Tour de France 2025: Van der Poel snatches yellow jersey back from Pogacar while Healey seals stage win

UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider drops to second place overall, albeit only one second behind Dutchman

Dutch rider Mathieu Van Der Poel on the podium after Stage 6 of the 2025 Tour de France. EPA

Ireland's Ben Healy won Stage 6 of the Tour de France on Thursday with a long solo break, as Mathieu van der Poel reclaimed the yellow jersey from Tadej Pogacar by one second.

Sixth at the start of the day, Van Der Poel climbed above UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider and overnight leader Pogacar.

The Dutchman said he was eyeing more glory on the Stage 7 ride to Mur de Bretagne, where he first took the yellow in 2021.

“It would be a great finale to a great week,” said an exhausted Van der Poel. “If I get the win or not it'll be great anyway just to wear the yellow jersey again.”

Belgian Evenepoel is third at 49 sec with Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin fourth at 1 min. Jonas Vingegaard is fifth at 1 min 14 sec.

The 24-year-old Healy became the first Irish stage winner since sprinter Sam Bennett won on the Champs Elysees in 2020.

“That was so enjoyable, and once we had all got away I discussed with the team car and chose that unlikely place to attack,” said Healy.

“I'm very proud to be presenting Ireland, I'm from an Irish family and though I wasn't born there it was an option I chose as youngster,” he said.

Stage 6 was intense from the off over a series of hills between Bayeux and Vire with the peloton putting the hammer down at 47 kilometres per hour average over the first three hours.

Healy and Van der Poel were part of a nine-man mid-race escape who set a relentless pace. The Irishman broke solo knowing that if he waited for the hilly finale he had little chance of beating the proven experts in the breakaway.

He made his move suddenly on a flat section, 32km out. As he pulled to the left and accelerated, the eight others dithered as the distance widened.

For Pogacar, allowing the Dutch powerhouse to sneak into the escape meant he got rid of the overall lead and relieved himself of media duties and the draining hullabaloo that comes with wearing the yellow jersey.

Once Healy had broken away, even Van der Poel sat up, saving energy, possibly for Thursday's run up the Mur de Bretagne, scene of his 2020 triumph to seize the Tour lead he kept for eight days.

The Dutch Alpecin rider wilted at the end on Thursday. Behind him Pogacar and arch-rival Jonas Vingegaard battled up the final 10 per cent slope, but van der Poel regained the lead by the narrowest margin.

After an all-day effort, American champion Quinn Simmons came second, and Michael Storer put Team Tudor on the Tour podium for the first time in third.

The day started at Bayeux, renowned for its tapestry of the 1066 Norman conquest of England, but also the birthplace of burgeoning French star Kevin Vauquelin.

The 24-year-old Arkea rider was toast of the town as he left in third position on the Tour, just 59 sec adrift of Pogacar and ended in fourth overall at 1 min.

Ahead of the stage he hailed “the roads where I grew up and learnt to love the hills”. At the finish line he spoke of “goose bumps” as the fans cheered him along with local media speaking of 'Vauquelin-mania'.

After six days of racing in the North of France the Tour heads west on Friday with a 197km run from Saint Malo over rolling hills in Brittany, finishing on top of the steep climb called the Mur-de-Bretagne.