Tour de France 2026: stage 10 updates to Le Lioran on Bastille Day – live

Key events

24m ago

Points classification: top 10 before stage 10

31m ago

General classification: top 10 before stage 10

1h ago

Preamble

Jeremy Whittle

Riding the Tour de France in 40C heat is hard enough without having to race against Tadej Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates XRG every day. As the peloton takes a breather, lounges in the shade and rehydrates on the Tour’s first rest day, most team managers are pondering what genuine opportunities they may still have, in the face of Pogacar’s domination, to try to achieve success.

After he and his team were criticised for chasing down breakaways, even if they posed little or no threat to the overall standings, L’Équipe asked: “Is Pogacar killing cycling?”

Luke Rowe, a sports director at Decathlon CMA CGM, is asked about it being Bastille Day. Will it affect their approach for Seixas?

“Same as every other day … is there more pressure to go in the break? … Whatever day it is, it’s not going to impact the way we race … morale’s high. We have to respect that it is Bastille Day. But it makes no difference.”

This is the longest race Seixas has done. How is he recovering? “Great question. We are heading into the unknown. The longest he’s ever raced is eight days so even stage nine was beyond that … honestly, post-rest day, we are really happy. We’ve got eight guys, all fit, all healthy, no illness … the fatigue is there – but it’s not crazy.

“Every day is another banana peel that you could slip on. Today is a difficult day but he’s coping well.”

Finally, Rowe is asked by Hannah Walker of TNT Sports – why does he think UAE Team Emirates rode the way they did on stage nine?

“There’s lot of theories … for me, I mean, I was in the car, I was saying it’s my job to know what’s going on in the bike race, and right now, I have no clue.

“And even now I’m still none the wiser. Just because you’ve got the legs doesn’t mean you should do it. I was looking at the profile thinking, ‘What have I missed?’ But I think it wasn’t the wisest move. Tactically, to me, it made zero sense.”

What are your expectations for today? Mail me.

“We had a good day, relaxed, short ride,” Vingegaard says of yesterday’s rest day. “We asked for a good coffee stop, had some good recommendations, but they were closed … so we ended up somewhere else.

“It was a special stage for me,” he adds of his stage win at Le Lioran in 2024. “A very nice win for me, personally, to win there, coming back from the crash I had. I had some very tough months before that. I have good memories and today is another fight there.

“I won’t give up until we are in Paris,” he says of the GC battle against Pogacar.

Will Paul Seixas and Decathlon CMA CGM aim for a stage win today, on Bastille Day?

The Frenchman is 3min 55sec behind Pogacar in GC – too close to be permitted to go in a big breakaway, you’d have thought. So it will be a question of staying with Pogacar and co until the final climbs and then coming over the top of the dominant Slovenian. Bonne chance!

“Shortish but vicious” is William Fotheringham’s summary:

Stage 10, Tuesday 14 July: Aurillac to Le Lioran, 166.6km

A shortish but vicious stage through the luscious Aveyron and Cantal. A special steam train will convey fans to Le Lioran and Pogacar may well get his personal locomotives moving over the seven categorised climbs including the Puy Mary and the Col de Pertus, the latter coming at 14km to go. The ascents are short but steep so the issue is the cumulative effect of so many efforts; one or two putative contenders will lose the race here. The first test for Pogacar and Vingegaard’s rivals, including France’s bright young thing Paul Seixas, who will get plenty of reminders that it is Bastille Day.

Points classification: top 10 before stage 10

1. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) 268pts

2. Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling Team) 223pts

3. Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) 213pts

4. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin Premier-Tech) 191pts

5. Max Kanter (XDS-Astana) 172pts

6. Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM) 110pts

7. Soren Waerenskold (Uno-X Mobility) 89pts

8. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 87pts

9. Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) 79pts

10. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 72pts

And what of the points classification, AKA the green jersey?

General classification: top 10 before stage 10

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 32hrs 17min 04sec

2. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike): +2min 42sec

3. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): +3min 27sec

4. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe): +3min 30sec

5. Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek): +3min 34sec

6. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team): +3min 55sec

7. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe): +4min 00sec

8. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious): +4min 21sec

9. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek): +4min 57sec

10. Egan Bernal (Netcompany-Ineos): +9min 12sec

Let’s take a look at the Tadej Pogacar show general classification.

Preamble

There is an old Tour de France adage that riders never quite know how their legs will feel after a rest day. Some might feel relatively refreshed and ready to tackle seven categorised climbs on today’s 166.6km route. But after a punishing and fiendishly hot first week, others will merely be looking to survive: especially the sprinters, whose reward for grinding through 3,800m of vertical ascent today is a flat stage tomorrow.

The mountainous terrain between Aurillac and Le Lioran on stage 10 looks ripe for a strong group of climbers to escape the peloton’s clutches and battle for victory. But Tadej Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates-XRG were shutting down attacks down left, right and centre in the first week, aiming to keep things under close control for the race leader and his lieutenant, Isaac del Toro.

The intermediate sprint comes after just 25.5km of racing, so expect Lidl-Trek to control early on and set up Mads Pedersen for maximum green jersey points at Lacapelle-del-Fraisse. After that, if an escape group that Pogacar deems acceptable gets up the road, perhaps we will see a breakaway being given a relatively long leash. But if the race refuses to settle down before the categorised climbs begin – the top of the category-three Côte de Pailherols arrives after 68km – it promises to be another gruelling day for all concerned.

Neutralised start: 1pm CET/12pm BST