan and Intermarche - Wanty's Biniam Girmay were involved in a flashpoint at they threw for the line with the Italian visibly demonstrating his fury afterwards.
Milan did win the sprint, taking 11 points for the classification ahead of Tim Merlier and then Girmay, who picked up 9. Because of the rising in the pace of the peloton for the sprint however, it did spell the end of the breakaway's time out front, meaning a full peloton held the front heading into the final 45km of the day.
After a quiet spell, the race was then sparked back into life on the Cat 3 Côte du Haut Pichot with just over 30km to go as Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard came to the front of the bunch and bombed it up the 1.1km ascent. As Van Aert began to fade however, Tim Wellens and Tadej Pogacar carried on the intense pace for UAE, splitting the peloton to bits.
On the next climb, inside the final 10km, things exploded again with all the stars coming out to play. Firstly, Mathieu van der Poel launched a big attack, putting the race into difficulty. Just as things threatened to calm again, Matteo Jorgenson then countered and kept the pace high. Although Pogacar, Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel had all made the elite selection, notable names such as the Maillot Jaune Jasper Philipsen and Primoz Roglic were absent.
On the road before the next climb at 6km to go, the lead group swelled slightly. Kevin Vauquelin attempted to attack at the summit, but whilst he picked up a point for the KoM, he couldn't split the bunch. Moments later though, Jonas Vingegaard then attacked the descent.
With Pogacar and Evenepoel quickly shutting Vingegaard's move down though, it was then another move from Vauquelin and Matteo Jorgenson that caused the next threat. As the flurry of attacks continued ahead of the finale, UAE were working hard to control things. Then, in the uphill sprint for the line, Julian Alaphilippe was the first to go, but couldn't make any difference. Then came Mathieu van der Poel, holding off Tadej Pogacar to take the stage win.
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Fin MajorCycling Journalist
Fin Major is a UK-based writer at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2024. He is the site’s main writer for FAQs and evergreen explainers and has written around 2,000 pieces for the platform. Alongside this work, he focuses on in-depth analysis and covers the biggest races on the calendar, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, providing clear context around performance trends, tactics, and key storylines.
In his reporting, Fin uses reputable data sources such as ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available. Outside of writing, Fin is an active cyclist, which supports his practical understanding of the sport and its demands.
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- I have no sympathy for Ayuso or the situations he gets himself into. He was a traitor in the UAE team, he hated Pogi and never wanted to work for him. He always had excuses why he couldn't perform. No riders in the team liked his character and did not approve the kind of person he was on a deep, moral, or personal level. I just don't care about him. Ad acta.PogiSloFans11-11-2026
- Great response! I love the article also. Interesting to see which "Legends" will be covered. There are a few out there :-)
DareDevil11-11-2026 - This is one of the reasons why Ineos is failing, G can comment on his pod but why has he not attracted talent from the peloton to Ineos. He has lot of inside track. Also ratcliffe handling of Man United is also disastrous.abstractengineer11-11-2026
- Theirs a few on the team who may be able to step up/progress to Grand Tour wins but that'll come, not in '27 tho 🤷 - Roglic mayve appealed on a 2 yr for immediate results but other riders would be set aside and the existing riders wouldn't like that
leedorney11-11-2026 - Hey @santiagobenites, that's why @leedorney is wrong. He doesn't see the bigger picture.PogiSloFans11-11-2026
- the rot started in 2022 with Bernal's accident Signings- Just super helpers and non winners. Foss GC Leaders - Reliance on injured Bernal and retiring G Talents - On domestique duty dont learn how to win. Sprinters - No top Sprinter signed Tactics- Outdated Save the leader, trains. Just money badly spent even though there were opportunitiesabstractengineer11-11-2026
- Whole team is a mess. They don't have any really top tier "podium lock" GT riders, and they don't really have a solid classics block. Just a bunch of spare parts. I don't know why any rider would go for them either. Feels like old mate with the money is likely to pull out at any given moment, and that doesn't bode well for their ability to jack up their budget and say "let's buy half a dozen shit-hot talents to ride support/lead our team" - which is what they probably need to do to get competitive again.wrsty11-11-2026
- Pogi is a Goat. He has power numbers that are once in a century. Jonas is a once in a generation, He has power numbers 1 level lower than Pogi. Even if both are equal which they were before 2024, Pogi would have won on sprint bonuses. For Jonas to win he has to crack Pogi, which is impossible. Therefore Giro is a good option considering the TT in TDF. He cannot win but if something happens to Pogi , he should be still in a position to win the TDF, Giro or no Giro, because the others are a level below him.abstractengineer11-11-2026
- for what?frieders311-11-2026
- Blah blah blah!frieders311-11-2026
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