Place Name: D 983
Address: D 983, 63240 Mont-Dore, France
Details: July 14, 2025
We usually have a rest day on the second Monday of a Grand Tour but Bastille Day is today and the Tour organizers always have something special planned for Quatorze Juillet. The tenth stage rolls into the first real climbs of the race with the arrival of the Massif Central and the finish in Le Mont-Dore on the Puy de Sancy. The stage is only 165KM but packs in over 4,300M of elevation across eight categorized climbs and at least twelve in total but none of which are much more than 5KM in length. Leaving from Ennezat, the route heads South and zig-zags off and back onto the edge of the Massif to take in as many climbs around Clermont-Ferrand as possible. The finale begins with around 55KM to go at the start of the Col de Guéry which is quickly followed by the Col de la Croix Morand. A 12KM descent into Murol takes the riders to the base of a 2.3KM, 8% uncategorized climb. The road continues to roll up towards the base of the Col de la Croix Robert which is 5.1KM at over 6% and tops out 10KM from the finish. There is a 7KM fast descent to the foot of the final climb to the Puy de Sancy, a 3.3KM climb at just under 8%. The day has breakaway written all over it but the question is if the GC favorites want to fight amongst themselves.
The first attackers all seemed to be French but there were plenty of others highly interested in getting up the road. The peloton exploded on the first climb, the Côte de Loubeyrat, as a group of around 20 riders got off the front. Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious sprinted ahead of Bruno Armirail of Decathlon AG2R for the points at the top with the gruppetto already over 2 minutes behind and 153 difficult kilometers to go.
The group swelled to over 25 riders but UAE-XRG got control of the peloton and allowed the group to slowly increase their gap. The best placed on GC in the group was Ben Healy of EF-Education EasyPost and he was joined by his teammates Neilson Powless, Alex Baudin, and Harry Sweeny who were all present at the front of the group to keep it together and rolling smoothly. Anders Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility took the intermediate sprint in Durtol with 120KM to go with the peloton sliding out to 2 minutes back. Martinez pipped Johannessen at the top of the Côte de la Baraque with 110KM to go to add to his mountains points tally.
Ben O'Connor of Jayco AlUla went on the attack from the break half way up the Côte de Charade under the shadow of the Puy de Dôme and, by the top, he was joined by Healy, Baudin, Thymen Arensman of Ineos, Quinn Simmons of Lidl-Trek, Michael Woods of Israel-Premier Tech, Victor Campenaerts and Simon Yates of Visma-Lease a Bike, Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep, and Martinez who took maximum points again. The break consolidated and swelled back to around 15 riders at the start of the Côte de Berzet but their gap continued to grow, now out to 3 minutes 30 seconds with 89KM to go. Sweeny set a hard pace up the climb to draw out the gap to 3 minutes 40 seconds with Martinez scoring maximum mountains points at the top.
The riders descended the uncategorized Col de la Moreno and started a 15KM section of dragging roads up to the Col de Guéry. Tim Wellens of UAE-XRG was doing the pace making in the peloton but he could not match the workload of EF-Education EasyPost in the break and the gap expanded to over 4 minutes with 65KM to go. Sweeny was incredibly strong and constantly had to slow down to make sure other riders in the break were following his wheel. The break ripped through the little town of Le Cros near the bottom of the Col de Guéry and, at the start with 53KM to go, they had added another minute to their advantage. Martinez accelerated at the top and grabbed the points which guaranteed him the Mountains Jersey for tomorrow.
There were a few attacks in the break on the descent but the group started the Col de la Croix Morand together. Baudin committed himself to driving the pace until 700M from the top when Campenaerts put in a dig which shed Baudin and a few others. The group still contained thirteen riders at the top as they started the 12KM descent into Murol with a gap now of 5 minutes 45 seconds. A few riders came back to the group through Chambon-sur-Lac and the cohesion in the group started to fray. A few riders tried to attack but the first to get daylight was Simmons. He went on the uncategorized climb with 26.5KM to go which shredded the group. Healy did the work to keep Simmons in check with Arensman, O'Connor, Yates, and Michael Storer of Tudor Pro Cycling in the wheel. Simmons was caught and Healy continued to pull the group along, seemingly giving up the chance at another stage win in order to grab the Yellow Jersey.
With 15KM to go, the lead group started the Col de la Croix Robert with 5 minutes 30 seconds. Simmons was the first casualty of Healy's pace but the others hung on to the top. The first moves from the group came from Yates who attacked right at the bottom of the final climb with 3.5KM to go. O'Connor bridged up and then Arensman but as soon as the Dutchman made contact, Yates went again. He dropped O'Connor and got a 5 second gap on Arensman and held it for the next 2.5KM all the way to the line for the victory, the third at the Tour in his career. Arensman paced the climb perfectly but just didn't have as much in tank and had to settle for second best on the day. Healy crossed in third, 30 seconds behind Yates, and we started the clock to see if he had enough to take Yellow.
In the GC group, the first moves came on the uncategorized climb after the Col de la Croix Morand with about 24KM to go. Visma-Lease a Bike accelerated and split the group down to only about ten riders. The pace slowed down which allowed the favorites group to swell back up to around 25 riders for the Col de la Croix Robert. Visma-Lease a Bike changed the pace multiple times on the climb including a strong increase by Matteo Jorgenson near the top which put a number of riders into trouble, leaving only ten riders in the group.
The favorites group started the final climb and the first man missing was third overall, Kévin Vauquelin of Arkéa-B&B Hotels. Jorgenson paced the group up but with 2KM to go, Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quickstep attacked. He was brought back and Tadej Pogačar of UAE-XRG sent a searing counter attack. Only Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike was able to respond. Pogačar continued for another 200M but when he realized Vingegaard wasn't dropped, he sat down and tried to recover. The pair rode together the rest of the way to the finish line without any other moves and finished just a handful of seconds ahead of Evenepoel and the rest of the favorites group, 4 minutes 51 seconds down on Yates.
When the calculations were made, Healy took Yellow by 29 seconds. Pogačar moved to second place with Evenepoel in third at 1 minute 29 seconds. Vauquelin dropped from third to sixth place at 2 minutes 26 seconds.
Tags: Tour de France, 2025, July, Stage 10, Tour de France 2025, Bastille Day, Ennezat, Le Mont-Dore, Lenny Martinez, Ben Healy, Neilson Powless, Alex Baudin, Harry Sweeny, Anders Johannessen, Ben O'Connor, Thymen Arensman, Quinn Simmons, Michael Woods, Victor Campenaerts, Simon Yates, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Michael Storer