Key events
27km to go: Ben Healy looks strong as he reaches the summit of Côte de Saint-Michel-de-Montjoie. There’s a roaring crowd cheering him on. He picks up two KOM points. Quinn Simmons and Michael Storer are trying to close the gap to the Irish rider.
30km to go: The final category three climb is the 3.7km Côte de Saint-Michel-de-Montjoie – it has an average gradient of 4.5 %.
Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) has made a break for it and Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) has followed. The pair are getting away!
33km to go: Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) has the Côte de Saint-Michel-de-Montjoie in sight. He has a gap of 48secs on the seven riders chasing him.
As Peter pointed out Simon Yates would have been given the green light by his team, Visma-Lease a Bike not UAE Team Emirates as I said earlier. My bad. Apologies.
Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates) tells his team he’s “done for the day” and pulls off the front.
37km to go: Wow. EF Education-EasyPost’s Ben Healy is determined. He does have experience in a solo getaway. Healy’s now got 28secs on the seven riders behind him. In that group everyone takes turns behind him to organise the chase but no one is going to want to do more work than they have to.
42km to go: We’re inside the last hour of racing now and the breakaway’s gap is nearing 4mins. Hang on a second, Ben Healy has decided to attack. Surely, he doesn’t think the group will let him go? Mathieu Van der Poel chases.
47km to go: Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) got out of the saddle there to go ahead and grab a couple of KOM points. Eddie Dunbar (Jayco Alula) spotted him and followed to take the other point.
KOM results at Côte de Juvigny-le-Tertre
1. Storer, 2 pts
2. Dunbar, 1 pt
48km to go: Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling), Eddie Dunbar (Jayco Alula), Will Barta (Movistar) and Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) have started climbing the category three Côte de Juvigny-le-Tertre (2.2km with an avergae gradient of 7.3%). Who’ll go for the KOM points at the top?
Paul would like to share his experience on the beard-cycling-aero topic:
Just to add some real-life data to the beard issue, I found that when sporting facial hair, quite a fancy bike, and in a good weather with negligible wind, my normaliaed power (NP) – a weighted average that accounts for variations and surges, and my functional threshold power (FTP), a measure of sustainable full-gas effort, were disappointingly poor.
When clean shaven, in the same conditions, my NP and FTP were also disappointingly poor. I trust this is helpful.
52km to go: On ITV4 Ned Boulting says that Simon Yates has been given the green light by Visma-Lease a Bike to go for the stage win. The eight riders in the breakaway are heading towards the penultimate catgeory three climb of the day. The final climb into the finish is a category four.
58km to go: An interesting fact, via Le Tour race centre:
Eddie Dunbar climbed the Côte de Mortain Cote 314 at 18.3 km/h (1.6 km at 9.5%). This is the first time in his career that he has scored points in the best climber classification!
The breakaway is firmly established and they have grown their lead to 3mins 11secs.
More pictures from the Tour’s stage six as the peloton head towards Vire Normandie:
63km to go: The riders in the break have just tackled the Côte de Mortain – 1.6km of ascent at 9.5% – and Jayco-Alula’s Eddie Dunbar is first over the summit.
KOM results at Côte de Mortain Cote 314
1. Dunbar, 2 pts
2. Healy, 1 pt
Well, well, well. Neil’s question about Quinn Simmon’s hair and beard (see 2.24pm BST) caused a flurry of correspondence in my inbox.
Tim emailed in to say:
I’d just like to congratulate Neil on raising his very valid concerns on the watts per follicle of Simmons’ mullet.
I don’t think the official data is in the public domain yet but I think, as the breakaway powers toward the finish, all our minds turn to the possibility that Laurent Fignon’s ponytail cost him around 10 vital seconds on theChamps-Élysées in 1989.
Alan from Cupar in Scotland says:
Hi Amy, in response to the query about Quinn Simmons beard, as a fellow beardy I often wondered about this and luckily Specialized [has] done some testing and found that the difference between having a beard and sporting a clean shave were negligible, certainly over 40km.
He’s shared this video:
Roland’s shared his thoughts:
To answer Neil, I’d imagine that Simmons face furniture and flowing mane might add a little drag in terms of cutting through the air but given that he isn’t a sprinter it’s probably much of a muchness. Better to be a hirsute hero than just another humdrum domestique …
68km to go: The breakaway has upped their gap to almost 3mins. UAE Team Emirates on the radio have just said to keep the pace as it is and that they don’t need to push at the moment.
77km to go: The breakaway are whizzing along at 65km/h down a slight descent in aero tucks. They have more than 2mins on the peloton now. The next climb is the category three 1.7km Côte de Mortain Cote 314 (average gradient of 9.6%).
Neil has a burning question:
Quinn Simmons has a luxuriant head of hair and a decent beard. If he removed both, any idea how many watts he’d gain?
I have no idea but his magnificent hair, beard and the US jersey makes him very easy for me to spot in the TV coverage, so I hope he’s not tempted to find out. Anyone else have any thoughts?
84km to go: There’s a 1min 38ec gap for the breakaway. Tim has got in touch from Amsterdam and he asks: “Where’s Wout?”
I’m in Amsterdam at the moment. It’s great. Very mellow. But I don’t have access to a TV.
I saw from your feed that Wout went out the back? Where is he now?
Frankly, Visma’s erratic performance is causing me no little angst. If you see any of them after today’s stage I’d be very grateful if you could convey my concerns to them? Thanks.
Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) is about 5mins behind the breakaway and 3mins 36sec behind the peloton. He’s in a group of 26 riders with Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), Marc Hirschi (Tudor Pro Cycling), Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), Connor Swift (Ineos Grenadiers) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility).
The green jersey group of 32 riders are 5mins 26sec behind Van Aert’s group.
Andy from Herne Hill in south London has emailed in:
I’m very much enjoying the live updates. Sat in an open plan office with colleagues who sadly don’t appreciate the level of pure theatre that the Tour is.
I’m glued to your updates rather than listening to Ned’s dulcet tones on ITV4. If this were football, we’d have it on a telly or something and no one would blink twice.
Keep up the great work!
That is a shame. Your colleagues don’t know what they’re missing.
Mathieu van der Poel in breakaway halfway through stage six
100km to go: We’re halfway through the stage and the breakaway has increased its gap to 1min 13secs. Just as a reminder, here are the eight riders in that group: Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Harold Tejada (XDS Astana), Will Barta (Movistar), Eddie Dunbar (Jayco Alula), Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling).
107km to go: Tim Wellens, Marc Soler and Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates) have been trying to control the peloton. Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers) initiates another counterattack.
110km to go: The counterattackers have been caught. The eight rider breakaway is stabilising but still have a slender gap of about 24secs. The riders are about to go through a feed zone.
121km to go: It didn’t work out for Madous – he’s been caught. The eight riders in the breakaway are working together to increase the gap on the chasing group.
There’s also now a group of five riders, including Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike), that has 12secs on the peloton and are chasing towards the breakaway.
126km to go: Olympic silver medalist Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) wants to join the breakaway group and is on his way. There are now only about 60 riders left in the peloton. A group including Bahrain Victorious’s Lenny Martinez is just over a minute behind the peloton and there seems to be another group behind them too which includes Wout Van Aert.
130km to go: In the time I went to get some water, Eddie Dunbar (Jayco Alula), Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) joined the five riders in the break. The now eight-man group have a gap of about 20secs on the peloton.
Matt has emailed in to say he and his wife are cheering on Jonas Vingegaard:
Working shifts in the NHS as I do I find a bizarre comfort in courses like today’s where the riders face a series of heavygoing climbs at the end – feels relatable! Keeping an eye on developments during lunch breaks each day.
Anyway my wife and I love an underdog story so are keeping our money on Vingegaard to take the Tour. Tadej can’t collect jerseys for three weeks.
136km to go: And Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet (Groupama-FDJ) has been caught. The breakaway gap has come down to about 20secs. Will they manage to stay away? There’s still a lot of kms (and climbs) to come.
139km to go: Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet (Groupama-FDJ) is chasing the five-man breakaway. He’s 10secs ahead of the peloton and 30secs behind the front group.
Van der Poel, Healy, Simmons, Tejada and Barta in breakaway
142km to go: There’s a breakaway of five riders now: Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) and Will Barta (Movistar). Could this be the decisive breakaway of the day? There’s been so many attempts and attacks already.
145km to go: UAE Team Emirates and Visma-Lease a Bike move towards the front. They’re cautious of letting a breakaway get away. Here are the results from that climb:
KOM results at Côte de la Rançonnière
1. Wellens, 2 pts
2. Woods, 1 pt
146km to go: The breakaway has been caught. Ben Healy (EF Education-Easypost) has attacked with 700m of the climb still to go. Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) is up for some more KOM points and accelerates.
Here are some pictures of the fans on today’s stage:
153km to go: Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Movistar’s Pablo Castrillo looked as if they were about to get caught by the peloton, but have upped their pace and maintained a gap. They’re hurtling along to the category three 2.2km Côte de la Rançonnière (average gradient of 7.8%).
The green jersey group are 2mins 12secs behind the peloton.
Jem from Kenilworth in Warwickshire has emailed in:
Looks a hot one for the Tour today. Me and my mate John are out for a ride tomorrow in the sun tackling the towering peaks of Warwickshire so I’ll have to give the column a miss for a day.
We won’t be rolling along at over 50kp/h at any part of the proceedings – except maybe downhill. Great coverage.
Enjoy your ride tomorrow Jem!
162km to go: Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) has attacked! Julian Alaphilippe tries to follow. Van Aert has company now with Movistar’s Pablo Castrillo. They have about 10secs on the peloton.
164km to go: US national champ Quinn Simmons had his eyes on those KOM points and he took them with a push over the line, pipping Tudor Pro Cycling’s Marc Hirschi.
KOM results at Côte du Mont Pinçon
1. Simmons, 2 pts
2. Hirschi, 1 pt
The peloton are now descending. Sprinters – Milan, Girmay, Merlier, Watson, Bittner – have dropped off the back of the peloton and are well over a minute behind.
166km to go: There’s been a flurry of attacks but the bottom line is that the breakaway have been caught near the summit of the Côte du Mont Pinçon.
Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) was the first rider to bridge the gap to the lead duo.
170km to go: Here is how the points classification ranking looks after the intermediate sprint:
1. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), 112
2. Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), 102
3. Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), 97
4. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), 97
5. Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quick Step), 72
The breakaway – with a 13sec gap – are now climbing the category three Côte du Mont Pinçon (5.6km at 3.7%).
173km to go: The gap for the pair out front (Lidl-Trek’s Quinn Simmons and EF Education-EasyPost’s Ben Healy) has increased to 15secs. Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) has made a move and attacked from the peloton, but he’s out there on his own.
177km to go: Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) followed the sprinters and are trying to make a breakaway happen. They’ve only got 6secs on the pack behind them.
180km to go: Intermarché-Wanty and Lidl-Trek were in control going into that sprint and although Biniam Girmay was well positioned, Jonathan Milan pushed hard to cross the line first and scoop up 20pts.
Results of the intermediate sprint
1. Milan, 20 pts
2. Van der Poel, 17 pts
3. Girmay, 15 pts
4. Turgis, 13 pts
5. Simmons, 11 pts
6. Healy, 10 pts
7. Groves, 9 pts
8. Alaphilippe, 8 pts
9. Rex, 7 pts
10. Tronchon, 6 pts
11. Albanese, 5 pts
12. Vermeersch, 4 pts
13. Teunissen, 3 pts
14. Velasco, 2 pts
15. Zimmermann, 1 pt
182km to go: Before we head into the intermediate sprint, here’s a reminder of the standings for the points classification now:
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), 97pts
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), 92 pts
Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), 87 pts
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), 80pts
Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quick-Step), 72pts
There’s some great pictures already coming in today from the newswires:
189km to go: The peloton are eating up the kilometres – they’ve been rattling along at about 50km/h since the start. Intermarché-Wanty are still controlling the front, with their sprinter Biniam Girmay among them.
195km to go: Fans of Normandy native Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) are out in force. There’s even a hot air balloon in a field with a giant picture of his face on it.
Israel-Premier Tech have been on the radio to their riders telling them that Lidl-Trek and Intermarché-Wanty are controlling the peloton to the sprint.
The racing has begun!
197km to go: The peloton are away. There’s an intermediate sprint pretty early on today – just 20km in to the parcours. Intermarché-Wanty have made their intentions clear by a number of riders taking up positions at the front.
ITV4 have spoken to Sepp Kuss. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider diplomatically shrugs off Jonas Vingegaard’s ITT result, saying sometimes you just have a bad day. He stresses that the Tour is long and it’s early days. There’s still time.
In a clip of an interview Vingegaard gave yesterday to a Danish TV station, the rider said:
[I’m] disappointed in today but it doesn’t make me believe in myself less … I still think I can win the Tour.
Today’s rollout has begun
Stage six of the Tour de France 2025 is under way. The peloton have rolled out from a Bayeux. There’s a 5.2km neutralised section before the racing begins.
Tadej Pogačar is collecting jerseys. As the official Tour de France X account puts it:
It’s the first time since Philippe Gilbert and his victory on stage one of the 2011 Tour that a rider has the lead in the GC, the sprinter’s classification and the mountain classification.
It’s the first time since Philippe Gilbert and his victory on stage 1 of the 2011 Tour that a rider has the lead in the GC, the sprinter’s classification and the mountain classification. 💛💚❤️🤍
C’est la première fois depuis Philippe Gilbert et sa victoire sur l’étape 1 du Tour… pic.twitter.com/UoRqqUqZ6E
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 10, 2025
Stage six: Bayeux to Vire, 201km
Here’s a look at today’s stage, Thursday 10 July: Bayeux to Vire, 201.5km, with William Fotheringham’s preview:
The Suisse Normande isn’t widely known among cyclists now, but back in the day local amateurs spoke in awe of races over this area’s leg-breaking climbs. The fun starts in the final 70km, with three third-category climbs, before a final little brute, the Côte de Vaudry, 4km from the finish. French fans will be hoping Julian Alaphilippe can throw back the years as this would have been made for him in his pomp.
Preamble
At 201.5km, today’s stage six from Bayeux to Vire Normandie is the second longest stage of this year’s Tour. It’s also a punchy stage with a total elevation gain of 3,550m – that’s greater than the third week stage that ends with a climb of Mont Ventoux. There are six categoried climbs on the route today; all category three except the final Côte de Vaudry. And the finish is steep, averaging just over 10% for 700 metres.
The peloton are scheduled to roll out at 12.35pm CEST (11.35am BST) and the finish is estimated to be at about 5.14pm CEST (4.14pm BST).
So how might today look? A stage like this could be one for a good breakaway. Of course, where there’s a climb, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) won’t be far away. It’ll be interesting to see how Jonas Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike play today after yesterday’s disappointing time trial result.
Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) is one to watch having grown up in Normandy; he knows the terrain and climbs well. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin‑Deceuninck) is a favourite too among pundits. As always I’d love to hear your predictions so please email me your thoughts, questions and guesses.
While we wait for the live TV coverage to kick off, here’s Jeremy Whittle’s stage five race from Caen report:
