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9 hours ago
5
Key events
100km to go: The front group is breaking up on the climb. At the moment, Guyonnard is the only one dropped, I think. So it’s 30 riders:
Jegat, Debruyne, Tejada, Arensman, Ion Izagirre, Vauqelin, Baudin, Higuita, Garcia, V Paret-Peintre, Hirschi, O’Connor, Braz Afonso, Van der Poel, Gregoire, Romo, Zimmerman, Cepeda, Vervaeke, Abrahamsen, Plapp, Healy, Wright, Frigo, Guernalec, Haller, Velasco, Nicolau, Thomas, Azparren.
103km to go: The gap is 49sec.
104km to go: Van der Poel winning this stage would be a power move. He obviously fancies it, if he’s in the front group.
If Van Aert could win on a double ascent of Mont Ventoux …
104km to go: The Côte de Pailherols is 3km long with an average gradient of 7.2%. It’s uphill for a while before that, too.
105km to go: The break now has 46sec. So while UAE Team Emirates are obviously looking to control at the front of the bunch, they were not trying to shut it down.
106km to go: A crash in the bunch. A few riders down including Kamil Gradek (Bahrain Victorious) and Jake Stewart (NSN) … at first glance it doesn’t look too bad for anyone, thankfully.
107km to go: Thyman Arensman (Netcompany-Ineos) and Ben Healy (EF Education–EasyPost) would be decent bets for the stage if this group can stay away.
107km to go: Front group: Jegat, Debruyne, Tejada, Arensman, Ion Izagirre, Vauqelin, Guyonnet, Baudin, Higuita, Garcia, V Paret-Peintre, Hirschi, O’Connor, Braz Afonso, Van der Poel, Gregoire, Romo, Zimmerman, Cepeda, Vervaeke, Abrahamsen, Plapp, Healy, Wright, Frigo, Guernalec, Haller, Velasco, Nicolau, Thomas, Azparren.
110km to go: Just shy of 3,000m climbing still to come today.
111km to go: That said, the front group is now 31 riders, and the gap is 16sec.
115km to go: Who’d have thunk it? Seems like UAE Team Emirates-XRG are looking to shut this down and bring it all back together.
116km to go: The average speed is teetering around 50km/h. An extremely gruelling day as we suspected it might be. The Côte de Pailherols is the first climb and will be here before the riders know it. Its summit comes with 98km to race, so in about 18km.
118km to go: It’s now 21 riders up front.
Jegat, Debruyne, Braz Afonso, Zimmerman, Cepada are also there.
118km to go: Big group up front with six seconds on the peloton. Vauqelin, Guyonnet, Baudin, Garcia, Velasco, V. Paret-Peintre, Vervaeka, Abrahamsen, Guernalec, Azzparren, Thomas, Ganna, Nicolau, Velasco, Haller are all there.
121km to go: Ten riders out front alone. Lots and lots of teams and riders want to be in this break. Is this going to settle down at any point? The rest day will soon be long forgotten with this amount of pain being dished out by the riders at the front.
123km to go: Van Baarle, Eenkhorn, Veistroffer, Gaviria, Merlier and Bauhas are riding together at the rear, four minutes behind the leaders. That will be a grim day in a small group.
125km to go: Quinten Hermans (Pinarello–Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) is pulling at the front, trying to get in the decisive break.
128km to go: “A very special day,” says Romain Bardet on the TNT Sports Motorbike of this special French occasion. “Not only because it’s Bastille Day, but also it’s where I’m from. I’m happy that the Cantal is becoming iconic in the Tour de France.
“When you are French rider and you can win on that day, it’s even more special.”
He mentions Warren Barguil’s win in 2017:
“On paper, Pogacar knows the course really well,” adds Bardet. “When he lost against Vingegaard [in 2024], the last 20km were exactly the same. On the other hand, it’s a parcours that allows some tactical moves … I think the breakaway can have a chance.”
129km to go: The several climbs will slow everyone down, of course, but this stage is being raced particularly fiercely.
Merlier is three minutes behind the bunch. There are four riders who have clipped off the front.
130km to go: “The Frenchies are not giving up,” comes the call on the Lidl-Trek radio.
Meanwhile, the average speed is 495km/h, which is a lot, considering it’s been almost all uphill.
131km to go: This big move is going to get shut down. Three from Movistar, three from Netcompany = too many teams have missed out. And it’s back together. The pace is hot, and the attacks immediately start again when that 11-rider group is shut down.
134km to go: An 11-rider group has escaped at the front!
Castrillo (Movistar)
Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost)
Delbove (TotalEnergies)
Bennett (NSN)
Foss (Netcompany-Ineos)
Aranburu (Cofidis)
Costiou (Groupama-FDJ)
Olivera (Movistar)
Hessman (Movistar)
Kwiatkowsi (Netcompany-Ineos)
Tarling (Netcompany-Ineos)
Three from Netcompany-Ineos there, three from Movistar.
135km to go: Quinn Simmons put in a massive final turn to set up Pedersen for the sprint: but it looked like Kanter had done enough to take maximum points. Fair play to Pedersen though, he kept going when it looked like he was beaten, and got his reward.
Girmay was unable to keep pace with either Kanter or Pedersen: seems he’s not in peak condition at the moment.
Top four, intermediate sprint
1. Pedersen 25pts
2. Kanter 20pts
3. Girmay 16pts
4. Philipsen 14pts
140km to go: Did Pedersen hit back to snatch it at the last? I was thinking Pedersen didn’t want to go too early: Kanter came past him on an uphill sprint, and it looked like the XDS-Astana rider had done enough to take it.
Pedersen did take it, says the official website.
141km to go: Photo-finish between Pedersen and Max Kanter for the intermediate!
142km to go: Biniam Girmay is present and correct and ready to sprint. So is Jasper Philipsen. Less than a kilometre until the intermediate.
143km to go: Lidl-Trek also have Juan Ayuso fifth in GC, as it stands, which is indication of how strong their team is overall.
144km to go: Lidl-Trek are leading this out like a sprint finish. Gee-West, Simmons, Vacek at the front, then Pedersen fourth wheel.
145km to go: On commentary for TNT Sports Adam Blythe says there are “65,000 categorised climbs en route”, a slight exaggeration, but he’s saying that expending extra energy now for the likes of Vingegaard is not a good thing.
146km to go: Tim Merlier, winner of two stages at this race, has been dropped and is 40sec behind the bunch. Classic heavy sprinter vibes.
146km to go: Kelly says no need to panic for the guys like Vingegaard who are on the wrong side of the split. We shall see.
147km to go: Vingegaard has missed this move. Lidl-Trek are setting a strong pace, and perhaps no one is worried about gaps now, because they think it’ll all calm down after the intermediate in 6km.
148km to go: A big group has gone off the front, including Seixas and his teammate Tiesj Benoot. Pogacar was indeed caught out. However, he’s taken the law into his own hands, and is riding across to them on his own.
150km to go: The bunch drags up a long (uncategorised) ascent. There are splits all over the place. The heavier riders are toiling at the back. Pogacar was apparently caught out on the wrong side of a split.
152km to go: Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) attacks in patriotic fashion. He’s even wearing the national champion’s jersey. Julian Alaphilippe is there too.
152km to go: Earlier, Sean Kelly opined that Pogacar and team won’t try and control today.
Which goes against most of the pundits – one of whom predicted Pogacar will look to ‘blow the race apart’ on the final climbs.
153km to go: It’s uphill all the way, pretty much, to the sprint point at Lacapelle-del-Fraisse.
