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2025-07-26T13:39:44.045Z
Jorenson and Wellens are in a duo behind those five, working together to try to rejoin them.
2025-07-26T13:39:16.255Z
Another shake up in the break has seen Eenkhorn, Groves, Stewart, Van den Broek and Grégoire go clear from the rest.
2025-07-26T13:36:53.064Z
That said, their deficit to Sweeny is coming down – it’s now at 40 seconds.
2025-07-26T13:36:22.871Z
There are a few signs of the chase breaking down a bit – Jorgenson and Stewart have attacked the others.
2025-07-26T13:32:59.954Z
The Van Aert group is stuck in no-man’s land. They’re still 4 minutes behind Sweeny, but 1:30 over the peloton.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
2025-07-26T13:31:34.552Z
Sweeny grows his lead a little more, to 55 seconds. He’s taking risks on this descent, and had to bunny hop over a traffic island to avoid crashing.
40KM TO GO
2025-07-26T13:29:51.185Z
The weather’s taken another turn for the worse – it’s raining again, subjecting the rivers to another wet descent.
2025-07-26T13:26:37.790Z
Sweeny is growing his lead, to 45 seconds over the chase group. Could this be another long-range victory, in the manner of his EF teammate Ben Healy? Sweeny certainly has a huge engine, but this still feels like a big ask.
2025-07-26T13:25:27.000Z
The riders are climbing up a hill that, though uncategorised by the organisers, certainly looks tough enough to merit being an official climb.
2025-07-26T13:21:35.074Z
Jegat leading the race on the Côte de Thésy, before he was caught by Sweeny.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
2025-07-26T13:18:30.566Z
Sweeny is committed to this move, but only has 15 seconds on the chasers. The other groups are much further behind, though: the Van Aert group is at 3:00, and the peloton at 4:45. This does look like it’ll be a day for the break.
50KM TO GO
2025-07-26T13:16:03.088Z
He won’t have much problem getting back to the peloton, where the pace has slowed.
2025-07-26T13:15:40.245Z
Vingegaard has had to stop to change bikes, with some kind of problem with his.
2025-07-26T13:13:33.629Z
Jegat is back in the chase group, perhaps a little bit sheepish.
2025-07-26T13:13:05.770Z
Sweeny has dropped Jegat – the Australian was moments earlier remonstrating with Jegat for not taking a turn, and has now dropped him completely.
2025-07-26T13:10:02.939Z
Despite all of the attacks, the yellow jersey has come under no pressure, and UAE have control of the peloton.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
2025-07-26T13:08:16.984Z
Jegat and Sweeny are maintaing their lead, which is at about 20 seconds.
2025-07-26T13:07:41.818Z
Laurance and Storer have been caught by the Van Aert group, which also contains Woods, Teuns, Barguil and a few others.
2025-07-26T13:05:21.220Z
Laurance and Storer reached the top of the climb over 2 minutes behind the leaders, and behind them are countless other small groups of attackers ahead of the peloton.
2025-07-26T13:02:09.299Z
Sweeny and Jegat reach the top of the climb together, over 20 seconds ahead of the chasers.
2025-07-26T13:01:05.531Z
Sweeny is up to Jegat already, making up the 20 second deficit in no time.
2025-07-26T13:00:08.283Z
Sweeny has had enough of the pace in the chase group and has attacked in pursuit of Jegat.
2025-07-26T12:59:31.334Z
Wout van Aert is one of the riders who attacked out of the peloton, and is pressing on up the climb with about 5 riders on his wheel.
2025-07-26T12:58:58.527Z
Jegat is 15 seconds ahead of the rest of the group, who have remained all together.
2025-07-26T12:57:45.074Z
It’s all kicking off in the peloton, with multiple more attacks being made.
2025-07-26T12:57:15.028Z
The Frenchman has already frustrated everyone in the break with his presence, and now stands to make more enemies as he drops them on the climb.
2025-07-26T12:56:33.265Z
Attack from Jegat in the break.
2025-07-26T12:56:06.376Z
Laurance has droped Le Berre on these steep slopes.
2025-07-26T12:55:31.572Z
Laurance has attacked out of the peloton on this climb, having tried and failed to get into the break earlier He’s joined by Le Berre.
2025-07-26T12:51:38.029Z
Things could be about to get interesting. The riders have just started climbing Côte de Thésy, which, averaging 9% for 3.5km, is by far the steepest climb of the day.
COTE DE THESY
2025-07-26T12:47:40.161Z
The break has gone out some more, to 2:30. They’re not guaranteed survival just yet.
70KM TO GO
2025-07-26T12:46:31.436Z
The fastest man in the group is Kaden Groves. The Australian has been up there in some of the bunch sprints since teammate JAsper Philipsen abandoned, placing third at Laval on stage 8, and nobody in the group will want to take him on in a group finish.
2025-07-26T12:44:25.416Z
Another danger man is Matteo Jorgenson. If the American is recovered from the problems that saw him fall out of GC contention he’ll be very strong, and can excel in terrain like this.
2025-07-26T12:42:36.388Z
Wellens will surely be feared by the others in the breakaway, especially considering the stage he won last weekend at Carcassonne. The one concern for the Belgian is that he might have burnt a lot of energy earlier on in the stage, having been the main instigator of several moves.
2025-07-26T12:40:10.262Z
Though the break is full of riders representing teams without a stage win, arguably the strongest names there are riding for those that already have – notably UAE with Wellens, and Visma with Jorgenson.
2025-07-26T12:38:01.049Z
De Lie is back in the autobus. He’s had to fight hard for that, having been dropped at the very start of the day.
2025-07-26T12:36:08.871Z
Schmid continues to work at the front of the peloton, and is keeping the gap to the break at just over 2 minutes. This is some effort from the Swiss rider considering how hard he fell earlier, not to mention the effort he made to get back into the peloton.
80KM TO GO
2025-07-26T12:33:49.811Z
Of the 13 teams represented in the break, 8 of them are among those seeking a first stage win at this Tour: Groupama-FDJ (Grégoire), Movistar (Romeo), XDS Astana (Velasco), Picnic PostNL (Van den Broek), IPT (Stewart), Total Energies (Jegat), Tudor (Trentin) and Arkéa – B&B Hotels (Costiou). They will be especially desperate to put that right today.
2025-07-26T12:29:12.427Z
Mechanical for Axel Laurance, who’s off the back of the peloton getting it sorted.
2025-07-26T12:26:41.560Z
Here are the 13 riders in the break. There are some strong riders here, as you’d expect – only those with great legs can get into the break this deep into a Tour, especially on a day as hotly contested as this.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
2025-07-26T12:22:44.794Z
Mauro Schmid is back pulling at the front of the peloton, having made his way back to it. Despite his fall, he’s still being tasked with controlling the breakaway in defence of O’Connor’s then place on GC. The Australian can only afford to lose 4:08 to Jegat.
2025-07-26T12:20:32.745Z
2:10 for the break over the peloton now. For the first time all day, the race has settled down.
90KM TO GO
2025-07-26T12:15:21.528Z
That is indeed it. The gap’s grown to over two minutes, and no more last-ditch attacks are being made from the peloton.
2025-07-26T12:13:06.825Z
It’s notably slowed in the peloton. It seems the riders up the road will be allowed to be the day’s break.
2025-07-26T12:12:25.984Z
Another crash, this time Clément Champoussin falling at the back of the peloton. It was a high speed one and he skidded, and seems to have escaped with just brusing.
2025-07-26T12:09:25.495Z
The front group is growing it’s lead, which is now 1:30 over the peloton. Meanwhile Watson and Van Moer look set to be caught.
100KM TO GO
2025-07-26T12:08:26.339Z
Further behind, De Lie and the teammates are less than a minute behind the larger autobus. If he can make it back to that group, he’ll be under much less danger of missing the time cut.
2025-07-26T12:06:14.868Z
Actually, that’s not the peloton Schmid has rejoined, but a smaller group off the back of it.
2025-07-26T12:05:14.276Z
Schmid is back to the back of the peloton after his earlier crash.
2025-07-26T12:02:26.644Z
The gap from the leaders to the peloton has grown to over a minute, but another wave of attacks as started in the latter. This still hasn’t settled down.
2025-07-26T12:01:47.865Z
The riders went through the intermediate sprint a little earlier, with Velasco first over the line, but nobody involved in the green jersey classification is present in the front group.
2025-07-26T11:58:24.965Z
The leaders are 47 seconds ahead of the peloton, and 27 seconds ahead of Van Moer and Watson.
110KM TO GO
2025-07-26T11:57:36.377Z
Schmid was leading the peloton for Jayco-AlUla, who are defending O’Connor’s tenth place on GC from Jegat. Now he’s crashed, the impetus might go out of the chase.
2025-07-26T11:56:21.888Z
Watson and Van Moer are chasing the leading group, but are still 27 seconds adrift, and only 20 seconds ahead of the peloton.
2025-07-26T11:55:10.349Z
Crash in the peloton – Schmid went down, while riding at the very front of the peloton. It was a dramatic fall on a descent, but he’s back riding again and seems OK, and nobody else went down with him.
2025-07-26T11:52:39.187Z
The front group is working well together, but Pascal Eenkhoorn is remonstrating with Jegat – presumably for the same reasons as PicniPostNL aren’t happy with him being there.
2025-07-26T11:47:01.307Z
The chasers have caught the lead trio, so we have a big front brekaway group. But the peloton isn’t letting up.
2025-07-26T11:46:22.007Z
The presence of Jegat in this break could cause some tension in this group. It’s just been broadcast on PicnicPost-NL’s radio of the team instructing their man in the group, Frank van den Broek, to tell Jegat that he’s not welcome. They’re worried that his threat to the top ten on GC is causing the peloton not to let them go clear.
2025-07-26T11:43:09.848Z
The Jegat chase group is bearing down on the three leaders and have them in sight.
2025-07-26T11:41:50.323Z
Laurance is brought back, then Ballerini counters; then Ballerini is brought back.
2025-07-26T11:39:21.517Z
There’s still a big reluctance in the peloton to let these groups go. Ineos have missed the move, and Laurance attacks in an attempt to bridge up to them.
2025-07-26T11:36:45.533Z
This chase group is 10 seconds behind the leaders, and 15 seconds ahead of the peloton If they can catch the leaders and form a new, big lead group, it could be the break of the day.
2025-07-26T11:34:55.123Z
A chase group of about 8 riders has formed between the three leaders and the peloton, including Jordan Jegat, the man 11th on GC.
2025-07-26T11:33:45.007Z
13 seconds is the lead for Wellens, Jorgenson and Costiou ahead of the peloton.
130KM TO GO
2025-07-26T11:32:53.877Z
Some relief now as the rain has ceased.
2025-07-26T11:30:59.567Z
(Image credit: Getty Images)
2025-07-26T11:30:26.729Z
That splits been undone quickly, but even Pogačar and Vingegaard were caught out that time.
2025-07-26T11:29:30.340Z
More attacks coming out of the peloton, and there’s another split in the peloton.
2025-07-26T11:28:01.806Z
Wellens, Jorgenson and Costiou have a lead of about 15 seconds over the peloton.
2025-07-26T11:27:25.429Z
Onley and Gall are safe again – the work from the latter’s teammates has seen their group rejoin the peloton.
2025-07-26T11:26:32.244Z
Some more riders joined up to the lead group, among them Ewen Costiou and Matteo Jorgenson, who has now gone clear of the rest along with Wellens.
2025-07-26T11:22:31.915Z
Van den Broek, Delettre, Drizners and Aurélien Paret-Peintre are the riders with Wellens in the lead group.
2025-07-26T11:20:27.305Z
Wellens drags that group over the top of the climb, 10 seconds ahead of the peloton.
2025-07-26T11:19:45.325Z
Wellens attacks again, and takes 4 riders with him.
2025-07-26T11:19:06.867Z
No attacks are up the road at the moment on the climb, while Gall’s teammate Armirail sets the pace in the group also containing Onley as they try to close the 25-second gap.
140KM TO GO
2025-07-26T11:16:47.153Z
They’re in a group that’s still 30 seconds behind the peloton.
2025-07-26T11:16:21.170Z
Not all the splits from the descent have been closed, and some big GC names have just been spotted in the group adrift – Onley and Gall, the riders 5th and 6th on GC.
2025-07-26T11:15:35.326Z
Here’s an idea for the kind of conditions this stage is being ridden in.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
2025-07-26T11:14:41.114Z
Mechanical for Victor Campanaerts, who, given his form, and the fact Visma have switched to stage hunting, is among one of the favourites for the stage win.
2025-07-26T11:12:38.537Z
There was a split in the peloton on the descent, which has been closed on the climb. All 3 riders on the GC podium were in the front peloton, so no drama.
2025-07-26T11:12:03.928Z
They’ve been caught by the peloton.
2025-07-26T11:10:59.956Z
Ballerini, Schmid and Jorgenson begin the next climb, the category four Côte de Valfin, with a lead of only a few seconds.
COTE DE VALFIN
2025-07-26T11:07:26.152Z
Schmid and Jorgenson have jumped out of the peloton on this descent, and caught up to Ballerini.
2025-07-26T11:05:30.699Z
Ballerini isn’t holding back on this wet descent, but still only has a lead of about 5 seconds.
150KM TO GO
2025-07-26T11:05:06.219Z
(Image credit: Getty Images)
2025-07-26T11:03:33.910Z
With Jonas Vingegaard not taking any points on that final climb, Tadej Pogačar now has an unassailable lead in the King of the Mountains jersey, and will win the polka-dot jersey (provided he makes it to Paris). That brings to an end two years in which non-GC riders won the classification, and will be Pogačar’s third Mountains title at the Tour, putting him joint-fourth – yet another feat from in the Slovenian’s seemingly endless palmares.
2025-07-26T11:02:20.005Z
Davide Ballerini now leads the race, having opened a gap earlier on the descent.
2025-07-26T10:58:31.182Z
Barré has been caught on the descent, which is looking worryingly wet.
2025-07-26T10:57:11.176Z
Louis Barré attacks in the final few hundred metres of the climb, and takes the KOM points at the top.
KOM – COL DE LA CROIX DE LA SERRA
2025-07-26T10:55:06.828Z
No new breakaway has formed yet, as they come to within a kilometre to the top of the climb.
160KM TO GO
2025-07-26T10:51:20.972Z
They’ve all been caught, and the peloton is all stretched out as more riders try to go.
2025-07-26T10:50:10.189Z
Tim Wellens has attacked, and joined up to the leading trio. The UAE rider has done superb work for leader Pogačar, and has been rewarded with a licence to attack today.
2025-07-26T10:48:47.349Z
Powless, Sweeny and García Pierna still lead, with 13 seconds on the peloton.
2025-07-26T10:47:44.800Z
It was much drier at the start, where Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard looked chilled at the start. They’ve been put under no real stress today yet, though this weather can’t be comfortable for them.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
2025-07-26T10:45:29.944Z
It’s absolutely chucking it down. It’ll take a tough rider to get into and win from the breakaway in these conditions.
2025-07-26T10:44:44.275Z
A new lead group has formed, and has 2 EF riders in it – Powless and Sweeny, accomponied by Arkéa’s Raúl García Pierna.
2025-07-26T10:43:41.155Z
Further behind, De Lie has teammate Grignard helping him, but looks in a bad way, over two minutes behind the peloton, and over a minute even behind a group containing the green jersey and other sprinters.
2025-07-26T10:42:39.654Z
EF are very keen today. They’re leading the latest round of attacks with another rider.
2025-07-26T10:41:50.354Z
It’s raining, and heavily. That could change the completion of the stage – especially with plenty of descending to be done today.
2025-07-26T10:40:28.523Z
Healy’s work was not enough to see him break clear, but the pace has seen his teammate Asgreen be caught.
2025-07-26T10:38:10.474Z
Healy is still pressing on, but can’t quite get a gap.
2025-07-26T10:36:08.399Z
Asgreen’s lead has come down to under 20 seconds. He seems to be paying for his early efforts on this climb.
170KM TO GO
2025-07-26T10:35:15.638Z
Healy and Jorgenson are among those trying, but no success so far.
2025-07-26T10:34:33.524Z
The Van Aert move from earlier was shut down before the climb, and now more attacks are being made as the road goes uphill again.
2025-07-26T10:33:55.312Z
De Lie is on a bad day. He’s already been dropped, even before the start of the climb, and is almost a minute behind the peloton already.
2025-07-26T10:33:02.294Z
The riders are on the first climb of the day. It’s the longest, lasting 12.2km, but only averages 4.1%.
COL DE LA CROIX DE LA SERRA
2025-07-26T10:31:18.465Z
Foss, Alaphilippe and – more surprisingly – Démare are the riders with Van Aert.
2025-07-26T10:30:09.601Z
Van Aert has accelerated and gone clear of the peloton with a few other riders.
2025-07-26T10:29:31.550Z
Kasper Asgreen, making his attack. He’s grown his lead to almost 40 seconds now.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
2025-07-26T10:27:30.120Z
They’ve been caught, however, leaving Asgreen as the only breakaway rider, with a lead of 30 seconds.
2025-07-26T10:26:28.891Z
Raúl García Pierna is also with Healy, Schmid and Abrahamsen.
2025-07-26T10:25:25.829Z
Healy’s an interesting name for today. The parcours suits him wonderfully, but will he be allowed up the road given he’s high up on GC? It might depend on how much Primož Roglič wants to defend his eighth place overall – he’s only 2:32 ahead of Healy, but yesterday didn’t seem too fussed about retaining a high place.
2025-07-26T10:21:31.284Z
Those riders in between are Abrahamsen, Healy and Schmid.
2025-07-26T10:20:41.322Z
Asgreen has a lead of about 10 seconds over the peloton, and there are some riders in between trying to join him.
2025-07-26T10:18:07.867Z
And they’re off! And Kasper Asgreen attacks right from the gun.
OFFICIAL START
2025-07-26T10:15:28.003Z
There are still 14 teams without a stage win, notably Movistar, Bahrain-Victorious, and Groupama-FDJ. They will be extra desperate to get a rider in the break today.
2025-07-26T10:12:39.825Z
This deep into a Grand Tour, it’s clear which riders are in good form, so there are certain riders who have been aggressive throughout the race that you can almost guarantee will be involved – Van Aert, Armirail, Abrahamsen and Simmons are names that spring to mind.
2025-07-26T10:07:00.039Z
That action will commence soon. They’ve just rolled out of the neutralised start and will be racing in about 4km’s time.
2025-07-26T10:04:13.762Z
With a parcours that could feasibly suit so many different riders, and with so many riders and teams desperately scrambling to get something out of this Tour as it nears its end, this has the potential to be one of the most chaotic stages yet in terms of the hunt for the stage win.
2025-07-26T10:00:27.343Z
So what of today’s stage? It has a hilly parcours that looks virtually certain to be won by the breakaway. There are four classified climbs in total, and a total of 2,900m elevation gain – not too hard, but some climbers can get in the mix along with the puncheurs and rouleurs.
2025-07-26T09:58:28.423Z
Whereas Roglič was happy to sacrifice his GC place for a stage win, Felix Gall has adopted the opposite approach. As a result, he’s now climbed to fifth on GC, and you can expect him to be on defensive mode today as he ensures he holds that position.
2025-07-26T09:53:26.869Z
It’ll be interesting to see how Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe approach this stage. While they have Florian Lipowitz where he wants to be, in third overall, yesterday Primož Roglič again went up the road in the breakaway, sacrificing his place on GC and not directly helping his teammate in search instead for a stage win. If Roglič is still hungry for that win, he’ll try again today.
2025-07-26T09:49:38.236Z
While Tadej Pogačar looks safe in first place, Florian Lipowitz’s hold on third-place overall is more fragile. Despite gaining time on rival Oscar Onley yesterday, he still only leads the 22-year-old by 1:02 seconds. That could be a small enough advantage for Onley and his PicnicPostNL team to try something today – even if the team did say that they’d have taken fourth-place going into the race.
2025-07-26T09:42:16.359Z
A sense of resignation has come over Jonas Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike, who did not attack the yellow jersey during yesterday’s mountain stage. It seems unlikely we’ll see him try anything today, and the squad’s other riders – like Wout van Aert and Victor Campanaerts – might instead be given licence to chase the stage win.
2025-07-26T09:36:29.981Z
With no climb rated higher than category two, this stage isn’t expected to be too dangerous for the GC riders, meaning Tadej Pogačar’s 4:24 lead at the top of the classification appears unthreatened. The Slovenian has adopted a more conservative approach in the Alps, and has never looked under any real pressure.
2025-07-03T13:28:19.905Z
Hello and welcome back to Cyclingnews’ live coverage of the 2025 Tour de France, for the penultimate stage of the race to Pontarlier!