Tour de France 2025 Stage 16 PREVIEW – Can Tadej Pogacar Drop Jonas Vingegaard on Mont Ventoux?

Tour de France 2025 Route stage 16: Montpellier – Mont Ventoux

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Hello everyone and welcome to another video here on the cycling Dane extra channel if you’re listening on the cycling Dane podcast and the 16th stage of the tour to France. Following the rest day the tour will return to one of its most mythic and punishing arenas Mornu. The stage stretches 171.5 km from Milier to the 1910 m summit of the bold mountain offering a rare full ascent from Bitwa with a summit finish. The day promises not only a showdown between the GC contenders, but also a chance to etch their name into the long brutal history of Vontu. The day begins for the riders in Mileier, a bustling city near the Mediterranean Sea with the riders setting off under what’s likely to be a hot July sun. For over 150 km, the route snakes gently northeast, passing through rolling terrain and a low altitude towns. The roads are wide, mostly flat, and likely to expose the riders to some potential for crosswinds. Ideal terrain for a large breakaway to form and perhaps build a sizable gap leading into the mountains. There will be the intermediate sprint as well. And here John Milan really has to try and take this to hold off the ever growing threat of Tio Bugattacha taking that jersey. Sprinters and rulers may see this as one last chance before the mountains fully take over, but their ambition will hit a wall before kilometer 133. And this is where the riders will see an everinccreasing elevation from 55 m above sea level all the way up to that 1,910 in total. So quite a sizable increase. Just after the town of Bido, a beautiful little town at the foot of Monu, the road kicks up and the real battle begins. From here to the summit, the profile becomes iconic, terrifying, and unforgettable. The Munu ascent via the most storied approach. The climb from Bido measures 15.7 km in length at an average of 8.8%, but that does discount some of the kilometers as well. There is still a lot of increase that isn’t included in that 15%. The first few hundred meters are deceptively calm, but as the riders pass through the Saint Ista, the road tills skywards with purpose. The opening ramp sits stubbornly at 9 to 10% and the next 6 km through the forest are among the most punishing in the entire tour. The gradient never drops below 9% and the claustrophobic canopy offers no relief from the rising heat. Eventually, the climb reaches the chalet leard at 1,423 m altitude. It’s here that the landscape changes from green to an alien windswept expanse of white rock. For the final 6 km, the riders are utterly exposed. No trees, no shelter, only the chalky slopes of the province and the furnace-like sun. The upper sections known for its spectral lunar appearance is just as steep as the forest below with prolonged ramps above 8 m and a cruel final 1.7 km that rises at 9.4% to the summit at 1,910 m above elevation. If wind picks up as well, particularly at the colder tempe near the top, it could turn the climb from hard to hellish. Mw is not new to the to France mythology. In fact, it has long held a place in the race’s most dramatic and defining moments. Most infamously, it was the site of the tragic fate of one British rider in 1967 when Tom Simpson collapsed and died from a combination of heat, dehydration, and amphetamines. Just 2 km from the summit, his final words, “Put me back on my bike,” still echoes in cycling’s collective consciousness. And there is a fitting memorial near the top for the great British rider. In more recent years, Bond 2 has delivered a mix of fast fury and pure spectacle. In 2010, the climb featured on the penultimate day of the tour, but despite expectations, it had little impact on the GC. That year, the stage finished with a breakaway win. It was Gadre who took it in front of Tony Martin with the pack behind coming out the mountain together. Alberto Conidor, Bradley Wiggins, and Lance Armstrong. Lance Armstrong has other history with this climb as well as he narrowly lost out to Markham Pantani on this climb and apparently he let him win it. Who knows if that is true. In 2016 when the stage came from Melier was supposed to finish at the summit much like this year, but on Bastia day gale force wind made the top of the Montu impossible. The finish was hastily moved down to Shatler Rayard and what followed became one of the most bizarre moments in tour of France history with just a few kilometers to go. Chris Froom riding in yellow crashed together with some other riders into a motorbike alongside Richieport and Balma. His bike was destroyed. His team car was nowhere in sight. So Froom with the adrenaline coursing through his veins and time ticking began doing what any normal person would have thought running up the Muntu. The image of a tour to France leader sprinting up the mountain in cleats became instantly iconic and comical at the same time. He eventually borrowed a neutral service bike undersized and salvaged his lead. Meanwhile, Thomas again won the stage from the breakaway, but the chaos meant that the GC was also neutralized. though Simon Yates wasn’t taking the yellow jersey. Then came 2021 when the Tour to France did the unthinkable. Not just one time up the Tour to France, but two times up the to France. We had seen this before with the Alawares a few years before, but this one the Mmon 2 twice was going to be a spectacle. The finish didn’t come at the summit, but in Malosen after a white knuckle descent that year. It was what Venard who did the unthinkable seemingly not a pure climber but he stunned the cycling world with a solo victory. He left by and the GC riders climbers and even his own teammate conquering the mountain on both climbs. It was also on that day that Yonas Bingort managed to drop Tide of Gacha for the first time and Pagata even admitted afterwards that he actually was a bit pressured here and suddenly the Slovenian wasn’t invincible. As of now, the fastest recorded time of the Monu via deed belongs to Iban Mayo, who flew up the mountain in 2004 during the criterium duden on a time trial stage in a blistering time of 55 minutes and 51 seconds, averaging 23.1 km an hour. That remains the gold standard. In comparison, Lance Armstrong before his disqualification posted a time of 58 minutes during the 2000 tour, while Marco Pantani recorded a time of 58 minutes and 34 seconds in 1994. Even modern stars like Bria and Vingal hovered around 57 to 9 59 minutes during the double ascent in 2021. Although these efforts came with different race dynamics and the finish wasn’t at the summit. Will 2025 bring a record on Monu? We’ve definitely seen Tarbagatcha hoovering up records on Straa and coming very close to beating the Horticon one they see already. So maybe he can beat Iban Mayo here. That will depend on the pace of the GC battle of course and whether the riders approach the climb in survival mode or full attack strategy with bonus seconds available of 10 six and four the for the first three riders and the summit looming as the final word on a long hot day. Someone will have to take risk. Pagatcha may look to stamp his authority once again with another monstrous performance especially after his dominant time trial on stage 13. But his rivals obviously you want to spin go and visa bike would do something as well. But we might as well hear what Yensf has to say about the mythical climb as well. What do you think of Mon 2 then? Because the last time we had Mmonu was the first battle between Yonas Bingo and Tarvagacha. Really? They did it twice there. Watt Manat took the win. But here it’s nothing and then just up on two. Um yeah, that is um basically the first twoirds of the stage is plain transport from A to B. But then again it starts to be um nervous and stressful for the placing to go into the climb. Mont is steep at the bottom in a forest. It’s stinky hot because it’s covered in a forest. By the time the riders get there, the sun will be burning vertically back on their backs of the riders. Not a little breeze of wind in that forest. It is really, it’s stinking hot and terrible. So, it’s important to be well placed that you can negotiate your effort a little bit. If you feel good, you can attack. If you don’t feel good, you can slowly drift back a little bit and hope you survive until you actually find your legs again. So, placing a positioning is so important there. And then the second half is it looks like you’re on the moon, you know, it’s just rocks you above the tree line exposed to the wind. Everybody remembers when we had to cancel the stage in the to France because it was so much wind up there that they had to cancel the stage and lower the finish line by like 10 15 km. There’s images of people standing holding their bike on the handlebars and the bike is basically horizontal flying in the wind. That is how much wind there can be up there. The view up there is priceless because it is not in the Alps. It’s on the outside. So you can see the Alps on one side and you can I swear you can almost see half of France on the other side. On a clear day you can watch look up to 80 kilometers if the air is clear. There’s no clouds. It is really worth going up there. But my friends, there’s a reasons reason why it’s called Leong the Provence, the giant of the Provence, because it’s hard. It is a long long ass climb. It’s what is it 18 kilometers or 21 from the one side and 18 and a half from the other side. It is a hard piece of work to get up there. There’s a lot of big stages as well in that final third week. And yeah, you talk about the Jurro very heavy at the back, but which stages are you kind of looking out for? We got La Planch in there as well. Not Llanch the Belty, but La Pl. Yeah, I think it’s that’s how you say it. And well, back to the monster too quickly. I believe it will be a GCD, the yellow jersey. Whoever it is will win there. It’s prestigious in yellow winning on one two. The stage is not too long. So I believe really it is a day for the GC for the GC leader. They they want to control it and they want to keep it together. The stage is 170 km 172 km long and yeah I believe the yellow jersey wants to win there. And let’s also hear what Patrick has to say about it. The the third week of the to France the final week starts with stage 16 Melier to Monu 172 km long. It’s pretty much flat all day. Mon 2 19.5ks 7.9%. That is the one where I will be at the roadside. I can’t wait. Yeah, it’s it’s flat and it’ll be an interesting one. Whether we’re going to have a breakaway win it a bit like Kikovski winning the Grand Colombia two years ago where you know break gets the road and takes the win or whether the GC teams will control it and try and you know take the win. Obviously, the last time we saw this was us was in 2021, I think it was when Yonas put Tally under pressure. We took it into actually on that day and Wanar took the victory which was blew everybody lines pretty much. Monu doesn’t play favorites. It exposes weaknesses, crushes dreams, and occasionally creates heroes. Stage 16 of the 2025 Total of France won’t just be a mountain stage. It will be a crucible. one of the last great tests before Paris and as history has shown again and again moment 2 does not forgive. I think as I said Pagacha is probably going to try and get an iconic photo. We’ve seen Chris Froom win here in the past in his 2013 win. He was very adamant to try and get the win here. And I think Tadogcha with the yellow jersey will definitely also try and stamp his authority all over this race and really show who’s the best climber and add yet another stage victory to his growing list of victories having a lot of the iconic mountains on his Palm Marz already. So who would not want to win up Monu if you could do so? There are also mountains jersey points up for grabs at the top. So if Lenny Martinez could do it, that would be great. But I don’t think the breakaway are going to be given the opportunity, especially after rest days. So this is going to be a GC win for sure. And I think it’s going to be typing will hope to see the similar cracks like in 2021, but I just don’t think it’s realistic. We’ll also see the lower ends of the top 10 and the middle top 10, which has a great fight right now. Maybe we can see someone getting shook out by this mountain. So a lot of things can happen. It’s a great day. It’s a great return of a epic climb, so we’ll hope for fireworks and it should be an epic day. Anyways, with that, that’s basically it for this video. Make sure to hit the like button, subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already, and why not check out this video here where we go a bit more in depth of who Tom Simpson was or this video here where I tried to beat Taga Timeu on an ebike. But with that, thank you for watching and I will see you in the next one.