By Julien Pretot HAUTACAM, France (Reuters) -Tadej Pogacar unleashed a vintage assault on the unforgiving slopes of Hautacam, crushing the Tour de France 12th stage and leaving chief rival Jonas Vingegaard gasping for air and clinging to fading hopes on a brutal,

Tadej Pogacar regains the overall lead of the Tour de France after storming up the Hautacam climb to win stage 12 by over two minutes from Jonas Vingegaard.

Tadej Pogacar reflects on winning the first mountain stage of the 2025 Tour de France, explaining how he was able to rebound from his Stage 11 crash and pick up his 20th Tour de France stage victory.

There was no stopping Tadej Pogacar during the twelfth stage of the Tour de France. The Slovenian rider from UAE Emirates-XRG immediately attacked at the foot of the Hautacam and saw that no one could follow.

Two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard on today's final: "It's just, in general, a very hard climb. It's 13.5km so it's a very long climb. It will take between 30 and 40 minutes to climb it so, in general, I think today will be a hard day."

French president Emmanuel Macron was on hand at the mountaintop finish to congratulate the Slovenian Team UAE rider. Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel dug deep after being dropped on the first of three climbs to claw back level, before eventually losing 3min 35sec on the day's 180.6km ride from Auch, finishing seventh.

Tadej Pogacar has dealt a severe blow in the first stage in the Pyrenees. The world champion immediately showed who the best climber is and won the twelfth stage. The Slovenian gained more than two minutes on his closest rival,

Tadej Pogacar was allowed to recover from a late crash on stage 11 of the Tour de France as Jonas Abrahamsen held on for his first Tour win.As Mathieu van der Poel chased down Abrahamsen and Mauro Schmid during the final 5km in Toulouse,