It was the uphill start of the Tour de l’Avenir 2025, an edition that might have the most impressive start list in the race’s history, with many great climbing talents.

The prologue was a 3-kilometre uphill time trial to Tignes 1800, starting already at 1561 metres above sea level. This was the first U23 race of Paul Seixas, the 18-year-old French climber who delivered some of the greatest climbing performances ever in junior races last season. Seixas, already with a World Tour contract at Decathlon, unsurprisingly won this prologue with 7.28 ᵉW/kg for 7:19 min; his sea-level power was equivalent to 7.77 ᵉW/kg. The 2024 world junior road race champion Lorenzo Finn matched Seixas, despite crashing hard in the Giro dell’Appennino and recovering quite fast. Austrian Marco Schrettl, in his last U23 year and likely headed to a World Tour team, finished seven seconds behind Seixas and Finn.

Another first-year U23 wonderkid, Mateo Ramirez, after starting the season in a Spanish amateur team but quickly progressing and moving to the UAE development team, was 4th. Ramirez has already performed in Valle d’Aosta and is currently one of the most exciting South American prospects. The more well-known Jarno Widar and Jorgen Nordhagen followed him, with last year’s Colle della Finestre sensation Pablo Torres finishing 9th in the short Tignes prologue with 7.02 ᵉW/kg for 7:33 min.

It was another high w/kg performance in Norway after three years, this time on an 8-minute climb with Tom Pidcock outperforming Corbin Strong.

The 2022 Tour of Norway delivered huge w/kg performances on a 30-minute climb with then Remco Evenepoel fighting against Jay Vine on Stavsro and delivering, until that point, one of the most impressive climbing performances since the 2000s, with young Cian Uijtdebroeks, Tobias Halland Johannesen, and Luke Plapp finishing in the top 6. This time there was an 8-minute mountain top finish in the Arctic Race of Norway on Malselv (3.45 km, 8.52%).

With a very easy stage, Corbin Strong burned 2278 kilojoules at a rate of 8.17 kj/kg/h for 4:25 h, this being perhaps the easiest pro race stage in European cycling history, and with a wide run into the climb there was practically no fatigue in the pro riders’ legs. It created a perfect storm for something unusual.

Tom Pidcock won two similar stages in the Saudi Tour in February, with mountain bike XCO world champion Alan Hatherly performing there in his first pro race. On a similar finish they were again flying, but this time there was much stronger competition with Corbin Strong, Christian Scaroni, Clement Champoussin, and other hilly specialists. Q36.5 did a lead-out for Pidcock until 1.5 km to go, with Nick Schultz taking over after that. Pidcock attacked soon after and dropped everyone except Strong. Despite all of the drafting, Pidcock in the finish won, but lost the GC to Strong, who scored more bonus seconds from sprints in other stages.

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The W/kg on this climb seemed too good to be true, but it was just the perfect stage with perfect conditions on a day easier than the easiest World Tour training days. Tom Pidcock climbed Målselv with 7.91 ᵉW/kg for 8:16 min, with Strong doing it with 7.82 ᵉW/kg. In the Saudi Tour, Pidcock did 7.69 ᵉW/kg for 7:27 min, which is a very similar performance. Everyone from 3rd to 18th place did 7.33–7.64 ᵉW/kg, showing how high the fitness levels of World Tour cyclists are. Pidcock’s climbing score was not that high, with only 648 aslp (adjusted sea level power), with very low altitude not inflating his absolute watts numbers.

The greatest short effort of all time, with or without context, is Evgeni Berzin’s 1995 performance in the Euskal Bizikleta, where he produced 8.50 ᵉW/kg for 4:46 to beat Alex Zülle and Alberto Elli. Also notable, at middle altitude, is Marco Pantani’s 1995 effort on Mende, where he managed to be faster than Miguel Indurain and Bjarne Riis by one second with 7.62 ᵉW/kg for 8:59. Another highlight is Michael Woods’ ride on Mirador de Ézaro in Gran Camiño, producing 7.64 ᵉW/kg for 6:58. Joaquim Rodríguez, in the Froome era, delivered 7.88 ᵉW/kg for 6:46 on the same climb in the 2012 Vuelta a España, beating Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde, and Chris Froome.

It was the queen stage of the Vuelta a Burgos, finishing up the steep Lagunas de Neila ramps (4.2 km at 10.95%), set to decide the GC winner.

Leo Bisiaux started the day in the GC lead, holding a 22–26 second advantage over his closest rivals: Giulio Pellizzari, Isaac Del Toro, and Lorenzo Fortunato. Giulio Ciccone, however, had crashed on stage 1 after being taken out by Del Toro in the final kilometre, losing over a minute. That did not stop Lidl–Trek from pacing hard for the Italian’s chance at a stage win.

With 3 km to go, Del Toro and Ciccone attacked, and no one could follow. Ciccone in the last kilometre accelerated away from Del Toro, proving the fastest up Lagunas de Neila with 6.51 ᵉW/kg for 14:35 on the steep section of the climb, 35 seconds slower than the record from this side, set by Jose Maria Jimenez in the 1998 Vuelta a España.

Del Toro claimed his third GC victory and ninth pro win of 2025, while Ciccone, without his stage 1 crash, would likely have been the true overall winner. Bisiaux, up against top competition, finished 3rd in GC and 11th on the stage.

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It was the queen stage of the Tour de France Femmes, featuring the first real mountain of this edition, a summit finish on the mighty Col de la Madeleine.

As such stages are extremely rare in women’s cycling, it’s very hard to predict what will happen. Last year’s Tour de France Femmes proved that, with Katarzyna Niewiadoma securing her GC victory on Alpe d’Huez after Demi Vollering failed to take enough time. Vollering was the race favourite again this year, but Sarah Gigante had shown extremely strong form on Monte Nerone during the Giro d’Italia, and she had not lost much time in earlier stages, with FDJ-SUEZ choosing not to eliminate their rivals early. Paris-Roubaix winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Niewiadoma, and Vollering were separated by just five seconds in the GC heading into the Madeleine, showing how close the race really was.

Puck Pieterse burned 1,977 kilojoules over 2 hours and 45 minutes at a rate of 12.72 kJ/kg/h before hitting the Madeleine, making this an extremely hard stage. Race leader Kimberley Le Court Pienaar crashed early on and later sacrificed herself on the Madeleine to support Gigante, putting many riders under pressure, including Anna van der Breggen, who was dropped.

Gigante attacked with 12 km to go, followed by Ferrand-Prévot, while other GC contenders like Vollering and Niewiadoma were gapped. The Olympic XCO champion and Paris-Roubaix winner was flying. A few kilometres later, she dropped Gigante and soloed to a very impressive victory. Ferrand-Prévot took the GC lead with a 2:37 gap over Gigante, and more than three minutes over Vollering and Niewiadoma ahead of the final stage, which features the Col de Joux Plane midway through.

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Ferrand-Prévot delivered a historically strong performance, averaging 5.04 ᵉW/kg for 64:50, one of the best in women’s cycling. Even with altitude adjustment, this effort is not far off Demi Vollering’s iconic performance on the Tourmalet in 2023 at a higher altitude. This is Ferrand-Prévot’s first road season since 2018, after years of focusing on XCO. The only other significant climbing data we have from her is from Jebel Hafeet in the 2025 UAE Tour, where she averaged 4.47 ᵉW/kg for 36:58 on a much easier stage.

With both Gigante and Ferrand-Prévot dominating long, steep climbs, we are seeing a shift in women’s cycling. Stages like these give lightweight climbers a real chance to challenge more powerful riders like Vollering.

The last mountain stage of the 2025 Tour de France ended with another victory by someone not named Tadej Pogačar, this time, Thymen Arensman took his second win of the race.

Tobias Halland Johannessen spent 2146 kilojoules over 2:09h at 16.56 kj/kg/h before La Plagne. With the GC group setting a relatively moderate pace, Thymen Arensman attacked early and got away, this time not as part of a breakaway. Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard did not concern themselves too much with the Dutchman, as he posed no threat in the general classification. The real battle was between Florian Lipowitz and Oscar Onley for third place and the best young rider’s jersey. Arensman found himself in a perfect situation, as Pogačar did not want to pull too hard as Vingegaard was on his wheel.

With Onley dropping 2 km from the finish and Lipowitz starting to pull hard, there was a moment where it seemed Arensman might get caught. But with Vingegaard and Pogačar unwilling to gift each other the stage by launching first, they effectively handed the win to Arensman. There were no major changes in the GC, except Johannessen gaining two places to move up to 6th, while Primož Roglič, who had spent all his energy in the breakaway, lost 12 minutes and slipped from 5th to 8th.

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Arensman’s performance was actually of very high level, 6.38 ᵉW/kg for 45:30 min, and 6.73 ᵉW/kg normalized to sea level. In terms of pure watts, it was very close to Pogačar’s effort on Hautacam. However, that stage was affected by extreme heat, while today’s rainy conditions helped with cooling. Arensman was 16 seconds slower than Mark Padun on La Plagne in the 2021 Dauphiné, where the Ukrainian posted 6.21 ᵉW/kg for 45:14.