Tour de France Tour de France 2025 Stage 21: Mantes-la-Ville – Paris (132.3k)

[Tricycle Rider]

A mannequin wearing the polka dots on the podium because Pog can't wear it because he's already wearing yellow - lol!

 

[Valv.Piti]

Yes I can see why a lot of people want it like you. Just my preference. I would rather have some easier days and better GC racing the next days. For me it doesn’t have to be less flat stages, but better planning. Now you had only 11 men within 1 hour in GC, for me it was better before.

I want the opposite, as much racing as possible spread through 3 weeks and most sprinter stages don't contribute in that regard. Not necessarily GC stages - break stages, versatile sprint stages etc. are very important as well to create a good race.

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

Just realized, Roglic lost more time to Pogacar in the 19th stage than Lipowitz during the entire Tour. I guess there'll be no discussion who the RBH leader is from now on

You don’t think there’s any place for context? I guess Roglic is half as good a GC rider as Oscar Onley because his deficit was twice as long in the Tour.

 

[Charlyghoul]

I’d rather see a bare minimum of sprint stages, just find them boring, can’t be bothered watching until the last 15k.
Miss the sprinters like Petacchi, Zabel, Freire, Mcewen, Cipo.
Seems to be a dearth of exciting sprinters these days

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

I normally skip the last stage to be honest. I’ll catch a replay of the sprint, which is exciting for maybe 5 minutes. Today was exciting from about 30km to go. I honestly don’t understand how anyone didn’t find that infinitely more ciclismo and exciting than the normal sprint finish. Normally, it’s effectively an off day for 75% of the peloton. Pogacar would normally do nothing. Instead, this was wide open. Great to see.

 

[Unchained]

Where was this Wout in the spring? I mean he could drop Pog here, I imagine he could've dropped him in Flanders.

Question.. Could be out of bounds.. Do you know if the cartoon drawings that are used on French Eurosport are available anywhere to view online? I enjoy them, unable to locate anything in French.. I am lucky to get a beer, bathroom, baguette!!
The drawings are typically excellent and fast!! They use something that just happened or was said by a rider!!

 

[scribers]

Summers officially over. Back to normal

 

[Charlyghoul]

Summers officially over. Back to normal

Don’t say it. Summer starts on the Angliru

 

[Unchained]

A mannequin wearing the polka dots on the podium because Pog can't wear it because he's already wearing yellow - lol!

He wore it for the award, but after yellow couldn't wear it..maybe as bottoms?

 

[RedheadDane]

A mannequin wearing the polka dots on the podium because Pog can't wear it because he's already wearing yellow - lol!

That's nothing compared to 2020 and 2021, where they had two mannequins; one in polka dots, and one in white.

 

[Rackham]

This was a nice moment too

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tPsVI0KD6I

https://twitter.com/x/status/1949535334942843339

View: https://x.com/NBCSCycling/status/1949535334942843339

It would have been an all time classic for the ages if she'd said No.

 

[jmdirt]

As always, I will miss my morning TdF coverage! I won't miss "The Feed.com" advertisements. Oh, yah, I will also be so much more productive at work!

 

[Didinho]

Jorgenson also irritating Pogi in his pictures.

 

[Rackham]

Agree, extended time gaps are something the devil made up.

Pure sprinters can DNF all they want though, who cares. They don't make the race in the slightest. In the end it just makes for a better race if they flat out just didn't line up in Lille as even the flat days would be interesting then. Who would control?

I'd like a basic rule of thumb in sprint stage design in that they at least attempt to place them in areas with real crosswind opportunities, i.e. along the coastline for example. Give us 4 sprint stages with real mid-stage carnage potential. There's plenty to work with in France in that regard.

Otherwise they're a total waste of time, made worse by the UCI points system rewarding points farming for smaller teams.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I'd like a basic rule of thumb in sprint stage design in that they at least attempt to place them in areas with real crosswind opportunities, i.e. along the coastline for example. Give us 4 sprint stages with real mid-stage carnage potential. There's plenty to work with in France in that regard.

Otherwise they're a total waste of time, made worse by the UCI points system rewarding points farming for smaller teams.

I think you want stages where riders and DS have a hard time telling whether it will be a break, a late attacker, a reduced bunch sprint, a larger bunch sprint or what will be going on. Kinda like today honestly. Doesnt take more than a few minor hills towards the end.

 

[ppanther92]

Where was this Wout in the spring? I mean he could drop Pog here, I imagine he could've dropped him in Flanders.

Doubtful because he could rest for 80% of the Tour and Pogi not, also the later probably is more punchy in spring.

But I agree with the general question - Where was this Wout in spring? For sure his best season showing.

 

[Rou]

Doubtful because he could rest for 80% of the Tour and Pogi not, also the later probably is more punchy in spring.

But I agree with the general question - Where was this Wout in spring? For sure his best season showing.

4th in Flanders
4th in Roubaix
2nd in Brabantse
4th in Amstel
His spring was quite good.

 

[Charlyghoul]

I'd like a basic rule of thumb in sprint stage design in that they at least attempt to place them in areas with real crosswind opportunities, i.e. along the coastline for example. Give us 4 sprint stages with real mid-stage carnage potential. There's plenty to work with in France in that regard.

Otherwise they're a total waste of time, made worse by the UCI points system rewarding points farming for smaller teams.

Not bad, sometimes they just feel like a rest day, apart from to the 3 or 4 riders who have a chance of actually winning them.
I sometimes think the tour would be better being shorter with every stage being a real race, which often they aren’t.

 

[pmcg76]

It doesn't really matter that some irrelevant conti teams go up the road, by in large pure sprint stages are just bad business and bad for cycling. Im all hard sprint stages though where they really need to work - you can argue that this years set of stages were a notch too hard for that, but thats about it.

I think 3 pure sprint stages should be absolute maximum. Why are sprinters so entitled and why do people act like 5 sprint stages are not enough like this year? Its more than enough. The only riders who are getting marginalized are time trial specialists, and sprinters are the rider types that have the most opportunities throughout the year.

I feel like you are invading my mind Valv. I have never understood why riders who sit in the bunch all day, just following along should be rewarded more than any other specific group of riders. Minimun effort, maximun reward. When people talk about the best Tours of all time, 1989 is frequently a contender, how many bunch sprints in 89? 2 in total. We do not need bunch sprints. 3 pure bunch sprints is bang-on, one each week of the Tour. The reality is that from the EPO era onwards, the teams got much better strength in depth and thus much better at controlling things meaning more bunch sprints. Like from 89-92, there was 10 bunch sprints in total, we almost had that many in a single Tour last year. The organisers never adjusted the parcours to combat the increased abilities of the teams. We need more variation on route design for varied types of riders. Today was fantastic and I loved it, but even I would be OK with Paris being a sprint stage if it meant we had 3 or less per Tour.

 

[ppanther92]

4th in Flanders
4th in Roubaix
2nd in Brabantse
4th in Amstel
His spring was quite good.

He never was able to follow the best, today he was. Not only that, he was the best and created a gap.

 

[Charlyghoul]

For the overall tour I’d like to see a lot more variation to be honest.
I like mountain time trials probably more than most. Time trials in general in fact.
Not a big fan of pure sprint stages.
I’d like to see the odd really long crazy mountain stage, and also shorter mountain stages where the riders are all out. They’re always good racing.
It seems safe to say today’s stage was generally favoured over the usual route? Why not do a big change on at least another couple of stages just for something different.

 

[bah]

I want the opposite, as much racing as possible spread through 3 weeks and most sprinter stages don't contribute in that regard. Not necessarily GC stages - break stages, versatile sprint stages etc. are very important as well to create a good race.

Would you have sprint stages and sprinters pushed out of the sport entirely? They've always been an integral part of the sport.

 

[dobrien]

This was a nice moment too

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tPsVI0KD6I

https://twitter.com/x/status/1949535334942843339

View: https://x.com/NBCSCycling/status/1949535334942843339

That's pretty awesome; just want to be reasonably sure she's going to say yes before you ask...

 

[Pantani_lives]

The best final stage since 1989! Fantastic win by Van Aert, who hits back after all the doubts, the crashes, the criticisms etc. I wasn't sure if his shape was good enough to win this stage, but it clearly was. That acceleration on the final climb was impressive. He's won ten stages now, and this was arguably the best one, because he beat Pogacar in a direct battle.

 

[pmcg76]

What an enjoyable stage. Wout was a very worthy winner today, but for me Pog was the real animator when he had no need to be even risking it. I get that people don't like his domination, but I dont understand how anyone could dislike him as a racer. I also think Jumbo actually got their tactics right today, Jorgensen attacking and forcing Pog to work. It's how it should be.....but you know, some teams don't always play it smart. I think Pog will skip the Vuelta and target the races from September onwards.