Tour de France stage 10: Ben Healy takes yellow jersey, Simon Yates victorious for re-energized Visma team
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The other major storyline of the day was stage six winner Ben Healy's successful attempt to steal the yellow jersey from Tadej Pogačar. Healy effectively sacrificed his chance of a second stage win with a huge effort in the final 40 kilometers, with time gained on Pogacar his priority.
Yates and Healy were both part of a 29-rider breakaway that escaped early in the day, which was gradually whittled down as a vicious parcours — featuring eight categorized climbs — took its toll. Once again there was no French stage winner on Bastille Day, but Lenny Martinez is now firmly in the polka-dot jersey after a successful raid in the Massif Central.
💪 @SimonYatess held off @ThymenArensman. A look back at the final km of this 10th stage of the #TDF2025.
💪 @SimonYatess a résisté à @ThymenArensman. Retour sur le dernier km de cette 10ème étape du #TDF2025. pic.twitter.com/XFfYsltmkf
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 14, 2025
Behind the breakaway, Yates' Visma team were proactive for much of the stage, with the American pair of Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss helping to isolate Pogacar from the rest of his team-mates by the time the GC group reached the final climb. The Slovenian was still able to attack on Le Mont-Dore but Jonas Vingegaard matched him, with the pair crossing the line together.
Yates' stage win, plus a show of strength from his team throughout the stage, means Visma will head into the first rest day in decent spirits. 'I've been getting better every day since I've been here,' Yates said after the stage. If his teammates can follow suit then this edition of the Tour is far from over.
Chris Waugh and Duncan Alexander analyse the stage.
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First of all, a thank you to Tim Spiers.
'Forget Bastille Day… today is also Black Country Day… and Ben Healy was born in the Black Country,' he messaged as the stage neared its conclusion.
Healy may have become only the fourth-ever Irishmen to wear the yellow jersey, but that is due to his heritage on his father's side. The 24-year-old was actually born in Wordsley in a part of England which has been known as the Black Country since the 19th century.
On the evidence of this magnificent performance, which follows his first-ever Tour stage win via a solo attack on stage 6, everyone will be laying claim to Healy.
Again the EF Education-EasyPost rider got himself into a break; again he pushed the pace for large parts of this extremely hilly day to reduce the size of the front group; and, while he did not win the stage, Healy somehow managed to overturn a three-minute and 55-second gap to Pogačar and to claim the race lead.
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Quinn Simmons had repeatedly tried to attack from the breakaway group. But Healy responded over and over again, dropping the American with 14 km to go. On the penultimate climb, the Col de la Croix Saint Robert, Healy even managed to maintain a five-minute-plus gap to Pogačar, setting himself up for one last effort on the Le Mont-Dore.
Those 3.3 km, with an average gradient of 7.7 percent, were punishing for everyone, but especially for Healy. He kept pushing, however, and managed to somehow find the reserves to hold off and then drop Ben O'Connor.
A third-placed finish gave 24-year-old Healy four bonus seconds, which ensured him a 29-second GC lead as the race heads into Tuesday's rest day, plus a one minute and 29 second lead in the white jersey competition for the race's best young rider.
He is the first Irishman to wear the yellow jersey since 1987, when Stephen Roche claimed overall victory in Paris. Shay Elliot and Sean Kelly are the only Irish riders to pull on the Maillot Jaune.
'It's a fairytale. If you told me this before the Tour, I wouldn't have believed you. To wear the yellow jersey is incredible, and beyond belief,' Healy said.
There have been many great storylines in this race so far, but Healy's may just be the best of them all.
Chris Waugh
Cliches are cliches for a reason — and French riders being inspired on July 14 is among the most established truisms in sport.
This year, it was Martinez who propelled himself to new heights, cheered on by his entire nation, half of whom seemed to be on the roadside.
The 22-year-old certainly has strong racing genes. His father, Miguel, and grandfather, Mariano, were professional cyclists, while his uncle, Yannick, formerly raced at the top level with Team Europcar and is now with French amateur outfit Guidon Chalettois.
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Just 51 days after his 20th birthday, the younger Martinez wore the red leader's jersey at the 2023 Vuelta a Espana on his Grand Tour bow.
In fact, this is only his third appearance at a three-week race and only the second time he has ridden the Tour, having made his debut last year.
But the Bahrain Victorious rider has certainly announced himself to his compatriots now, getting himself into the early breakaway and then cresting each of the opening five category two climbs in first place. Even when O'Connor attacked 2.5 km from the top of the Cote de Charade, the third summit, Martinez reeled the Australian just before the top to claim the maximum five points on offer.
Although he fell away later on, even suffering a nosebleed inside the final 30 km as his expenditure on a gruelling stage showed, Martinez had already achieved his primary goal.
Having started the day with only two points in the King of the Mountains classification, Martinez quickly assumed the virtual lead. He held on until the end and, with 27 points, he leads Healy in second by 11.
After Tuesday's rest day, he will don the polka-dots for the first time on stage 11. Even if the Bastille Day boost will have subsided by then, Martinez now has a concrete task to focus on as the race moves inexorably towards the Pyrenees.
Chris Waugh
It is a good job that Pogačar is a relaxed character — because he found himself worryingly isolated during an enthralling stage through the Massif Central.
For the first time in 2025, the Tour entered the mountains and, while it did not exactly produce fireworks among the GC contenders, it did lead to gaps on the final 3.3 km climb up Le Mont-Dore.
But long before then, Visma Lease-a-Bike attempted to exploit their numerical dominance when compared to UAE Team Emirates. Joao Almeida, Pogačar's trusted climbing lieutenant, was forced to withdraw on Sunday due to injuries sustained earlier in the race, and then, worryingly, an ill Pavel Sivakov struggled from an early point of stage 10 and was unable to help his race leader.
Vingegaard was understandably keen to test his great rival and, with 30 km to go, he sent Kuss up the road. Jorgenson attempted to follow, only for Pogačar to shut the attack down, but soon the Californian tried again and managed to create a gap and join his compatriot ahead.
Pogačar did not panic, however, and with Yates helping to narrow the gap, the Slovenian managed to bring the GC race back together.
Time and again Visma tried late on, with Pogačar responding on every occasion, before Remco Evenepoel attempted an ambitious attack on the final climb. That, though, merely woke the beast.
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Once Pogačar surged, only Vingegaard could follow. As usual.
Having gapped the group behind, Pogačar settled into an even pace behind Martinez and looked at ease as he advanced towards the finish. Kevin Vauquelin was the big loser among the top 10, the Frenchman ceding 46 seconds to the two favourites and dropping to sixth from third overall.
🥵 @kevin_vauquelin gave his all to save his third place, losing 1'26" to Tadej Pogacar
🇫🇷 @kevin_vauquelin a tout donné pour sauver sa troisième place, il perd 1'26" sur Tadej Pogacar #TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/9cmfcYZody
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 14, 2025
As they crossed the line, Vingegaard patted Pogačar's arm and then shook his hand. There is mutual respect between them, even if they are fiercely competitive.
TADEJ 🤝 JONAS 💛#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/ZiPfigb5BZ
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 14, 2025
Visma's first attempt to break the world champion failed but, with five mountain stages still to come, it is obvious that UAE are already stretched thin. Too thin? We will soon find out.
Chris Waugh
How many riders spent the first 20 minutes of stage 10 cursing the fact that France's national holiday had delayed the race's first rest day by 24 hours and instead sent them straight up a hill in Ennezat?
Break formation on such a difficult and unrelenting day — the first Tour de France stage to ever feature as many as seven category two climbs — was always going to be frantically contested, and so it proved.
The headline from the first 25 kilometres was Visma-Lease A Bike and Soudal-Quick Step both slipping two riders into an initial group of 28, potential help up the road later in the stage for Vingegaard and Evenepoel. And if that was a sign of weakness from Pogačar's UAE team, already diminished from the abandonment of Almeida during stage nine, then the sight of Sivakov struggling was another.
French cycling, spiritually obligated to try something on July 14, were strongly represented too, with Julian Alaphilippe, Valentin Paret-Peintre, his brother Aurélien, Alex Baudin, Martinez, Quentin Pacher, Bruno Armirail and Clément Champoussin all involved. Other names of note included Healy, erstwhile GC contender O'Connor, American pair Neilson Powless and Simmons and eventual stage winner Yates.
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There was a time, not so long ago, when television did not broadcast the start of Tour de France stages. True, you could easily have turned on stage 10 with an hour or so to go and enjoyed the various battles taking place, but witnessing how an epic day took shape only makes what the riders produced a few hours later even more impressive.
Duncan Alexander
On Tuesday the riders finally get a chance to recuperate on the Tour's first rest day. Then after that it is...
The race resumes after the first race day with a stage that is near the Pyrenees but not quite in them. It's a flat-ish profile but contains some short-but-steep climbs in the closing kilometres. Some of the sprinters won't be able to hang on; those that do will fancy their chances of victory.
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