2025 Tour de France Stage 12 Results & Recap
Stage 12 of the 2025 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Pogacar Powers to Victory on Hautacam, Reclaims Yellow
Tadej Pogacar delivered a resounding statement to the Visma Lease a Bike team on Stage 12 of the Tour de France, attacking early on the final climb to win solo on the storied slopes of Hautacam and reclaim the yellow jersey in commanding fashion.
The 180.6-kilometer mountain stage from Auch to Hautacam saw fireworks from the start, with a massive breakaway of 51 riders forming just 15 kilometers into the race. The large lead group included several strong climbers and general classification outsiders, such as Carlos RodrĂguez, Lenny Martinez, Ben O’Connor, Michael Storer, Thymen Arensman, Mattias Skjelmose, Aleksandr Vlasov, Einer Rubio, Pablo Castrillo, Harold Tejada, Mathieu van der Poel, Michael Woods, Tiesj Benoot, Tim Wellens, Emanuel Buchmann, AurĂ©lien Paret-Peintre, Bruno Armirail and Santiago Buitrago.
The breakaway stretched its lead to a maximum of two minutes, a gap that still held steady as the riders crested the first major climb of the day, the Col du Soulor. During that climb, GC hopeful Remco Evenepoel lost contact with the favorites, and yellow jersey Ben Healy also lost contact.
As the Soulor wore on, the breakaway thinned out. By the final two kilometers of the ascent, only Woods, Rubio, Skjelmose, Armirail, and Storer remained in front. Woods surged to take the mountain points, reaching the summit five seconds ahead of Skjelmose, with the rest of the group a further 10 seconds behind.
On the descent, Bruno Armirail pushed past Woods and took the lead solo. By the base of the Col des Bordères, he had built a gap of nearly one minute over the chasers, while Evenepoel rejoined the Pogacar–Vingegaard group after his earlier time loss.
As the riders approached the decisive final climb to Hautacam, only Armirail remained ahead of the peloton. He hit the base of the ascent with a lead of two minutes over the main contenders. But that cushion evaporated quickly.
With 12 kilometers remaining, Pogacar launched his move. The Slovenian immediately dropped Vingegaard and the rest of the GC group, eating into Armirail’s lead with every pedal stroke. Although Vingegaard tried to keep him within sight, Pogacar’s pace proved relentless. By the final kilometers, the gap to his nearest rival had grown to over a minute.
Pogacar crossed the finish line alone and visibly spent, securing his second stage win of the race and reclaiming the yellow jersey he had lost just two days earlier. His performance gave him a sizeable buffer heading into the final mountain stages and the time trial.
Jonas Vingegaard arrived at the summit more than two minutes down, with Evenepoel conceding additional time and slipping further out of contention.
Ben Healy, who had taken the yellow jersey with a surprise ride in the Massif Central, lost contact on the first climb and faded out of the top ranks. His brief tenure in yellow came to an end, though his aggressive riding has continued to earn attention.
With more high-mountain terrain and a pivotal mountain time trial still to come, Pogacar now sits firmly in control of the general classification by over two minutes.
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