Winning the Tour de France
The Tour de France, a difficult bike racing sport, took place in Paris, France, with 26-year-old athlete Tadej Pogačar from Slovenia and 33-year-old French biker Pauline Ferrand-Prévot in 1st place. It ended on July 27, 2025, for men, and August 3, 2025, for women.
The Tour de France is a significantly challenging race where cyclists ride on mountains and steep, twisty roads, like the Col de la Madeleine in the French Alps. The bikers approach a different part, “stage”, of the race every day, and each stage has a winner. The total duration is calculated by totaling each day’s time, then the least would be the winner. The winning person wears a yellow shirt to indicate that they are leading.
The riders are in teams, so they work together and help each other. Occasionally, a biker will go in front of their team to shield them from the wind. Sometimes, a rider goes as fast as they can to compete effectively and wear opposing bikers out. Normally, each team has a leader, whom the other teammates help to win. Examples include bringing water, setting the pace, and going ahead to block the wind.
The men’s Tour de France continued for more than three weeks, and it covered 2,052 miles (3,302 km) this year. Tadej Pogačar finished with a time of 76 hours and 32 seconds, which was four minutes and 24 seconds faster than Jonas Vingegaard, a Danish cyclist who got in second. This was Tadej Pogačar’s fourth time winning the Tour, and the fifth year in a row for Pogačar and Vingegaard to take the top two places.
On a few of the steepest ascents, Pogačar was so swift that Vingegaard couldn’t keep up. By winning four stages, Pogačar proved that he could bike skillfully in many distinct circumstances. As a result, he is tied with Chris Froome of the United Kingdom.
The women’s Tour de France, officially called the “Tour de France Femmes”, lasted nine days and covered 726 miles (1,169 km). It was won by Pauline Ferrand-Prévot with a time of 29 hours, 54 minutes, and 24 seconds. She is the first French person to win since the 1980s. Ferrand-Prévot came in three minutes and 42 seconds before Demi Vollering of the Netherlands, who won the 2023 Tour. Prévot won two out of the nine stages. Her amazing climb up the steep Col de la Madeleine mountain was how she succeeded. But she secured her win with a powerful upward ride in the final stage.
SOURCES:
https://newsforkids.net/articles/2025/08/06/pogacar-ferrand-prevot-win-tour-de-france/
https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/articles/cz09p11ge41o