Boulogne-Sur-Mer: In a nail-biting sprint to the line, Mathieu van der Poel edged out Tadej Pogačar to claim victory in a sprint finish of the 2025 Tour de France, and claim the leader’s yellow jersey.

The Dutch cyclist, who also won the same in 2021, managed to hold off the Slovenian after surging to the front with 500 meters to go. This stage is the longest in this year’s Tour, spanning a rolling 209.1km from Lauwin-Planque to Boulogne-sur-Mer.

Two-time champion Jonas Vingegaard finished third behind his rival Pogacar, while Britain’s Oscar Onley secured sixth place.

“It was super difficult, the final [part], harder than I thought,” Van der Poel said. “I was really motivated because it’s been four years since I won my first stage on the Tour de France so it was about time I won a second one. Of course people put me as a favourite but if you see the riders that were in front on the climbs, I think I did a really good job to be there. It’s a dream for a team, these first two days, and everything that comes now is just a bonus.”

The early part of the stage was relatively calm, but the race came alive in the final 40km, where a series of attacks split the peloton to leave a reduced group of riders at the front of the race.

Van der Poel, who wore the yellow jersey for six days in 2021, once again proved his exceptional skills on classics-style terrain in a thrilling finale.