Key events
50km to go: The games continue, and a crosswind approaches. Ben Healy is in a group a minute off the leaders. It’s time to work out who has a chance can stay away on Ventoux. The answer, most probably, is nobody.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape sprint goes to Abrahamsem
59km to go: Here comes that sprint, and the points do not go to Milan. His team have dropped the ball here. Girmay is nowhere near, either. Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X Mobility takes it, with few interested chasers. Simone Velasco of Astana has a half-hearted go.
65 km to go: Apologies for the use of X, but here’s the personnel in the breakaway. It’s splitting in half now, too.
70km to go: The sprint draws clear, as they speed through beautiful countryside and then some more suburban scenery. The sprint is at Châteauneuf-du-Pape, who all you winos will recognise the name. Not cheap, usually.
Wiki: “literally translates to “The Pope’s new castle” and, indeed, the history of this appellation is firmly entwined with papal history. In 1309, Pope Clement V, former Archbishop of Bordeaux, relocated the papacy to the town of Avignon. Clement V and subsequent “Avignon Popes” were said to be great lovers of Burgundy wines and did much to promote them during the 70-year Avignon Papacy.”
Does this mean they go sur le pont d’Avignon?
80km to go: A downhill section – welcome, no doubt – and Jonathan Milan’s team has missed the break, and that could damage his chances of the green jersey. He’s 2’ 25” off the front of the course. In a group ahead, Biniam Girmay is looking to take points off the green holder. Soler and Sivakov of Team UAE are in the break, to do that police work.
90km to go: Here comes what Jim Davidson would call a big break. But it’s too big to stay away in truth. Healy, Ireland’s hero, is involved. Here’s Alaphilippe, the “winner” of Sunday’s stage. This is chaotic stuff, really. There’s 30 riders or so up there, and the gap is a minute or so. Food and bottles are taken on in the peloton.
100 km to go: The sprint is 40km to go, and the break is being closed down. Feels like a phoney war for much of the day then blast off as the Ventoux beckons. Lots of trepidation for a climb that holds such portents of doom. As the 100km clock is reached, the break is closed by mostly Visma riders from Vingegaard’s team. Wout van Aert is on manoeuvres.
110 km to go: Comfort breaks are taken, but not in the breakaway who open up the gap. Such a long way to go for them. Anyone winning from that trio would be borderline miraculous. They are 1’ 45” clear. But not for long, as Schmid and Plapp set of for Team Jayco.
Joseph gets in touch: “We’re following your live commentary sat in Bedoin at the foot of Ventoux. The whole town is buzzing.”
Presume not buzzing at my plodding prose, instead the key stage of Le Tour 2025.
120 km to go: Sally Ledger gets in touch: “Morning John, I’m in exactly the same position as Huw Morgan (without the 3pm board meeting) and am also a Pogacar superfan. I know where Huw’s coming from but, unlike John [Huw?], I want Pogacar to absolutely crush it today. I know most want a close fought tussle but I just love watching him take flight. I’m actually quite nervous on his behalf. Go Pogi!”
Gary Naylor makes a fine point: “I believe that Pogacar is growing into an old school patron and, as such, it’s his responsibility to ensure that the race bestows its gifts generously. So I hope he just marks Visma today and lets a break go. The race needs a climber and a sprinter in the jerseys on Sunday and only he can ensure that.”
The trio breakaway stay away but within easy reach.
125km to go: Much chicanery, though the escapees will be allowed to stay away for now. Nils Pollitt, the domestique for UAE and Pogacar, is doing a policing job on the front, making sure nobody joins the trio 45 seconds clear, though the clock soon reverts to 33 seconds. UAE want this for their man. Milan wants to be up the front for his green jersey point. The sprint isn’t until 59km left in the stage.
140 km to go: They’re rattling along at 60 km/h and the break loses its advantage. It looks like breaks will come and go until that final fateful climb.
155km to go: Here go three men good and true in another attempt to establish a break. The gap is eight seconds but climbs to 25. Meurrise, Haller and Hirschi are those up in the vanguard. Marc Hirschi won on stage 11 in 2020, a hilly stage ending in Sarran.
165km to go: Lenny Martinez is up the front, and will fancy another breakaway to land his polka points. The breaks aren’t snagging just yet. Montpellier is left behind as the Med coast appears in view. It looks ridiculously beautiful.
Huw Morgan gets in touch: “Work web filtering means I’m on the live updates only. My colleague Libby has wisely chosen to WFH so she can watch it. I’m not so lucky with a board meeting to attend at 3pm. I’ve been following cycling for 3 years now and I’ve never seen a stage like this. Flat, flat, flat, BANG. Absolutely buzzing to watch it with my wife when I get home from work! We’re Pogacar super fans but hoping for a real tussle on Ventoux with Pog losing some time.”
Off we go in Montpellier
171.2 km to go: Christian Prudhomme waves them away, and off goes an immediate breakaway, with Wout van Aert among them. Ivan Romeo is there, too, as is Jonathan Milan, still fighting off Pogacar.
Strava’s read on the Ventoux climb.
Any segment where Tadej Pogačar is No1 on the leaderboard is going to hurt – his time of exactly 1 hour for this 13.4 mile / 21.5km climb during the 2021 Tour is almost unfathomable. But put that time to one side and concentrate on the road in front of you, as this climb is known as the ‘Beast of Provence’ for a reason: the last 3.7 miles / 6km are painful, and mentally you should prepare yourself.
The views up to that point are largely forest-based, but once you exit the trees you’re in a dusty, rock-strewn lunar landscape, exposed to potentially strong winds, low temperatures and hovering clouds. Look out for Tom Simpson’s memorial, as that means you have just 1km left to the summit where your legs can rest.
Van der Poel pulls out with pneumonia
The Dutchman has been diagnosed with pneumonia and will not start Stage 16 on Tuesday, having been a leading light and worn yellow in Le Tour’s opening week.
“Mathieu had been experiencing symptoms of a common cold over the past few days. Yesterday afternoon, his condition began to worsen significantly.” his Alpecin-Deceuninck team said in a statement. He was third in the points classification for the green jersey at the time of his withdrawal, behind Jonathan Milan and Tadej Pogacar.
There’s 8km to go until the départ réel, when the attacks are expected from the get-go.
Nick Wayne gets in touch: “I suppose it’s a sign of maturity if he saves his energy for the Alps. It would also make for a cracking stage win if he blasts out of the pedals a few K before the line. “
Pogacar has sat up the last two stages, allowed the breakaway to go.
Is the race for the yellow jersey over? Not according to Jonas Vingegaard, the two-time winner promising to go for broke.
“We have to try to do something,” he said, and insisted that he was willing to risk everything to win. “There needs to be a weakness somewhere on Tadej’s part. For now, we haven’t found it, but we’ll keep trying. I’m willing to sacrifice second place to go for first.”
William Fotheringham on the legend of Ventoux.
Tempora mutantur, but not the Ventoux. That, partly, reflects one of the key features of the Tour; the way it constantly revisits and rewrites its past in places that have barely changed since the first visit. Go round the partly banked corner at Saint-Estève and on to the virtually straight haul through the oak-wooded lower slopes, and it’s essentially the same brutal experience that the stars of the 50s, 60s and 70s might have undergone, perhaps with better tarmac as you go up with barely a hairpin to break the gradient until the final haul across the scree slopes to the top.
Preamble
Here then, is the Alpine stage that rivals only Alpe d’Huez for its place in folklore of Le Tour. And unlike L’Alpe, visits are far rarer. As the riders head towards the summit finish, they will visit terrain that bears closes resemblance to the surface of the Moon rather than the sweeping greenery of le belle campagne. It was last the finish of a stage in 2016, won by Thomas de Gendt, but memorable for Chris Froome running up that hill. The man in the frame today is Tadej Pogacar, and he seeks to emulate the greats in winning on Ventoux, which he climbed up – and twice – in 2021, smashing the field as he did. Poulidor, Merckx and Pantani all raised their arms in victory in that rarified air so can he?
The neutralised start is 11.10 UK time. Join us.
