#tour-de-france

#tour-de-france

Mathieu van der Poel is set to return after recovering from pneumonia, showcasing his strength at the upcoming Profronde Etten-Leur in the Netherlands.

"I had many reasons to smile this morning. Back on the bike, and shared a bit of my ride with this beautiful humans Urška Zigart and Tadej Pogačar."

"I had it on my phone while we were here yesterday doing the team presentation, I was watching. I was super happy for Niamh, and it's a bit of inspiration for this week, too. I think it could be a good one," Fisher-Black said.

"The change of the stage route has had multiple side-effects, amongst them the delaying of the winner's final, full-length press conference, traditionally held the night before, until the late evening after stage 21's conclusion."

The riders begin today at the Tour's most westerly point in Brest at the start of what is officially classed as a flat stage. However, this stage includes three Cat. 4 climbs and one Cat. 3 climb, introducing technical challenges for sprinters and making a sprint finish less certain. The course favors all-rounders, evidenced by previous performances, particularly from strong competitors like Marianne Vos, who won the first stage and currently holds the yellow jersey.

In 1999, the French newspaper L'Équipe used the headline "On Another Planet" to insinuate Lance Armstrong was cheating, which foreshadowed his later doping scandal.

Stage 19 of the 2025 Tour de France has been shortened from 129.9 kilometres to just 95km and two classified climbs eliminated from the route, race organisers announced late on Thursday.

Tobias suffered some right-sided upper abdominal pain during the final climb today. He made it to the finish, where he was seen immediately by race doctors and given oxygen.