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New York Times
a day ago
- Sport
- New York Times
‘Not every story is a fairytale' – Inside the Cofidis team car on France's national holiday
The wooded slopes of the Col de la Croix Saint-Robert are lined with polka dots and screaming fans. Camper vans are parked nose to tail; a washing line stretches from the roof of one to a nearby tree branch. Three T-shirts are drying in the correct order — one blue, one white, one red. Underneath, a woman in leopard-print trousers has her own French flag draped around her shoulders. Even here, eight kilometers from the closest town, she drinks white wine from a real glass. Advertisement Welcome to Bastille Day in the Massif Central. France's national day always comes midway through the Tour — this year, organizers pushed back the traditional second Monday rest day, to give the masses their racing. Each year, July 14 marks the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789, a flashpoint of the French revolution. This month, French cycling is still waiting for its own spark. No French rider has won a stage of this Tour, nor even come particularly close — the last domestic stage winner was Anthony Turgis on stage nine of 2024's edition. Increasingly, espoir has been turning into désespoir — hope into desperation. But now, as it has always been, Bastille Day is the day that can right all wrongs. French teams are desperate to perform on a national holiday — for a home rider, winning on July 14 can crown a career. David Moncoutie could barely speak after soloing to victory in Digne-les-Bains back in 2005, repeating like a broken toy: 'I'm just too happy, too happy!' There has been just one French Bastille Day victory since. 'Sometimes I think it's too much pressure for the French teams that day,' says Sebastien Joly, a coach at fellow French squad Decathlon-AG2R. 'Riders are expected just to do everything and anything. So you have to be focused, you have to ride to a plan.' Back then, Moncoutie was riding for Cofidis, one of France's most historic teams. That was the end of their golden era — over the previous decade, they had boasted riders such as Frank Vandenbroucke, David Millar, and Lance Armstrong. One of Moncoutie's teammates in that race was compatriot Cedric Vasseur, himself a two-time stage winner in 1997 and 2007, who now serves as the team's general manager. But in truth, the team has not experienced a vintage season in 20 years. Victor Lafay's stage victory in 2023 ended a 15-year Tour drought, but failed to rejuvenate the team. They are now at risk of relegation from the top-tier WorldTour, and were the final team in this year's race to record a top-10 finish, having to wait eight days for sprinter Bryan Coquard's seventh place in Laval. Advertisement That is not to say it has not been tumultuous. The team had 13 bicycles worth a total of €143,000 stolen before stage two, eventually recovered with the help of French police, and were only able to compete that day due to the proximity of their headquarters in north eastern France. One day later, Coquard inadvertently crashed into Alpecin-Deceuninck's Jasper Philipsen during a sprint, breaking the Belgian's collarbone, and forcing him to abandon the race. Coquard was in tears on the bus afterwards, with the team forced to release a statement pleading for kindness on social media. In their search for results, Cofidis' squad is taking on an increasingly international flavour — there is a heavy Basque influence amidst the team's coaching staff and top riders — but they still have four Frenchmen in their Tour squad. With limited opportunities for wins, Bastille Day is a stage they have to target. They have no choice. 'It's a very important day,' says Vasseur from outside the team bus. He prowls around the bikes, grabbing riders by the shoulder and rubbing their backs. 'It's July 14, the French national day, and it's a very steep and hilly stage. If you have to choose one day to do something, to do something great, it's today. The TV, on the road, there will be a huge audience. Today is a day you cannot miss.' Cofidis are pinning their hopes on the four climbers in their team — Emanuel Buchmann, Ion Izagirre, Dylan Teuns, and Alex Aranburu. 'It's French day, but we know our strongest guys here are not French,' Vasseur adds. The plan is for Buchmann to try to stick with the general classification (GC) favourites, protecting his own hopes of a top-15 finish, while Izagirre, Teuns, and Araburu have been ordered to infiltrate the breakaway. With around a dozen other teams also targeting the stage, this alone is a challenging task. Advertisement 'There's only a 50-50 chance that the GC favorites let the break go,' says Vasseur. 'So to win, you need really strong guys in the break. They'll need a lead of three or four minutes if they're to hold on against (Jonas) Vingegaard and (Tadej) Pogačar.' Izagirre was perhaps the team's best chance of success, but the Basque rider crashed the previous day. His body is tender, skin abraded like a fishing net left in the sun. Making the break appears a pipedream. As one of UAE's team cars passes, two Cofidis mechanics call out to them, asking them to let the breakaway go. 'We're expecting a lot of chaos at the beginning,' says Teuns, a two-time Tour stage winner at other teams, and champion at the prestigious Fleche Wallonne three years ago. 'We'll try to get in a lot of moves, but you also have to be conservative with the bullets you have. Don't shoot them all in the first 30 kilometers. It could take a long time today to go in the break.' Outside the roped-off warm-up area of Cofidis' bus, the Bastille Day atmosphere is rising. If you were asked to label France on a map, Ennezat would be the point of the pin, a small commune deep in its rolling heart. Julian Alaphilippe rides by, today's stage is just an hour from his home town. The crowd is so febrile that a Tudor Cycling staff member has to clear his way on a scooter, ringing her bell like a breaker cleaving ice. The temperature, however, is stifling. As the Tour's caravan rolls through, several tricolores daubed on cheeks run with sweat in the midday sun. Thirty minutes later, it is Gorka Gerrikagoitia piloting his way through the throng. He is driving one of Cofidis' three support cars, in second position on the road. One of the team's directeur sportifs, responsible for setting strategy throughout the door, he was a professional rider himself in the early 2000s. Still boasting the lithe body of a climber, he completed the Vuelta a Espana on three occasions. The 165 km stage to Mont-Dore is the toughest day of the race so far. With 4,450 meters of climbing, plus a mini-summit finish, Gerrikagoitia believes that 'the Tour de France, for the GC riders, begins today'. With the favorites boasting fresh legs after two easier sprint days, the pace was expected to be punishingly high — even if the previous day's stage was the second-fastest in Tour history. Advertisement Gerrikagoitia's first job is to get out of Ennezat before the race, waiting ahead of the riders with bidons to refresh them in the 86F (30C) heat. Châtel-Guyon is the first new town of the race, and as the Cofidis DS weaves through the closed streets, its inhabitants are three-deep on the roadside. Every table in a 20 km radium seems to be out, dusted and polished — restaurant, plastic garden, kitchen dining sets. Most jerseys on the roadside belong to FDJ, a de facto French national team, but there is representation too for second division TotalEnergies, as well as Breton squad Arkea-B&B Hotels, whose star rider, third-placed Kevin Vauquelin, is the highest-positioned Frenchman on GC. A shirtless teenage boy runs alongside the car for 100 meters. 'Has the race started yet, mister?' And then, on the final bend out of town, a couple sit with Cofidis shirts and under a Cofidis flag, appearing to have been encamped so long that weeds have grown from the legs of their camping chairs. Gerrikagoitia sounds the horn for them, a musical siren sound. The race begins for real at 1.25pm, not that Gerrikagoitia can see. The majority of teams in the peloton use Starlink to stream race footage directly to their cars, but Cofidis do not have the budget. 'You can't do your job the same,' he says. 'Communication is so important. So we have to rely on good radio and teamwork.' He attaches his phone to the dashboard using some hair bands, but on these mountain roads, the signal is intermittent. Instead, the team cars use radio and roadside soigneurs to update each other on which riders are in which group. Alaphilippe attacks almost immediately, racing down the descent towards Châtel-Guyon. A family in matching Zinedine Zidane jerseys watch him zoom past, but he is left to hang off the front by the rest of the peloton. The real breakaway begins on the first slope out the town, a strong one, including Bahrain Victorious' French rider Lenny Martinez, stage six winner Ben Healy, American champion Quinn Simmons, and Ben O'Connor, second in last year's Vuelta. Twenty rivals have escaped the peloton, but not one Cofidis rider has managed to infiltrate them. What's more just one team member — Teuns — is even in the main peloton. Their GC hopeful Buchmann has been dropped. Gerrikagoitia pushes air through his teeth, sharply. Izagirre and Aranburu have lost contact too. Fewer than 10 km have passed. It is a brutal start. Advertisement 'Keep riding,' implores Bingen Fernandez, another DS, riding in Cofidis' first car. 'The peloton is going to start to slow. Start to enter the peloton.' Minutes later, another message to Buchmann. 'It's getting easier, keep fighting, keep fighting, eh? Allez, allez, allez. After the curve it is easier.' Buchmann responds, hauling himself back into the peloton on the descent into the city of Clermont-Ferrand. He will battle to remain there all day. 'I think he maybe needed to warm-up a little more beforehand,' says Gerrikagoitia. 'At the end, he'll be faster than the beginning.' The crowds remain. 'Where is Bardet?' asks one roadside banner, asking after the local hero, who retired after the Criterium du Dauphine last month. Well, Romain Bardet is handing out bidons midway through the route, standing on the verge in a Picnic-PostNL jersey. Coquard, one of the team's French riders, drops back to the team car from the last group on the road. It is a hot day, but the sprinter is sick of jels. He asks Gerrikagoitia if he has any proper food to eat. The answer, a sandwich, is not what Coquard wants to hear. He rises from his saddle and returns to the bunch. By now, the race situation is becoming clear. The breakaway is too far up the road, with UAE Team Emirates and Visma Lease-a-Bike seemingly happy to let them fight it out for the stage win. There will be no Cofidis victory today. Buchmann is the only rider left in the main peloton, while several other riders are in the grupetto — non-climbers who are fighting to remain inside the time limit. Under Tour rules, all riders must finish within a certain percentage of the winners' time to remain in the race, with further adjustments made for the wind. On Monday, the limit was 17 percent — meaning all riders had to finish within 44 minutes of the first rider crossing the line. With the grupetto already 25 minutes behind the breakaway with 40 hard kilometers of the stage remaining, the time limit was a concern. Advertisement 'It could be (Ben) Healy, it could be (Pablo) Castrillo,' says Gerrikagoitia, analysing the possible winners from the breakaway. 'The breakaway has four minutes over the peloton. They were too fast for us. When you are close to relegation, it is not easy.' And relegation is a real concern. Only the top 18 ranked teams over the past three years will stay on the WorldTour next season, to be guaranteed entry to the sport's most prestigious races. Cofidis are currently 19th, one place and almost 900 points short of safety. Gerrikagoitia was part of the team's staff when Lafay and Izagirre won Tour stages two years ago, and is visibly upset about their predicament. 'It's difficult to understand why we're at this level,' he says. 'We're doing all we can to improve, and for sure, it's not an ideal situation if we're not in the WorldTour. The sponsor in Cofidis will continue, but not at the same level, not with the same budget. 'And this is also the point — if you want to stay in the WorldTour, you need a certain level of rider. But right now, it's difficult to sign them.' In the closing kilometers of the stage, the race radio begins to call out the name of the leaders. All 5G signal for Gerrikagoitia's phone coverage of the race has disappeared by now. In the lead group, there will be no French victory — Simon Yates is fighting with Thymen Arensman for victory, while Healy is riding himself into yellow, the first Irishman to wear the maillot jaune in 38 years. But the name that Gerrikagoitia is listening out for comes later on, as those remaining in the GC group are slowly listed. Pogačar, Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel… At that moment, Matteo Jorgenson attacks for Visma Lease-a-Bike, attempting to tire Pogačar, his teammate's rival. 'It will be a different race now,' says Gerrikagoitia. 'Now they're all attacking, the bunch will be broken.' The news filters through from the radio. Buchmann has been dropped again. 'Aiii,' Gerrikagoitia sighs, as the bunch reduces to 20 riders. The final minutes are tough for Buchmann, and equally tough for the DS, stuck behind the grupetto, who cannot see how his rider is doing. Eventually the news filters through. Buchmann finishes 43rd on the stage, losing almost seven minutes to the GC favorites. He now sits 20th in the race, over eight minutes behind the top 15. The grupetto makes it to the line in time, while the highest-finishing Frenchman is Martinez in eighth, who crosses the line ahead of Pogačar and Vingegaard, his nose bleeding with the exertion. Advertisement 'I was hoping for a better race in the mountains today,' says Buchmann post-race. 'Today I had super bad legs, and was suffering all day. I lost a lot of time. So now we'll need to switch towards stage hunting, or to go for the breakaways. But this is how it is. We have to keep fighting.' It is a four-hour drive to Toulouse, and a desperately-needed rest day. As soon as the final climbers trickle back to the buses from the climb, Cofidis set off towards their next opportunity to save themselves. 'Not every story is a fairytale,' one staff member says that evening. 'But for most teams, this is the real experience of the Tour de France.' (Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Photos via Cofidis)
The Guardian
a day ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Tour de France's phoney war gets dose of reality as Pogacar v Vingegaard hits the mountains
There is always a sense of phoney war in the run-in to the Tour de France's first stage in the high mountains, and at least one debate of the opening 10 days of this year's race fits that context to a T. Has Jonas Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike team at times been towing the bunch deliberately in order to ensure that Tadej Pogacar retains the yellow jersey? It's a gloriously arcane question, the kind that only comes up in the Tour's opening phase, but it distracts from a point that could be key in the next 10 days: how the two teams manage the race will probably be decisive. Firstly, a brief explainer. The received wisdom in cycling lore is that holding the yellow jersey early in a Grand Tour can be as much a curse as a blessing, because the daily media and podium duties cut into recovery time. Hence the thinking goes that Visma might have been chasing down the odd move purposely to keep Pogacar in the maillot jaune, so that he will be answering media questions and hanging about waiting to go on the podium, while Vingegaard has his feet up. Only Visma's management know if this was the case, but what is certain is that the febrile atmosphere between the two teams will intensify from here on in. In that context, Monday's slog through the Massif Central was a score draw between the two armadas. Pogacar could afford to lose yellow to Ben Healy of Ireland as it buys his UAE team some down time at least on Wednesday and Thursday, when Healy's EF squad will have to control the race. On the other hand, Simon Yates's opportunistic stage win on Monday redressed the balance a little in favour of Visma; at this stage of the Tour, any amount of positive momentum is welcome. The tone had been set for the opening 10 days – and possibly the whole Tour – about 15km from the finish of the first stage into Lille on 5 July when Vingegaard and his lieutenants Matteo Jorgenson and Edoardo Affini surged to the front of the peloton in a cross wind and split the race. Pogacar was not to be caught out, but only one of his men made the split of about 40; Vingegaard, on the other hand, had three with him. Visma have no option but to try to find openings, to probe UAE's defences constantly to seek the single chink in the armour that may enable their leader to pull back some of his 1min 17sec deficit to Pogacar. Hence an abortive attempt to split the field on Sunday into Châteauroux led by Wout van Aert, and Monday's classic display of tactical mountain racing, with Yates and the Belgian Victor Campenaerts sent ahead in a breakaway just in case either Vingegaard or Jorgenson managed to elude Pogacar and his men. This kind of racing has paid massive dividends for the Dutch squad in the past, most recently at the Giro d'Italia, where Yates managed an unlikely overall victory with the support of Van Aert, at the expense of UAE's starlet Isaac del Toro. The scenario that is the stuff of nightmares for the UAE management is the one that Visma (in their previous incarnation as Jumbo-Visma) engineered in 2022, when UAE were first reduced in numbers by illness, and were then put to the sword by Vingegaard, Van Aert and Primoz Roglic in the Alps. Roglic has moved on, but Jorgenson is an adequate replacement; he has twice won the Paris-Nice stage race and finished eighth in the Tour last year while supporting Vingegaard. The obvious tactic for Visma in the next 10 days will be to burn off Pogacar's support riders to engineer a situation in which the Slovenian ends up on his own on a mountain with Jorgenson and Vingegaard, who can attack him one by one. Pogacar may well prove equal to the task, but there is only one way to find out. Any one of the four high mountain stages in the Alps and Pyrenees would be adequate, and they only need Pogacar to flinch once. Nerves will have been sharpened by João Almeida's heavy crash on Friday en route to Mûr-de-Bretagne, which forced him to quit the race on Sunday. With Rafal Majka sitting out this Tour, that has deprived the double Tour winner of his principal mountain wingman. Almeida – 'the best teammate in the world,' as Pogacar put it – would have provided substantial support: he has notched up nine wins this year, including the Tour of Switzerland. 'Someone will have to step in,' said the UAE director of sport, Simone Pedrazzini, but the uncomfortable fact is that Almeida offered a back-up option, a man who could mark a breakaway and potentially work towards finishing on the podium. Neither Adam Yates or Jhonatan Narváez is a like-for-like replacement, while another UAE climber, Pavel Sivakov, looked distinctly out of sorts on Sunday and Monday. UAE will need him to recover during Tuesday's rest day. There are questions around Visma as well. Yates's stage win on Monday suggests he is back to top form after his struggles on the opening stage, but thus far Van Aert has blown hot and cold, completely absent at times, shy of his best at others, but capable of finishing second to Jonathan Milan on Saturday into Laval. It remains to be seen if he is merely riding himself in having taken a break after the Giro. In past Tours, he has proven capable of smashing the entire race into smithereens on any mountain stage, and if Visma are hoping to take the fight to UAE in the next 10 days, they need him to quickly rediscover that same blistering form.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Tour de France's phoney war gets dose of reality as Pogacar v Vingegaard hits the mountains
There is always a sense of phoney war in the run-in to the Tour de France's first stage in the high mountains, and at least one debate of the opening 10 days of this year's race fits that context to a T. Has Jonas Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike team at times been towing the bunch deliberately in order to ensure that Tadej Pogacar retains the yellow jersey? It's a gloriously arcane question, the kind that only comes up in the Tour's opening phase, but it distracts from a point that could be key in the next 10 days: how the two teams manage the race will probably be decisive. Firstly, a brief explainer. The received wisdom in cycling lore is that holding the yellow jersey early in a Grand Tour can be as much a curse as a blessing, because the daily media and podium duties cut into recovery time. Hence the thinking goes that Visma might have been chasing down the odd move purposely to keep Pogacar in the maillot jaune, so that he will be answering media questions and hanging about waiting to go on the podium, while Vingegaard has his feet up. Only Visma's management know if this was the case, but what is certain is that the febrile atmosphere between the two teams will intensify from here on in. In that context, Monday's slog through the Massif Central was a score draw between the two armadas. Pogacar could afford to lose yellow to Ben Healy of Ireland as it buys his UAE team some down time at least on Wednesday and Thursday, when Healy's EF squad will have to control the race. On the other hand, Simon Yates's opportunistic stage win on Monday redressed the balance a little in favour of Visma; at this stage of the Tour, any amount of positive momentum is welcome. The tone had been set for the opening 10 days – and possibly the whole Tour – about 15km from the finish of the first stage into Lille on 5 July when Vingegaard and his lieutenants Matteo Jorgenson and Edoardo Affini surged to the front of the peloton in a cross wind and split the race. Pogacar was not to be caught out, but only one of his men made the split of about 40; Vingegaard, on the other hand, had three with him. Visma have no option but to try to find openings, to probe UAE's defences constantly to seek the single chink in the armour that may enable their leader to pull back some of his 1min 17sec deficit to Pogacar. Hence an abortive attempt to split the field on Sunday into Châteauroux led by Wout van Aert, and Monday's classic display of tactical mountain racing, with Yates and the Belgian Victor Campenaerts sent ahead in a breakaway just in case either Vingegaard or Jorgenson managed to elude Pogacar and his men. This kind of racing has paid massive dividends for the Dutch squad in the past, most recently at the Giro d'Italia, where Yates managed an unlikely overall victory with the support of Van Aert, at the expense of UAE's starlet Isaac del Toro. The scenario that is the stuff of nightmares for the UAE management is the one that Visma (in their previous incarnation as Jumbo-Visma) engineered in 2022, when UAE were first reduced in numbers by illness, and were then put to the sword by Vingegaard, Van Aert and Primoz Roglic in the Alps. Roglic has moved on, but Jorgenson is an adequate replacement; he has twice won the Paris-Nice stage race and finished eighth in the Tour last year while supporting Vingegaard. The obvious tactic for Visma in the next 10 days will be to burn off Pogacar's support riders to engineer a situation in which the Slovenian ends up on his own on a mountain with Jorgenson and Vingegaard, who can attack him one by one. Pogacar may well prove equal to the task, but there is only one way to find out. Any one of the four high mountain stages in the Alps and Pyrenees would be adequate, and they only need Pogacar to flinch once. Nerves will have been sharpened by João Almeida's heavy crash on Friday en route to Mûr-de-Bretagne, which forced him to quit the race on Sunday. With Rafal Majka sitting out this Tour, that has deprived the double Tour winner of his principal mountain wingman. Almeida – 'the best teammate in the world,' as Pogacar put it – would have provided substantial support: he has notched up nine wins this year, including the Tour of Switzerland. 'Someone will have to step in,' said the UAE director of sport, Simone Pedrazzini, but the uncomfortable fact is that Almeida offered a back-up option, a man who could mark a breakaway and potentially work towards finishing on the podium. Neither Adam Yates or Jhonatan Narváez is a like-for-like replacement, while another UAE climber, Pavel Sivakov, looked distinctly out of sorts on Sunday and Monday. UAE will need him to recover during Tuesday's rest day. There are questions around Visma as well. Yates's stage win on Monday suggests he is back to top form after his struggles on the opening stage, but thus far Van Aert has blown hot and cold, completely absent at times, shy of his best at others, but capable of finishing second to Jonathan Milan on Saturday into Laval. It remains to be seen if he is merely riding himself in having taken a break after the Giro. In past Tours, he has proven capable of smashing the entire race into smithereens on any mountain stage, and if Visma are hoping to take the fight to UAE in the next 10 days, they need him to quickly rediscover that same blistering form.
The Independent
a day ago
- Sport
- The Independent
Tadej Pogacar responds after Ben Healy takes yellow jersey at Tour de France
Tadej Pogacar has said he hopes Ben Healy 'feels tired' ahead of the duo's upcoming battle over the yellow jersey, after the EF Education-EasyPost rider became the first Irishman in 38 years to wear the maillot jaune. Healy came third in a punishing Stage 10 through the Massif Central that was won by Britain's Simon Yates, with Pogacar finishing in ninth on the day, and the Slovenian now trails Healy by 29 seconds in the general classification. Tuesday, 11 July, marked the first rest day of the 2025 Tour de France, and in lieu of a press conference, Pogacar recorded his comments on the race so far as UAE Team Emirates-XRG enjoyed their traditional coffee-stop ride and lunch. Speaking on the yellow jersey situation, Pogacar said: 'We will see if Ben can hold on to the yellow jersey for a couple of stages. 'I think that he [Healy] spent a lot of time in the breakaway already, so I hope he feels tired and we can fight again for the yellow in the next coming stages – maybe not tomorrow [in stage 11 around Toulouse] but Hautacam and then the time trial [at Peyragudes] and Superbagneres - it's going to be three really nice climbing days.' The 26-year-old Pogacar has two stage wins and four days in the maillot jaune so far in 2025, along with two days leading the points classification and four on top of the mountains classification standings. And he summarised the race as "so far, so good', adding that 'the first nine days were really hectic and nervous, and we expected this'. 'I'm just happy that we survived that. Now, our terrain, climbing terrain, is coming, so it will be less stress'. While Pogacar is 29 seconds behind Healy, he remains 1 minute and 29 seconds ahead of Remco Evenepoel and 1:46 ahead of Jonas Vingegaard, who are expected to be his main rivals for the yellow jersey as the race progresses. And the world champion thinks this second week could be 'decisive', adding that 'the level is so high in this Tour'. 'I think the main goal for everybody will be this week, with the big mountains, with the uphill time trial. So, I think we can assess more in the upcoming days. But I think it's going to be a huge fight for the podium and for the yellow,' he said. 'This year, this week is almost as hard as the final week. So I think we can see already some big gaps in the GC in the upcoming days. 'I feel it's going to be an interesting week, I'm looking forward to Hautacam and especially for the time trial at Peyragudes – these two stages, I am really looking forward to.' The Tour continues on Wednesday with a 156.8km circuit around Toulouse that includes a short, sharp climb on the Cote de Pech David followed by flat terrain for the final 6km.
The National
2 days ago
- Sport
- The National
Tour de France 2025: Tadej Pogacar still on course for fourth title despite rollercoaster race so far
Despite going into the 2025 Tour de France's first rest day having relinquished control of the leader's yellow jersey, Tadej Pogacar remains well placed in his quest for a fourth title. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider ended Stage 10 just 29 seconds behind the new overall leader, EF Education-EasyPost's Ben Healy, who became the first Irishman to claim yellow in 38 years after Monday's trek across eight gruelling hills in the Massif Central. Remco Evenepoel sits third, one minute further back, with the Belgian 17 seconds ahead of Pogacar's old rival and two-time champion Jonas Vingegaard, who is fourth. It has been a rollercoaster race already for Pogacar, who has won two stages – taking his career victories past the century marker – but also lost the services of key lieutenant Joao Almeida to injury while another teammate, Pavel Sivakov, has been struggling with illness. The opening stage saw Jasper Philipsen power to victory with Pogacar safely in the pack. On Stage 2 the Slovenian superstar was edged out of a 100th career win by Mathieu Van der Poel in a sprint finish. But it would not be long until the 26-year-old had reached that impressive landmark as, after avoiding damage on a chaotic, crash-filled Stage 3, Pogacar triumphed the following day. It was a stunning sprint to victory as the 2024 triple crown winner held off the considerable challenge of both Van der Poel and Vingegaard. 'To win at the Tour is incredible, in this jersey even more, and to have 100 victories is amazing,' said Pogacar afterwards. 'With so many good riders in the final, you're always a bit on the edge and nervous about what's going to happen.' It was time-trial time on Stage 5, with all eyes on cycling's big three – Pogacar, Evenepoel, and Vingegaard. Evenepoel – world and Olympic champion in the discipline – was the favourite and lived up to the billing, storming to a stunning win. But Pogacar produced an impressive performance of his own to take second place, and the yellow jersey. More importantly, he took a lead of over a minute on Vingegaard, landing an early blow in the title battle. The result also meant Pogacar became the first rider to wear the yellow, green and polka dot jerseys at this stage in the Tour since Belgium great Eddy Merckx in 1970. Stage 6 offered brief respite as the breakaway took the spoils, with Healy claiming a memorable first Tour de France win, with Van der Poel snatching back yellow, albeit with only a one-second lead on Pogacar. It proved a temporary setback with Pogacar triumphing again on Stage 7, reclaiming the overall lead from the Dutchman on the Mur-de-Bretagne climb. 'Me and Mathieu both know this finish very well,' said Pogacar. 'We both wanted to win on this iconic climb, but I think maybe yesterday he left too much on the road, so we couldn't have a rematch." The day would end badly for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, as Almeida, a key mountain lieutenant, suffered a broken rib after a nasty crash having come in 10 minutes after Pogacar and would be forced to quit two days later. 'He could have done great things on a personal level here, and of course, he would have been a great help in the mountains, both mentally and physically. Now we'll adapt and continue,' Pogacar said of his teammate Almeida after Stage 9, which had seen him maintain a 54-second lead over Evenepoel. 'It was too much to bear and I think everybody understands and wishes him all the best.' Stage 10 fell on Bastille Day and ended with Giro d'Italia winner Simon Yates taking the honours while Healy grabbed yellow. Pogacar would cross the line safely alongside Vingegaard with the lead – and title – still very much in his sights. 'Of course, it's never easy to lose the yellow jersey. However, we lost Joao Almeida yesterday, and Pavel Sivakov is still recovering from his illness,' said Pogacar. 'The goal was not to let Visma attack us or to defend their attacks. We did a great job, but now it's a day off.' The riders will be back in action on Wednesday with a 156.8km route around Toulouse that is expected to end in a bunch sprint.
