The first proper mountain stage of the Tour de France has delivered its verdict. At the top of Hautacam, in the Pyrenees, Tadej Pogacar dominated his rivals in the fight for the yellow jersey. In his quest for a top-10 finish overall, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet gained back some ground. After entering the day’s breakaway alongside Paul Penhoët and Valentin Madouas, the French climber fought hard and ultimately secured thirteenth place on the day, moving up to fourteenth on GC. On Friday, the riders will tackle an uphill time trial towards the Peyragudes Altiport.
After twelve days of racing, the 2025 Tour de France peloton entered the high mountains on Thursday. “Finally”, thought the climbers, while a very hard program was already in store between Auch and Hautacam, with not only an iconic final climb (13 km at 8%), but also the Col du Soulor (12 km at 7.5%) thirty kilometres before. Nearly 3,800 metres of elevation featured on the day’s route, which was mostly flat for the first hundred kilometres. Like the day before, numerous attacks occurred from the start, but fortunately, it took only fifteen kilometres this time before a group —or a peloton— of about fifty riders broke away. Groupama-FDJ managed to put their leader, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet, in there, as well as Paul Penhoët and Valentin Madouas. “Of course the goal was to anticipate,” explained Stéphane Goubert. “However, we needed to enter a large group. Going in a group of 10-15 would have been pointless; it would have been a waste of energy. Paul did a great job at first, then Valentin also, but we would have liked to have a bigger gap to play and be in front for longer.” The big breakaway indeed didn’t get more than two minutes during the first two hours of racing. It was only as the Col du Soulor approached that the leading group’s advantage increased slightly due to the frantic pace set by some teams.
“A positive day”, Stéphane Goubert
After three kilometers of climbing, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet actually let the first group slip away. “He suffered a heatstroke at the bottom and so he tried to manage his effort as best he could,” Stéphane said. “He surely knew that he would have ended up exploding, and that it would have been much more difficult to finish if he had kept the hard pace at the bottom of the Soulor. He tried to keep going while trying to be as little tired as possible in anticipation of the final climb”. The French rider was caught by a very thin yellow jersey group in the Col des Bordères (3.3 km at 8%), before fighting hard to tackle the descent towards Hautacam alongside the favorites. Then, this peloton exploded at the bottom of the final climb, as Tadej Pogacar’s attack was taking shape. The Groupama-FDJ leader then chose the same strategy as an hour earlier. “He managed his effort up the climb quite well and finished thirteenth,” commented Stéphane. “A top 10 would have been great given the team’s commitment, but it was a positive day. He was in the mix, we followed the plan, and there are absolutely no regrets. There never are on this kind of stage. The mountain is merciless and always tells the truth.” Having finished nine minutes behind the world champion, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet gained one position overall (14th) and is less than two minutes behind twelfth place.On Friday, he will try to maintain his good momentum during the Peyragudes “cronoscalata” (10.9 km, including 8 km at 7.6%). “It’s a special time trial,” Stéphane previewed. “Riders who climb seated may have an advantage over riders who climb standing on the pedals all the time. We’ll have to manage this well, be in the game from the start, but not too much, because there’s also a risk of blowing with the heat. We will have to find the right balance.”
