Tour de France 2025: in the car behind Mattéo Vercher, the unfortunate last-place finisher

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As Tadej Pogacar further crushed the Tour by winning the hill time trial in Peyragudes in the Pyrenees, this Friday, July 18, we followed the young TotalEnergies climber closely, who has been struggling since the start of the race.

Frenchman Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies), currently last in the Tour de France, this Friday, July 18, during the 13th stage between Loudenvielle and Peyragudes. (Marco Bertorello/AFP)

This Friday, July 18, in the Pyrenean heat, near Lake Génos, we slipped into a TotalEnergies team car, during a hill time trial. Having seen Pogacar triumph almost every day , we wanted to spend a little time behind a human whose performances we understand. Who better than Mattéo Vercher, currently last in the standings? Between Loudenvielle and Peyragudes, in Haute-Garonne, a stone's throw from Spain, the Italians nicely call today's stage a cronoscalata . They have a gift for poetically naming horrors: this day, 10.9 km including 8 of climbing at 7.9%, and the last 500 meters towards a traumatically steep altiport.

During the first stage , Mattéo Vercher fell in front of the world. A stupid accident during an intermediate sprint in the North.

Tour de France 2025 Tadej Pogacar