On paper, this wasn’t the hardest stage of the Tour de France. In reality, the riders probably experienced the craziest day of this 2025 edition. Around Toulouse, over 156 kilometres, the peloton had very little rest. The day’s breakaway formed after more than two hours of racing, following a fight of rare intensity. Unfortunately, the Groupama-FDJ was unable to get to the front, and Romain Grégoire (14th) as well as Quentin Pacher (16th) had to settle for positions outside the top 10, more than three minutes behind the winner. On Thursday, the Tour will enter the Pyrenees.
For many teams, a lot was at stake in Toulouse on Wednesday, as the second week of the Tour kicked off. The hilly course of the final fifty kilometres offered a real opportunity for the breakaway. As a consequence, almost all the teams at the start wanted to join it. It was therefore no great surprise that the fight proved to be much more contested than past weekend. However, this time, the battle seemed endless. While three men managed to open a gap right away, the peloton continued to battle for around sixty kilometres. Two riders were then able to break away, the pack seemed ready to ease off, but Clément Russo and Quentin Pacher relaunched the attacks. Another twenty-kilometre fight thus started, during which the Groupama-FDJ duo was caught by some counterattacks, but during which the favorites also took advantage of the opportunity to join the action. A completely fragmented peloton thus entered the final sixty-five kilometres, and a strong group including Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, Arnaud De Lie, Quinn Simmons, and Axel Laurance eventually managed to slip away, between the breakaway and the peloton.
“We had to be the right timing from the start”, Benoît Vaugrenard
This move didn’t include Benoît Vaugrenard’s men. “I think we struggled to relaunch the engine after the rest day, but we’re not going to make excuses; we started the race the wrong way today,” said the sports director. “Then, when the speed is that high and the race is that intense, you can rectify it once, which we managed to do, but it’s already one time too many. We had to be the right timing from the start, and we weren’t. It’s really disappointing because it was a stage that suited us, and we missed it.” Indeed, once the first two groups were formed, the peloton lost more than two minutes, and never seemed able to get back into the fight for victory. Despite a brief attempt of chasing, the squads that weren’t represented up front gave up with about thirty kilometres to go. Victory then went to Jonas Abrahamsen, in the front from the start and who never got caught by the chasers. The peloton finished three minutes later, and Romain Grégoire took fourth place in his group, meaning 14th on the stage, with Quentin Pacher being two places behind (16th) on home ground. Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet finished in the main pack and moved up a place overall (15th) before heading to the Pyrenees and the summit finish at Hautacam on Thursday. “It’s time for the mountains with Guillaume, who’s getting better and better,” Benoît concluded. “We’ll try to get back on track.”
