In the late-seventeenth century, in an attempt to reduce the city’s spiralling crime rate, Louis XIV’s Lieutenant General of Police Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie installed lanterns on most main streets in Paris, while residents were asked to light their windows with oil lamps and candles.
Over the next century, the luminous evenings of France’s capital, as well as its status as one of the centres of the Age of Enlightenment, would earn it the nickname La Ville Lumière, the City of Light.
Over three centuries later, Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar, the current king of France, at least in bike racing terms, lit up a dark, gloomy, rainy evening in Paris with their own dazzling display of attacking, daring riding during the Tour de France’s final stage on Sunday.
Inspired by the success of last year’s Olympic road race, the Tour organisers tweaked the usual Paris procession for their race’s final stage, including for the first time ever three ascents of the Butte Montmartre, before the classic finish on the Champs-Élysées.
And it paid off spectacularly, the tight, cobbled climb splitting the race to bits (helped by the decision to neutralise GC times in the filthy conditions with 50km to go), and culminating in a titanic tussle between Pogačar and Van Aert on the final lap, which the Belgian won, forcing his way clear for his only victory of this year’s Tour.
And while he may not have won in yellow on the Champs, it’s no surprise that Tadej Pogačar was in the thick of the action.
The world champion – who sealed his fourth Tour de France title when he cruised across the line, arm raised, in fourth, on Sunday – has spent the past few years ripping up the cycling rulebook, rewriting the long-established diktats on how grand tour contenders approach the season, what races they can win, and even how they race.
But, despite Pogačar’s attacking pedigree and – with the exception of his tired, jaded desire to get the Tour over and done with in recent days – natural joie de vivre, the yellow jersey’s cannibalistic instincts have provoked a debate on social media in recent days: has he made the Tour a bit of a bore?
Those who believe Pogačar has turned cycling’s biggest race into a snoozefest point to the lack of anything that could be considered a real GC battle at this year’s Tour, as well as the ever-increasing gulf between the world champion and the rest.
Jonas Vingegaard, his biggest rival, the man who left the Slovenian for “dead” two years ago, finished 4.24 down on Pogačar at the 2025 Tour. Third-place Florian Lipowitz was 11 minutes off the pace, Jordan Jegat, in tenth, over half an hour down.
Just for comparison, if you’d finished, like Lipowitz, 11 minutes behind yellow at the last pre-Pog Tour in 2019, you’d have been outside the top 10, not on the podium.
However, others argue that Pogačar’s imperial era, while not making for the most tense GC fights, has coincided with the most exciting, attacking racing we’ve witnessed for decades, with the UAE man at the centre of that long-range, all-out, do-or-die revolution.
So, as you can see, it’s a tricky one. Was the 2025 Tour de France boring? We asked around the road.cc office to gauge the opinions of some people who should know what they’re talking about…
Emily Tillett, tech writer
Was the Tour de France boring? I don’t think so! While the fight for yellow didn’t have the nail-biting tension I was hoping for, there was still plenty to get excited about. The showdown between Vingegaard and Pogačar was effectively decided after the 33km time trial, where Vingegaard had an off day.
What made this year so exciting was the emergence of fresh talent. British rider Oscar Onley showed he’s a genuine future GC contender, showing consistency against the best, and Florian Lipowitz also impressed. Ben Healy’s aggressive racing was another highlight, animating stages.
Add in Ben O’Connor’s stage win there’s been a Tour with variety even if the yellow jersey felt settled early. For me, the excitement wasn’t in the overall win but in the battles for stages and the standout individual performances made it far from boring.
Liam Cahill, chief YouTuber
For me, the 2025 Tour de France has bubbled under the surface and will likely prove, once again, to be dullest of the three Grand Tour GC races.
Seldom are we treated to the GC drama of 2020’s final day mountain TT or the ding-dong battle you so frequently see in the Giro and Vuelta.
Look behind the yellow curtain, however, and there has been plenty to love. Oscar Onley has been the surprise of the race for yellow. The young Scot was knocking on the door of the podium, and just missed our. Roglic missed the chance to follow O’Connor because the Slovenian was, checks notes, taking a piss. Remco showed true class as he suffered towards an early bath.
While UAE have tried to strangle the race, breakaways have also had their day. I loved Abramsen’s win, but nothing compares to the pure bike racing craft of Ben Healy on stage six. One perfectly timed attack got the aero Irishman out of sight and out of mind, proving that you don’t need alien watts to win (though it does help).
We have arguably been robbed of a proper Green Jersey battle thanks to Philipsen’s huge crash and ASO’s silly points system, but Lidl Trek have displayed tactical nous to give their man Milan a shot at green.
I’ve also been less than impressed by the (lack of) fight for the Polka Dot Jersey. I wanted a swashbuckling Frenchman. Lenny Martinez and his sticky bottles ain’t it.
So yes, this year’s Tour de France GC race has produced the expected outcome. But to call it boring would suggest you only watched two of the 198 riders.
Ryan Mallon, senior news writer
I can see both sides of the debate, if I’m honest.
The GC race was, let’s face it, a damp squib. After a week-and-a-half of phoney war, which had many of us hoping Jonas Vingegaard’s time trial blip was all a ruse to give the world champion a false sense of security, Pogačar simply blew the Dane away in the Pyrenees.
And when I say the Pyrenees, I mean the first two stages, on Hautacam and the time trial to Peyragudes. Because even as early as Superbagnères, phase two of the Pogačar yellow jersey procession had already commenced. From then on, he rode defensively and very un-Pog-like (which may have contributed to his jaded demeanour by the end of the Tour).
In fact, Pogačar and UAE’s tactics at this Tour were basically straight from the Chris Froome and Team Sky playbook: hit them hard at the start and then kill the race (the worst way to win a grand tour, if you ask me).
So, it’s hard to get excited about a GC battle that didn’t really exist.
On the other hand, the basic style of racing on offer at the moment is worlds away from the Sky years. Where the 2010s was defined by conservatism and late, calculated attacks, the modern Tour is littered with long-range, speculative attacks, and flat-out, relentless racing from the gun.
For example, on the first Alpine stage, even though they knew it was a forlorn hope, Visma still blew the race to shreds on the Madeleine. Attacking, and attacking from distance, is the new norm. Even your routine rolling transition stage consists of all-out warfare these days, the break-catch-sprint patterns of previous Tours thrown out the window.
Which essentially means we’re now being treated to 21 one-day classics at the Tour de France. And these mini-classics served up some epics this year. We had Van der Poel’s marauding exploits during the first week, the Ben Healy show in Vire Normandie and Le Mont-Dore, the chaos in Toulouse, the thriller on Mont Ventoux, and, when it sparked into life in the Alps, the Lipowitz-Onley podium battle.
But do 21 great days of racing equate to a great grand tour if the battle for the yellow jersey was a no-show? I’m still not sure, ask me this time next year.
Jack Sexty, editor
Even though Tadej Pogačar won the 2024 race by a very healthy margin, it felt to me like there was an even greater inevitability about this year’s Tour de France general classification.
Part of me does enjoy watching an athlete at the absolute peak of their powers, destroying the field with record after record tumbling; but with no one even close to finding an answer, even Pogačar’s great rival Jonas Vingegaard, stages that would have been legendary and yellow jersey-deciding in previous years were a less entertaining watch in my opinion.
I thought the stage 13 mountain time trial was the starkest example of this, with Vingegaard saying in his post-race interview that it was his “best effort ever”, but still finishing a whole 36 seconds behind Pogacar, who looked relatively fresh at the end. When a two-time Tour de France winner – who himself is a level above the rest – gets defeated this easily, it’s difficult to even justify describing Pogačar vs Vingegaard as a rivalry right now.
With no Cav gunning for the line on sprint stages and Geraint Thomas riding his final Tour, I was even more pessimistic about having any British success to cheer about from the outset of the race; so for me, the emergence of young Oscar Onley as a genuine GC podium chaser was one of the big highlights.
As was the sight of Ben Healy in yellow, a proud moment for Irish cycling fans, and those of us in the Black Country trying to claim the Wordsley-born lad as our own.
Even if the GC was a foregone conclusion on the top spot of the podium, the rise and rise of Onley, and moments like Cannondale rushing a custom-painted bike across Europe for their surprise man in yellow provided more than enough spontaneous entertainment to keep me hooked.
There are many races within the race when it comes to Grand Tour cycling after all, perhaps now more than ever if Pogačar is going to dominate the GC for the foreseeable.
What do you think? Was the 2025 Tour a snoozefest? Or are those who think it’s boring too fixated on the yellow jersey? And have we all been spoiled in recent years, forgetting what it was like during the Sky era? Let us know in the comments…
23 thoughts on “Was the 2025 Tour de France boring?”
I enjoyed the tussle for the
I enjoyed the tussle for the 3 – 10 places and also good to see the breakaways win. A long transition stage would be good but many would find it boring.
Ryan Mallon wrote:
No.
This was a boring Tour de
This was a boring Tour de France. If you don’t like cycling.
Yeah. A strange question to
Yeah. A strange question to ask after three weeks of fascinating racing on so many levels.
Absolutely not. While the
Absolutely not. While the yellow jersey played out as expected, it wasn’t straightforward. I suspect Vinegaard was in the form of his life, but so was Pogacar, who had to dig deep, resulting in some scintillating performances. There were some terrific breakaway wins by various riders. The time trials were exciting to watch (a power TT and a mountain TT).
Including the Montmartre climb in the Paris stage made it a brilliant watch.
The scenery as ever was spectacular.
One thing I would like to see in the future is the reintroduction of a team time trial – a great spectacle.
Farewell itv 4 and thanks.
Yes. Since the days of VHS I
Yes. Since the days of VHS I’ve record the TDF highlights shows so I can watch them again in the depths of winter. After the end of this year my better half said “are you keeping these”, to which I replied “It was a bit boring wasn’t it.”
Sure, there were some brave efforts and forlorn hopes launched, and some suceeded, but overall it lacked the grip & drama and history will not be writting tales of the epic of 25.
I was never bored. If you
I was never bored. If you judge a tour by the gap between first and second, it is like just looking at a football league table and concluding that because one team is well ahead the season has been boring. It is the racing that matters to me, and it has been great this year with superhuman efforts, breakaway wins, team tactics, everything you could hope for.
On the Pogacar vs Vingegaard battle, although Jonas was clearly better than everyone apart from Tadej, I wonder if he is really back to his best even now after the horrendous injuries from the Basque crash last year, plus the injuries from Paris Nice this year.
If you take a very narrow
If you take a very narrow perspective of the tour, only looking at the ‘battles’ for the jerseys, then yes you could argue it was ‘boring’. But if you actually take each stage individually then absolutely not!
The actual fight for yellow was always likely to be between two riders, so we had to hope that they were both on top form. Tadej clearly was, and Jonas was in very good form considering his recent injuries, but alas he just wasn’t quite up there, despite still being far better than everyone else.
The green jersey contest was ultimately very disappointing. Credit to Milan for being ready to compete for it, but due to withdrawals and/or lack of performance from his potential rivals, the competition became almost insignificant. The only real jeopardy was for a while during week two where it seemed that Pogi might even take all three jerseys!
Polka Dot was also a bit of a non-event to be honest, and once again found a shared home with the yellow jersey winner.
France was looking magnificent in the coverage, and the ITV highlight shows of the race were superb, and will be very much missed in future. The individual stages were mostly very exciting with plenty of action each day with different riders and teams trying to make gains. Based on that alone it was, for me, an entertaining tour.
It was boring like watching
It was boring like watching Brian Lara bat was boring or Tiger Woods winning the Masters or Federer winning Wimbledon or Usain Bolt winning the Olympic 100m final…watching the (possibly) greatest of all time not only rip up the field but also the rulebook, showing an elan very rare in any rider (in Froome’s four Tours he won just four non-TT stages and in his last win no stages of any sort, Indurian won five Tours without ever winning a road stage (his only road stage was in a year he didn’t win)). Outwith Pogacar, Ben Healey’s incredible escape into yellow, Oscar Onley’s superb showing, MVDP winning a stage for yellow, the wins by O’Connor, Paret-Peintre, Groves, Yates, Van Aert…each one superb and highly memorable in their own special ways. As MDF sagely notes below, it was a boring race only if you don’t like cycle racing.
But would it be interesting
But would it be interesting to watch Barcelona with Lionel Messi play against Dagenham & Redbridge, when it’s already 5-0 after 15 minutes? It’s not much of a contest and there’s no suspense.
In the case of cycling it probably comes down to whether you personally and subjectively like Pogacar and want him to win race after race and Tour after Tour.
I don’t think Dagenham and
I don’t think Dagenham and Redbridge have a fair proportion of the world’s best players, nor have they beaten Barcelona on two of the six previous occasions they’ve met or come runner-up to them in the World Club Championship four times. So not, perhaps, the best comparison.
Events this year conspired to make it less exciting than it might have been, specifically Vinegaard’s shockingly below par performance in the first time trial and Remco having to withdraw. It could’ve been a lot more interesting, but to my mind it was still brilliant watching for all the reasons stated above.
having watched Barcelona at
having watched Barcelona at Camp Nou dismantle a La Liga side 7-0, Messi scored a hattrick. and seen Pep’s Man City wallop my local side for 6.
theres still a beauty and pleasure in watching the worlds best players at the top of their game, in their prime, execute their skills & abilities to their upmost, even if the result is a foregone conclusion, theyre still fantastic to watch if youre a fan of sport.
Some may be more exciting
Some may be more exciting than others, but the TdF is never dull. I was in France for the first 2 weeks of the Tour (cycling); didn’t spectate this year but passed through some stage cities/towns and the whole thing is infectious. Hardest watch was ITV’s coverage signing off for the last time.
I kinda switched off to the
I kinda switched off to the Yellow jersey (only to be woken up by TNT’ end of Broadcast signal at the end of every ad break, and there was a lot of them!), but elsewhere (3/4th/ White) especially kept me on the edge of my seat and there was some notable stages MVDP, Healey, Van Aert). The green jersey was a bit of a snoozefest but that was probably because of Philipsen’s early accident.
According to Betteridge’s law
According to Betteridge’s law of headlines, the answer must, of course, be “No.”
That said, this year’s Tour de France unfolded much like a great TV series. You know the hero is likely to win in the end (or… maybe not?), and that there’ll be another season featuring the same protagonist. This overarching narrative arc adds to the suspense—as long as each individual episode also tells its own exciting story. And that was exactly the case here—almost every stage delivered. Not just a feature film (monument), but a high-budget series with a brilliant script.
What more could you want?
(Well… maybe free-to-air coverage.)
Some great racing as most
Some great racing as most years and Ben Healey made the Tour for me. It’ll be more interresting when they figure out how/why Pogacar is such a unique and unreal athlete who is so far ahead in physical ability or capacity and stays in peak form all season.
james-o wrote:
I believe others have shared this elsewhere on this site: the head of rider monitoring at UAE recently revealed that his metabolism has a huge amount to do with it. Apparently his lactate-clearance capacity is absolutely freakish, after a hard effort his lactate levels return to normal in two or three minutes where other riders might need ten times that. This is why he’s so succesful in getting away after multiple attacks, he puts everyone, including himself, into lactate overload and then attacks again a few minutes later when he’s back to normal but everyone else is still suffering. It’s also why he recovers so quickly between stages. Basically it’s something you can’t coach, diet or train for, you were born with it or you weren’t.
Interesting, are there other
Interesting, are there other athletes in other sports that have this advantage? How are we confident that ability comes naturally (since doping is always ahead of testing)? When things like that come from a team coach I’d be wary of taking it at face value.
Sorry, yes I am a bit cynical. I genuinely like the guy, he always comes across well in interviews and I enjoy watching him and Vingegard race in the way they do inc the sportsmanship between them. But everything I read about him asks me to belive that he’s so far out there physically beyond the rest, or training and nutrition has really changed that much and it’s all a bit “Armstrong has a better power to weight after illness” or “marginal gains” .. And to be clear I’m blaming pro cycling’s history for my cynicism not Pog himself. If he’s clean then he is truly remarkable. And apologies for being one of those folks who derails TdF threads with doping suspicions, but again – blame pro cycling history.
To balace that up I should add that watching Oscar Onley ride the way he did was inspiring. There are some riders who put in incredible performances and you have absolutely no doubts about. You can see thier motivation and what it means to them in the way they ride.
Rendel Harris wrote:
Read up on ‘Zone 2’ training, or riding up to, but not beyond LT1. It’s all about improving your Lactate Shuttle ability. Anyone can do this. I’m lead to believe for normal people about 90min three times a week is optimal to ‘improve’.
Watching your numbers you end up with more and more power over time, keeping the HR the same all the time.
I can ride at a steady, but ‘good’ pace up a hill and my pals just fade away over time, before the summit 🙂
Tadej is a beast, he does 8 hour sessions in the off season. I couldn’t find the motivation to do this. He does. He reaps the rewards.
Yes, definitely Pogi made the
Yes, definitely Pogi made the yellow jersey battle boring. And this was the case with more or less all the jersey competitions. But there were individual stages and stage wins, such as the last one, that gave exciting moments. So as a Grand Tour – meh. As a series of individual races – pretty, pretty, pretty good.
Boring? Anything but.
Boring? Anything but.
Tadej was outstanding. He never stopped challenging for stage wins and his abilities are astonishing. OK Jonas, Remco et al suffered variously which gave Tadej a fairly easy Yellow but he deserved it. Come on his attacks on Hautacam and his CLMI up to Peyregeuds were incredible. Let’s give the man credit for his ability and his sportsmanship, he’s never forgotten to give respect to the other riders challenging him, supporting him or the fans.
Let us also not forget the White jersey battle between the up and coming riders, the Sprinters, the Climbers, the breakaways holding on to the line. There’s more the the TdF than just the GC race.
And this from a mountain biker who watched the Red Bull Hardline over the weekend
The battle for yellow was a
The battle for yellow was a bore as no one could challenge TP and what was obvious from very early on.
I’m utterly convinced he gifted stages in The Alps just so he didn’t look like he was taking the piss.
Individual stages were excellent to watch however.
Straight up, I loved almost
Straight up, I loved almost the whole thing this year.. previous years have always had multiple booring stages and I rarely bother with anything other than the last ten mins of stage 21, but this year it just felt more alive and racy.
Pog being dominant is not boring, we have watched history being made.
The Tour has always been far ‘more interesting’ around the side plots than the main plot. Read, no one really cares who wins it overall… everyone cares about the daily battles and risks taken by teams, the drama and accidents, the determination and grit, the bravery and chances taken. We all went into this ‘knowing’ Pog or Jonas, probably Pog would win it. But it’s been a hell of a three weeks entertainment.
Vive le tour!