Tour de France 2025 - stage 19: victory in a breakaway or battle between the favourites?
All you need to know before stage 19 between Albertville and La Plagne
With two days to go to the finish in Paris, the 19th stage of the Tour de France 2025 offers us one last great show with a mountainous route. Short but likely to be turbulent, the day between Albertville and La Plagne features a series of four climbs, two of them out of category, totalling just 95 kilometres.
The Col des Saisies, which was initially scheduled, has been withdrawn from the route. This in no way reduces the difficulty of this stage, which should not bore the Tour's spectators. There is likely to be plenty of action, with attacks from the best climbers in the peloton.
Lenny Martinez, who is no longer the leader of the polka-dot jersey classification after losing 8 points for a "stuck bottle", could go all out on this stage, with two things at stake: stage victory and the polka-dot jersey.
Jonas Vingegaard, just ahead of Martinez and 16 points behind Pogacar, yellow jersey but also leader in this classification of the polka dot jersey, could also make this a target, as he is 4"26 behind the Slovenian in the overall classification.
We could therefore see these two attacking riders on this short stage, which could also be ideal terrain for attacking climbers such as Santiago Buitrago, Michael Storer, Tobias Johannessen, Félix Gall or Ben Healy, all looking for a big win, like Ben O'Connor's fine solo victory yesterday.
Stage 19 of the Tour de France 2025: escape or victory for Pogacar?
But the uncertainty remains: will this stage be won by a breakaway or will the favourites battle it out for victory? Everything will depend on the attitude of the leaders.
We never really know what Tadej Pogacar wants, as he is firmly entrenched in yellow with a lead of over 4 minutes. The Slovenian showed yesterday that he is still in top form, but no longer needs to take risks.
However, this stage is likely to be complicated for the UAE to control, with two difficult climbs. Unless a UAE rider announces that he wants to control the breakaway, we could see a big one form with strong riders, as on stage 18 of this Tour de France 2025.
Accustomed to simply following Vingegaard closely, Pogi could well do the same today, while another interesting duel awaits us according to our stage 19 prediction.
One thing's for sure: this short, high-altitude stage is likely to be a battle on all sides and we think victory could be decided between the breakaway riders, as well as a tactical duel between the overall leaders.
