Kévin Vauquelin 6th in Hautacam and 5th overall

Race reportJul 17, 2025

World Team TeamTour de France

The first stage of the Tour de France in the Pyrenees saw Kévin Vauquelin finish 6th in Hautacam. He is now 5th in the provisional overall classification. Cristián Rodriguez and Raúl Garcia-Pierna finished 10th and 12th respectively on the Auch-Hautacam stage.

Kévin Vauquelin

I hung in there and gave it my all. We rode hard all day, maybe you couldn't see it on TV, but there were a lot of jerks. I wasn't at my best on the Col du Soulor, the first climb of the day. Fortunately, Cristián was by my side. He did a great job of bringing me back into the group of favorites before the summit. It was perfect! We saw a very solid ARKEA-B&B HOTELS team today, the three of us with Cristián and Raúl, and I'd like to thank them for that. It gave me extra motivation for the finish. I tackled the final climb to Hautacam at my own pace, feeling that I had to keep my head above water. I managed my effort well and at the end I felt I was able to recover, which enabled me to catch Remco Evenepoel. I was apprehensive about this first mountain stage, but the work I put in during the Isola 2000 training course paid off. I've really been working on this route up the mountain passes and that's given me confidence. I feel like a mental barrier has been broken. It feels really good, I'm happy. We'll see how I recover over the next few days, but we can already be very satisfied with what we achieved together today.

Laurent Pichon

Sport director

"Superb day! Raúl and Clément were at the front of the day's big breakaway of over fifty units. Once the race had settled down, we hoped they'd go as far as possible so that they could support Kévin afterwards. Kévin and the whole ARKEA-BB HOTELS team were enormous today. It was complicated from the first pedal strokes in the Soulor. Cristián supported him perfectly. They switched to the Pogacar peloton and then caught up with Raúl. This support did him a world of good, beyond the physical. Kévin had a tremendous ascent of Hautacam, and settled into his rhythm. He went fast and caught Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic. He finished 6th on the stage, and is 5th tonight in the provisional Tour de France general classification. I'm not forgetting Cristián's 10th place and Raúl's 12th. We're first by team on this mountain stage. That's great. Now we need to recover well, because there's a big time-trial stage in Peyragudes coming up tomorrow".

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