Key events
34km to go Pidcock is on the virtual podium as things stand. The climbing specialists will want to shake off a few more riders on this climb if they’re going to win today, Michael Matthews is too big a threat in a sprint to have with them over the top.
35km to go Smartly (for now) Pidcock is not chasing down every move. He knows he can ride his tempo and eventually go away or even attack on the descent. We’re down to 23 riders remaining from the breakaway.
37km to go Jordan Jeget (TotalEnergies) has made a little burst but he always looked like he was looking for others to join him. That move was closed down by Pidcock.
38km to go We’re already losing men on this climb. Pedersen’s day is over, he is out of the back.
39km to go The break has ramped down off the Col des Croix and the road is starting to incline upwards. Ballon d’Alsace is category one, 8.8km climb at an average of 6.9%.
47km to go The breakaway is down to 45 riders now. Pedersen is still in there, which is remarkable only because he’s said he wants to win a stage like this. Can he hang with the climbers when we get to Ballon d’Alsace.
49km to go Ben Healy attacks! Kevin Vauquelin, Pidcock and a couple of the Pinarello riders chase it down. That won’t be the last time we see Healy go today.
53km to go Here we go, the whittling down begins from the breakaway. Julian Alaphilippe, John Degenkolb and Fred Wright are among the riders dropping away as we go up Col des Croix.
I will keep dropping these in until the action gets too frenetic because I’m really enjoying them. This is from Mathew Annis: “On summer holiday in France in 1990, we happened upon the Tour at the end of stage 17 in Pau. I was ten years old, and have only vague memories of it. One is that a dog ran out on the road right before the leading cyclists came down the street, to the consternation of the spectators. The other is that after waiting for quite a while to see it, the entire peloton passed by in seconds! I did get a paper hat with the name of some French company on it though. And, though I couldn’t pick out any riders as they shot by, I do know I got to see Greg LeMond on the way to his third Tour win.”
William Fotheringham
Pogacar has discovered Tour de France fans love heroic defeat more than crushing victory
Enduring the ire of French cycling fans is a rite of passage for a majority of the select group of prolific Tour de France winners, as Tadej Pogacar seems be finding out. The first catcalls came on Tuesday’s stage to Le Lioran in the Cantal, and unfortunately, although we can hope for a little courtesy, there is no reason to assume we won’t see more of the same in the Alps next week, because there are zero grounds for assuming the Slovene and his UAE team’s dominance of the race will slip. In fact, given the mountains that await, Pogi and co will probably up the ante.
Read William Fotheringham’s latest analysis of the Tour:
62km to go This breakaway group is going to start dwindling now we’ve got the intermediate points out of the way. We’re on the road up to the first categorised climb of the day, a gentle 5.2km at an average of 4.8%.
“In 2022, I lost my dad in June, weeks before my 30th birthday,” writes Mahmoud Khalil. “I spent most of my time trying to get my zest for life back, everything was just kind of gray. Then I happened to randomly tune into stage six on my birthday and Tadej won a hilly stage and I was hooked. Around that time there were a lot of days where getting out of bed was really hard but that July the Tour was the reason I got out of bed every day. I was excited to follow the results, I was excited to learn about the riders and the tactics and what had happened since Lance (I’m an American that was the only reference to the Tour I had growing up). That day in 2022 led me to my current obsession with cycling where I spend a lot of time talking about bike racing with my wife and anyone around me that will listen.”
Thank you for sharing that, Mahmoud.
Philipsen wins the intermediate sprint!
The one-man Alpecin-Premier Tech lead out from Edward Planckaert delivers for Philipsen, who is well ahead of Pedersen, with Girmay only just pipped for second. Pedersen loses five points to Philipsen in the green jersey rankings but he’ll be happy with that having faced the prospect of losing 25 had he not chased down the break.
70km to go Philipsen and Girmay have a couple of teammates in this break group, so will have a lead out in the intermediate sprint. We’re about 2km away from that. How much energy will Pedersen have?
80km to go And just like that Bahrain Victorious jump on the front of the peloton to make sure Lenny Martinez doesn’t lose too much time to Pidcock up the road.
85km to go Interestingly, the peloton is more than seven minutes back from the group, so Pidcock could make a big jump up the GC standings if this goes the way he wants today. I’m not sure he’d want to be any higher in the yellow jersey battle, as it would hurt his ability to go stage hunting.
91km to go There are 57 riders in this massive breakaway group. The intermediate sprint is in 27km, there will be a bit of formation juggling going on before and after that.
98km to go The breakaway is now in the sights of Pedersen, Girmay and co. A Wings-esque supergroup about to form at the sharp end of the race.
More memories, Rich Meyer in Indiana: “In high school I worked at a local bike shop in northern Indiana. A good crew, we all followed the Tour de France. Then in 1974 my college prof father had a sabbatical year and my parents took the whole family (five kids) to France. We lived in a suburb of Paris, we all went to French schools. Early one morning in July 1975 I took the Metro and stood on the curb of the Champs Elysee and watched the riders speed by. Eleven times right past my nose, 11 times on the far side of the boulevard.”
I love this too from Richard Eastham: “In 1995, I was on an Erasmus funded university exchange in Grenoble. I took my bike with me and cycled up the valley road to watch the Tour tackle Alpe d’Huez on stage 10. I stood on to roadside at hairpin number 10 to watch Marco Pantani fly past on his way to the stage win. I was up close and could see him squeeze his brake levers going into the corner, such was his speed. RIP Marco.”
Pantani was my favourite rider as a youngster. A sad downfall in so many regards.
108km to go Pedersen’s group now has the gap under 40 seconds. The intermediate sprint is in less than 40km, so work to be done still. Pedersen’s energy will surely be quite sapped by the time he bridges over so this is all about cutting losses.
116km to go Without wanting to jinx it as an unabashed Pidcock fan, this is looking good for him. An even climb, a long descent and he’s in the break. Let’s hope we don’t see a repeat of the mechanical that blighted him earlier in the week.
As ever, I ask and you deliver. This is a fabulous tale from Kieran Monaghan: “I have been blessed with many fond memories in recent years but I can’t escape a dreadful day that I now look at fondly. You may be able to cast your mind back to stage nine of 2023 Tour, where the riders were faced with the Puy De Dome, and where Matteo Jorgenson made a savage attack from the breakaway with 40km to go. Unknown to most, I had noticed Jorgensen’s Strava data had him heavily concerning himself with that stage finish; in the months leading up to it. With this knowledge I placed an each/way bet with very generous odds. You could imagine my glee as I mentally counted and spent my winnings whilst Jorgensen lead the pack by some distance. However, where there had once been elation, this soon shifted to sorrow as Jorgensen floundered on the final climb and was both slowly and quickly hauled in by Michael Woods and subsequently Pierre Latour.
“Having shifted my outlook and then contemplated my each/way spoils, I then had my heart broken on the line as Matej Mohoric pipped Jorgensen at the summit finish. A worthy stage winner in Woods, an unbelievable and cavalier talent in Jorgensen, and the brutalness that the parcours are capable of, the taste of victory snatched from my claws helped fuel my romanticism of the tour. Vive Le Tour!”
128km to go Pedersen looks like he is going all out chasing this break and most critically, Jasper Philipsen. The gap is 42 seconds and not really shifting. At which point do you knock this on the head? The breakaway is working well.
135km to go There seems to be a bit of a gap in the 37-man breakaway group. Pedersen’s group is still 50 seconds or so behind and not making up ground currently.
138km to go Mads Pedersen has got into the group chasing the breakaway and they are 50 seconds behind. The peloton is 2mins 47secs back and happy to let the racing happen ahead of them. This is going to be a really good race.
A couple more Tour memories. Lucy Vittucci (great name), in London: “My first memory is in the late 1970s. In a hot flat in central Rome I watched my usually reserved grandfather peering avidly at his black and white TV. My dad explained that that RAI were showing the Tour, a daily appointment in the hottest month of summer.
“Over the years I have always followed the Tour: first with my dad in the Italian countryside, while home from university. Later over the phone from London, discussing the day’s events.
“My dad passed away a few years ago, but the family tradition continues. I just share my thoughts with him in my mind now.”
A bit more recent from Owen Peek: “For me it’s watching the 2013 Tour via French TV despite not speaking French. Stage 18 is the queen stage with a double ascent of Alp D’huez and Tejay Van Gaderen is solo and looking like he’ll take a win for the ages until, out of the mist, appears French domestique Christophe Riblon for AG2R. The French commentators explode into life and are falling apart once Riblon catches and rides away from Van Gaderen.
“By the time Riblon takes the tape, the commentators have reduced me to tears despite not understanding a word they’ve said.
“A small snapshot of what cycling fans share. You can stand on a roadside somewhere in europe and share every kind of emotion (and a few beers) with those alongside you despite no shared language. Best spectator sport in the world.”
These are great. More please.
148km to go Lidl-Trek called off the chase and the gap to the breakaway group shot up. Now we have a smaller group from the bunch going off in pursuit of the break, Biniam Girmay is among them.
150km to go This break group is eeking out time. The gap is now 30 seconds and the riders chasing in the peloton seem to be tiring.
This is what I’m talking about, thanks Phil De Jersey: “I saw my first Tour in 1990, when I happened to coincide with a stage finish in Nantes. I joined a queue with little idea of what it was leading to, and slowly progressed forward… to touch Laurent Fignon’s bicycle. I’m fairly sure the same level of access to Pog’s bike wouldn’t be available today.”
I want to hear not just what happened but where you were while it was happening, keep the emails coming in folks. Link is at the top of the page.
160km to go Lidl-Trek have no riders in this group and are really pulling on the front to bring it back. We’re in a bit of a holding pattern.
167km to go This is great racing. The peloton is a bit of a mess and up in that large split group is Pidcock, plus a bunch of others.
170km to go There is a large split at the front, how did that happen? They turned a bend and a gap formed, was it wind? There must be 40-odd riders in this. This surely can’t get away, but maybe we’ll see a splinter group. They have 10 seconds on the main bunch.
172km to go The five-man initial break is no more. The peloton is all back together but we’re still wave after wave of attacks. Currently Fred Wright is having a dig.
We had a lively debate yesterday about the reaction to Pogacar’s dominance, but today I’d love to hear about your favourite Tour memories either watching at home or on the roadside. My first memory of the Tour is when it came to Brighton in 1994 with the finish on the seafront. Let me know yours via the email link at the top of the page.
182km to go The writing on the wall for this breakaway group. The counterattacks are inching the peloton up towards them.
187km to go We’re averaging 53km/h in this first 20km and the breakaway hasn’t got a decisive gap by any stretch, in fact it’s down the ten seconds. We could be on for a reset here.
193km to go It seems as if the peloton is relatively happy with the five riders who have gone and aren’t too willing to let others go. The likes of Tom Pidcock, Mads Pedersen and Ben Healy have missed this move.
201km to go Five riders have gone off the front: Louis Vervaeke (Soudal Quick-Step), Georg Zimmermann (Lotto Intermarche), Kasper Agreen (EF Education-EasyPost), Alex Kirsch (Cofidis) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Netcompany Ineos). Others will desperate to join them but they’ve established a 15-second gap.
Kilometre Zero
There’s no exlplosion off the start but it’s a narrow road to navigate from the flag drop.
We’re still about 3.5km out from the flag drop. Adam Yates is in need of some technical assistance, but should have time to get that sorted before we begin racing.
The riders are on the road out of Dole, the flag drop is in 12.5km.
Tadej Pogacar is just rolling towards the neutralised start line in Dole, the rollout will be getting underway shortly.
General classification standings
The yellow jersey picture ahead of today’s stage:
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): 43hrs 04mins 01secs
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike): +3mins 36secs
3. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe): +4mins 06secs
4. Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek): +4mins 22secs
5. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team): +4mins 35secs
6. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe): +4mins 44secs
7. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): +5mins 08secs
8. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek): +5mins 45secs
9. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious): +6mins 34secs
10. Ion Izagirre (Cofidis): +11mins 49secs
The points classification
On TNT, Adam Blythe said Mads Pedersen fancies today’s stage which would all but end the green jersey race if he could pull it off:
1. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) 357
2. Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling Team) 317
3. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) 311
4. Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) 307
5. Max Kanter (XDS Astana Team) 239
6. Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) 210
7. Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) 159
8. Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) 129
9. Milan Fretin (Cofidis) 117
10. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 107
King of the Mountains standings
There are a maximum of 12 points on offer in the polka dot parade today:
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 42
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) 27
3. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) 19
4. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) 18
5. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) 18
6. Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) 17
7. Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) 16
8. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) 16
9. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 14
10. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) 12
Here’s how the longest stage of this year’s Tour maps out:
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William Fotheringham
William Fotheringham’s stage guide
Stage 13, Friday 17 July: Dole to Belfort, 205.8km
The first of three days of climbing in north-eastern France and the longest stage of the race, with the intermediate sprint in the village of Mélisey, home to the retired French hero Thibaut Pinot. There is plenty of distance to build a lead, so you would expect a win from the breakaway by a climber who is also a superlative descender, with the first category Ballon d’Alsace – the first mountain pass to feature in the Tour in 1905 – less than 15 downhill kilometres from the finish. With a finale like this, supreme bike handler Tom Pidcock may fancy his chances.
Preamble
Strap in folks, we’re going long today. At least we might get something that resembles a breakaway today. The intermediate sprint comes with 68 of the lengthy 205km to go, so unless the sprint teams fancy trying to neutralise 130-odd kilometres of attacks something will have to give. UAE Team Emirates may decide, as they have throughout this race, to give the escapists a short leash but so long as the composition is suitable this really could be a day where there is a chance of a breakaway winner. The Ballon d’Alsace is the big beast in the road book, a category one ascent of 8.9km at 6.9%, that clearly means the winner will need to be a more than decent climber, but they’ll also need to have the nous to get down the other side. To me it looks like a Richard Carapaz kind of course and EF Education-Easypost are yet to get a stage win in this year’s Tour, but there will be a few frustrated riders in the peloton eyeing this up. Get the snacks in, settle in, this should be (we really hope) a bit of fun.
