Tour de France 2025 | Primoz Roglic's Vision, Thymen Arensman's Sunshine in the Rain

There are aspirations so sweet and so exciting that they're worth pursuing even beyond the obvious impossibility of their achievement. Primoz Roglic had glimpsed the image of the Tour de France podium in Paris, knew it was just a mirage, and decided to pursue it anyway .

Primoz Roglic is thirty-six years old, but he has retained the childlike spirit of someone who believes that everything is attainable, of someone who has understood that life without dreams is a less interesting life.

And so on the Col du Pré he stood up on his pedals, picked up the pace, and began chasing his vision . He dreamed of the feat. Of course, he had taken into account that he might not win. More than victory, he was interested in closing the gap that separated him from third, that minute and forty-eight minutes that separated him from teammate Florian Lipowitz.

He'd expected things to go badly, but he shrugged. For someone who's won the Vuelta a España four times, won a Giro d'Italia , a Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and over eighty other races, a fifth place in the general classification wouldn't have changed his career, nor a podium finish, but it was at least worth the risk.

He was hoping for some distraction from Tadej Pogačar's teammates. They were alert, however, and above all, determined to give their captain a clear path up front, the chance to win another stage at this Tour de France.

And so Primoz Roglic's vision ended twenty-two kilometres from the finish, in the valley floor between the Cormet de Roselend and the start of the climb that leads to La Plange .

He'd tried to be crazy, but it backfired. The Slovenian immediately broke away from the yellow jersey group. He pedaled without any energy and with his morale low, finishing 12 minutes and 39 seconds after the winner.

At least he tried. At least he enlivened a shortened and patched-up stage. The Côte d'Héry-sur-Ugine and the Col des Saisies were removed to avoid inconveniencing the farmers who had to slaughter many cows due to an outbreak of lumpy skin disease.

The final climb, the one leading to La Plange, was a wait for the great duel, for Jonas Vingegaard's last attempt to drop Tadej Pogacar, to try to overturn a Tour de France that was unturnable.

A long and fruitless wait. Jonas Vingegaard never broke away. Tadej Pogacar did, twice, to try and win again . The Dane, however, stayed close behind him and continued to do so. Perhaps while pedaling, he realized how out of touch his words were, claiming the Tour was still open. It wasn't. He realized it today under the rain of the Alpine sky.

Drops that wet Thymen Arensman's face less than the tears he allowed himself at the end of the stage, sitting on the ground after being the first to cross the finish line. The Dutchman cried. Thymen Arensman cried because he managed to win the second stage of this Tour de France . Because it wasn't supposed to go this way today, or at least he didn't hope it could. But that's how it went, because Thymen Arensman was the only one to take inspiration from Primoz Roglic's vision. The only one to believe that a rainy day in the French Alps could turn into a sunny day.

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