Key events
142km to go. The bunch speeds through Lourdes, the GC outsiders maybe tempted to say a few Hail Marys. It looks good for Pedersen for the points with the bunch over a minute adrift. Apparently, Artz got a verbal warning. Game’s gone, I cannot see what he did wrong.
Paul Griffin writes in: “Regarding nominative deterministic pro-cyclists, I am absolutely apoplectic that you missed Alejandro Valve-rde.” Very good, Paul. There was also Steve Chain-el too before he retired.
150km to go. Sean Kelly has made the calculation and does not understand why Campenaerts is burning his energy in this breakaway on the flat, when he could sit in the bunch and bide his time for a bigger group.
Artz pats Pedersen on the back and sits up. Either he sees the futility of the effort or, as TNT’s pundits suggest, he’s been warned by the commissaires for an unnatural position and told to drop back. Strange.
1min 26secs lead for Pedersen and Campenaerts, averaging 50 kilometres per hour so far. Rapid.
160km to go. Without a Jacques Derailleur or Harry Helmet, Huub Artz is about as close as we will probably get for nominative determinism/bike part names, despite the extra vowel. He clearly has good legs, sprinting to fourth yesterday as Lotto try to make the best of being without leader Arnaud De Lie.
169km to go. Pedersen, Campenaerts and Artz press on, leading the bunch by 53 seconds. Why is the stage four winner out in front? Well, there is an intermediate sprint with 127km to go at Pouzac and he is looking to extend his advantage over Biniam Girmay.
The Eritrean’s NSN team have put a man on the front of the bunch.
177km to go. Hot off my inbox, a stage prediction from Nick Wayne:
“Which means, like all my others, it’ll be wrong: Lenny Martinez.”
He could do it. I wonder whether he is a bit too close to Pogacar/Vingegaard on GC to be afforded such freedom. I’ll pick Egan Bernal today – he’s won the Tour but never won a Tour stage.
183km to go. Victor Campenaerts attacks from the gun, joined by Huub Artz (Lotto Intermarché) and green jersey Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).
The Belgian has been doing some entertaining vlogs daily on Instagram with Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Matteo Jorgenson, full of charm and history facts. You don’t get this kind of homespun, behind-the-scenes stuff from the World Cup, do you?
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Bold bicycle placement by Rod in that photo below. A strong gust of wind away from his steed ending up at the bottom of a ravine.
The bunch is bimbling south-east, about to start stage six. Christian Prudhomme waves the flag from his car.
We have mail! Not just that but a stonking photo from Rod MacFadyen of the Cirque du Gavarnie from 1990.
“During a cycling club week away to see the Tour, I cycled up to the Cirque de Gavarnie where the road stops and you can peer into Spain. On that day, a small glacier was visible in the peaks opposite – see my attached photo! What are the chances of that still being there?”
The flag is waved in Pau and the bunch rolls out into the neutralised zone.
Jonas Vingegaard says he “expects fireworks” today, which goes for fighting talk, coming from him. Wonder whether his Visma team will want to get a strong climber in the breakaway, someone who could drop back to help the Dane if he goes on the warpath.
Visma-Lease a Bike helper Bruno Armirail shown on TNT Sports signing in. Disappointingly, they just touch a screen these days rather than scrawling with a pen. Very 2026.
He has the local knowledge for today and no doubt friends and family members on the roadside: stage six passes through his home town of Bagnères-de-Bigorre after 60 kilometres.
Relive the last time the Tour de France finished on the Col du Tourmalet.
Vintage Pinot. Alas, six days later, he abandoned the 2019 race in tears with knee pain when still in contention to end France’s barren run. Where is he now? He is a full-time farmer, hosting some lucky Airbnb guests on his grounds when stage 13 goes through his village.
William Fotheringham’s guide to stage six
William Fotheringham
Stage six, Thursday 9 July: Pau to Gavarnie-Gèdre, 186.2km
The Spanish Grand Départ means paring down the classic climbs in the Pyrenees to avoid the race being settled as early as day six; the organisers can reasonably argue that stages two, three and four are demanding enough to avoid claims the race is being watered down. This stage includes the Aspin and Tourmalet before the second-category drag up to Gavarnie and that is it for the Pyrenees. One or two riders will stake an early claim in the King of the Mountains prize; the stage winner should come from the break, a climber who is no threat overall such as Lenny Martinez.
Enjoy our full guide to all 21 Tour de France stages here:
So, Tadej Pogacar is clapped. Finished. Past it.
Delayed slightly by a crash in yesterday’s finale, he was only 21st over the line. A day after finishing 33rd. He has clearly lost his touch. Incidentally, those are the four-time champion’s two worst performances of 2026. Yesterday was only the third time he has finished outside of the top ten from 21 race days. Bonkers.
Points and mountains classification standings
After stage five:
1. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek): 143 points
2. Biniam Girmay (NSN): 79
3. Max Kanter (XDS Astana): 77
4. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech): 72
5. Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM Team): 70
6. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): 55
7. Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step): 55
8. Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek): 45
9. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike): 44
10. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): 39
King of the Mountains
With a maximum of 33 points availabe today, this will get a thorough shake-up.
1. Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost): 12
2. Alex Molenaar (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA): 10
3. Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon CMA CGM): 9
4. Raul Garcia Pierna (Movistar): 7
5. Marco Frigo (NSN): 5
6. Jan Tratnik (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe): 5
7. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): 4
8. Vlad Van Mechelen (Bahrain Victorious): 4
9. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): 3
10. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek): 3
General classification standings
After stage five:
1. Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility): 16hrs 32min 07secs
2. Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost): +28secs
3. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek): +3mins 50secs
4. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): +7min 53secs
5. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +7min 53secs
6. Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Premier Tech): +8min 6secs
7. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe): +8min 16secs
8. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): +8min 17secs
9. Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek): +8min 20secs
10. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM): +8min 41secs
Preamble
The Tour de France is heating up and I don’t just mean the barmy temperatures the bunch is coping with in south-western France.
This is likely to be the stage which yields the biggest differences of the 2026 edition’s opening week. Included in the final 70 kilometres are the first-category Col d’Aspin, hors categorie Col du Tourmalet and long drag to the finish at Gavarnie-Gèdre, just beneath the majestic Cirque de Gavarnie. Helicopter telly cameras will have a field day with that one.
The Tourmalet is one of this race’s iconic climbs. In 1910, during its first inclusion, Octave Lapize shouted “Assassins!, at the commissaires at the col top after pushing his bike there in a “pitiable” state. You can tell the Tour was invented and run by journalists: after such drama, the race had to keep going back.
Its last 13 kilometres rarely go under the eight per cent mark. We will hopefully see action in the race for the yellow jersey between Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike). They had a ding-dong battle up this Pyrenean pest in 2023 and maybe even 19-year-old ingenu Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) can join their party this time round. Have a gander at the stage profile:
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Another ponderable is whether Torstein Træen, the cancer survivor in the maillot jaune, can hold onto the race lead. Unless the Uno-X Mobility climber has a bad day and/or the race favourites give it full beans, I reckon he will. That jersey gives a lot of riders wings and added motivation. American Sean Quinn is a readier challenger to worry about, just 28 seconds in arrears.
As for the stage win? Certainly not one for yesterday’s winner Olav Kooij or green jersey wearer Mads Pedersen. It might go to the strongest climber from the breakaway which will surely go away in the first hour or two on the flat roads out of Pau. Especially if the bunch knocks off their early effort in broiling temperatures going as high as 40 degrees Celsius. Sacrebleu!
We’re closing on the stage start at 11:25 BST, so please do let me know your predictions, tangents, snack choices, earmworm songs or musings on today’s stage via the email link at the top of the page. Allez!
