July 8, 2026
Yesterday was a Yellow jersey dream for Uno-X Mobility and Torstein Træen and they should be able to bask in the glory of their achievement today with a relatively low stress sprint day to Pau. After rolling out of Lannemezan, the riders will have 158 km through the department of the Hautes-Pyrénées but the name deceives the route. Across the distance, there is only 1,400 meters of climbing with almost nothing to scare the sprinters. Depending on how many people actually want to go in the break, the peloton may be in contention for the intermediate sprint in Vic-en-Bigorre with 45 km to go. From that point, there are three short, punchy hills that come in quick succession but the last 25 km are more or less flat and we should see a bunch sprint into Pau, the first of this Tour. As the riders enter town, there are five corners in the last 5 km including a few round abouts that must be taken on one side. The last corner is more of a sweeping left turn at around 120 degrees with 550 meters to go with the finish line in the Place de Verdun.
Race Summary
The heat wave continued to bake the land and when the riders were let go at KM0, temperatures were nearing 38C (100F) at the finish in Pau. The figure of Baptiste Veistroffer of Lotto Intermarché was the sole attacker when the flag dropped and the peloton watched the Belgian ride up the road into the heat haze. The gap got to 3 minutes quite quickly and it was Uno-X Mobility that went to the front to show the Yellow jersey and set a pace. With 136 km to go, Alpecin-Premier Tech and Soudal Quickstep took over control of the peloton and pulled the bunch over the dam on the Réservoir de Magnoac and through tunnels of Plane trees.
Silvan Dillier of Alpecin-Premier Tech and Louis Vervaeke of Soudal Quickstep were swapping turns in the chase and had Veistroffer at 2 minutes 20 seconds with 115 km to go. The landscape was dotted with small plots of hay, corn, and sunflower fields that were broken up by hedge rows and lines of shade trees to buffer the wind.
The peloton changed attitude with 53 km to go as the intermediate sprint was approaching. Alpecin-Premier Tech moved their entire team forward and we were going to get a bunch sprint preview. Coming into the sprint, XDS Astana accelerated with three riders and actually made a gap to the rest of the bunch. Max Kanter of XDS Astana took the sprint handily ahead of Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek, Biniam Girmay of NSN Cycling, and Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Premier Tech in the fray as well. Soudal Quickstep did not get involved and went straight to the front after the sprint to continue their chase.
When Veistroffer reached the Côte de Baleix, the last of the hills with 26 km to go, his gap was under 1 minute under the pressure put on by Soudal Quickstep. The only action in the peloton came from Alex Baudin of EF-Education EasyPost and Alex Molenaar of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA who battled for the last remaining point at the top. EF-Education EasyPost set up a lead out and Baudin was able to fend off Molenaar to extend his lead by a solitary point. A few riders followed the move and, over the top, British Champion, Fred Wright of Bahrain Victorious, went on the attack. The problem for Wright was that Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep was glued to his wheel, marking for Tim Merlier but Kasper Asgreen of EF-Education EasyPost jumped across and immediately started to take pulls with Wright.
Through 20 km to go, the three chasers had closed to within 15 seconds of Veistroffer but the peloton was quick to react to the move and were only around 10 seconds further back. 3 km later, Asgreen, Paret-Peintre, and Wright sat up and with 14 km to go, Veistroffer was caught after an impressive day alone at the front of the Tour de France. A few kilometers later, teams had organized in color order and blocked the front of the peloton. It was too early to start drag racing and the road was just narrow enough for those at the front to hold their spot.
7 km from the finish, the race was on as Cofidis and Uno-X Mobility were drag racing, burning resources at the front while the other teams sat back waited a bit longer. 1,500 meters later, a crash near the back brought down around ten riders. At least three Soudal Quickstep members were down as well as a few from Caja Rural-Seguros RGA and NSN Cycling. The crash split the peloton and, since it occurred outside of 5 km to go, time gaps could still be recorded. Nearly all of the GC riders had positioned themselves towards the rear and looked to be in the second group.
At the front of the race, Uno-X Mobility were still driving it along with Cofidis but Alpecin-Premier Tech were gathering as were Bahrain Victorious and Decathlon CMA CGM. Another crash through a round-about at 2.5 km saw a Cofidis rider go into the bushes and a small gap opened around 15th wheel. It was closed quickly but the chaos had washed away nearly all of the lead out trains. Uno-X Mobility gave way to XDS-Astana who were the only team with numbers through the final kilometer. With 400 meters to go, XDS-Astana had one man in front of Max Kanter with Milan Fretin of Cofidis in third wheel, Olav Kooij of Decathlon CMA CGM in fourth wheel while Biniam Girmay, Jasper Philipsen, and Tim Merlier were further back and outside the top ten positions. Kooij launched a bit early just outside 200 meters to go but he caught Kanter slightly off-guard and had the jump. Kooij handled the last hundred meters with no problem and powered home to take his first win at the Tour. Kanter held on for second with a storming Merlier taking third after he had to make up a lot ground in the last 400 meters, just pushing Huub Artz of Lotto Intermarché into fourth.
There was indeed a split in the peloton but all of the GC contenders finished together at 14 seconds so the overall looks as it did this morning with Torstein Træen in the Maillot Jaune ahead of Sean Quinn and Mathias Vacek.