July 12, 2026
The first week comes to a close with what looks to be a decent chance for the break away. A shortened stage of just 154 km will see the riders head North and East from Malemort across rugged, lumpy terrain, to Ussel for the finish. The intermediate sprint is the first check point of the day, coming just 14.5 km into the stage but, cruelly, the line sits atop a 2.5 km rise at nearly 5%. Over the next few hours of racing, the riders will cross four categorized climbs that feel similar to those in the Ardennes with lengths between 2-5 km at average gradients around 6-7%. The last categorized climb comes 25 km from the finish with just one bump left on the profile before a gradual downhill run through Meymac to the finish in Ussel. The last kilometer tilts upwards with a punchy rise to the line.
Race Summary
Temperatures continued to push to 38C (100F) at the finish which was border-line dangerous for all involved. The original distince for the stage was over 180 km but due to the on-going heat wave, the organizers decided to cut 30 km from the route to get the riders to the finish a bit quicker. Right from the start, Alex Kirsch of Cofidis, Stefano Oldani of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, and Quinten Hermans of Pinarello Q36.5 went up the road and they were joined by Georg Steinhauser of EF-Education EasyPost and Ewen Costiou of Groupama-FDJ United. Lidl-Trek organized on the front to control for the intermediate sprint and brought all but Kirsch back 6 km from the sprint. Kirsh was caught moments later as Lidl-Trek absolutely drilled it up to the climb. Little gaps were forming when Mads Pedersen finally launched for the line. Only Biniam Girmay of NSN Cycling was in the ball park of Pedersen when he crossed to take maximum points for the Green jersey after a perfect team effort.
Attacks started to fly immediately after the sprint and the real race was on to make the break. The roads were constantly twisting left and right, up and down, making perfect attacking scenarios. Julian Alaphilippe of Tudor Pro Cycling was very active and snuck away with his teammate Marco Haller on a downhill into Tulle. Through town, Michel Hessmann of Movistar, Dorian Godon of Netcompany-Ineos, and Xabier Azparren of Pinarello Q36.5 came across the gap to make five at the front. There was a bit of a stand off in the peloton and the break reached the Côte de Naves with a 25 second advantage.
The lead disintegrated into this air when Pinarello Q36.5 came to the front and set a hard pace from the bottom of the climb. The Swiss squad ran out of resources so Tom Pidcock took over and rode on the front himself for nearly a 1 km but the majority of the peloton was still connected as they approached the top. Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep led over the top to grab a few points in the KOM classification. The speed continued to be lightning quick but no one was really attacking, but rather riders pulling hard on the front hoping the elastic would snap.
Filippo Ganna of Netcompany-Ineos went to the front and set a very hard pace up an uncategorized climb which shredded the peloton. Only about 40 riders remained at the front of the race with 100 km to go. That big effort flooded the legs of many with lactic acid and a strong group of 12 riders split off from what was left of the peloton with 97 km to go. The group consisted of Derek Gee and Quinn Simmons of Lidl-Trek, Alex Baudin of EF-Education EasyPost, Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Premier Tech, Pablo Castrillo of Movistar, Lars Craps and Lennert Van Eetvelt of Lotto Intermarché, Ion Izagirre of Cofidis, Marc Hirschi of Tudor Pro Cycling, Jordan Jegat of TotalEnergies, Costiou, and Paret-Peintre. Four more got away including Clément Braz Afonso of Groupama-FDJ United, Tobias Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility, Tom Pidcock of Pinarello Q36.5, and Tobias Foss of Netcompany-Ineos before UAE-XRG shut the peloton down. The newly formed lead group was headed towards Chaumeil and the second climb of the day of the Suc au May.
With such a large group of big names, the cohesion was poor at best and Simmons attacked with Johannessen to try and split up the group. The two leaders arrived at the base of Suc au May, the hardest climb of the day, with 33 seconds on the rest of the break and over 1 minute to the peloton. Gradients pitched up to sustained sections of 9-10% and only the strongest were able to hang in the chase group. Pidock forced a group clear with Van Eetvelt and Gee but van der Poel, Castrillo, and Baudin were able to make the connection 1,300 meters from the top. Simmons and Johannessen were caught by the Pidcock group to make a reduced group of eight at the front of the race.
They settled into a nice rotation but UAE-XRG seemed to have a plan and pegged the lead group at 1 minute 15 seconds. At the base of the 5 km Côte de la Croix du Pey with 61 km to go, the gap was just 1 minute 5 seconds and the pressure was on the break to keep pressing forward. Pidcock did a lot of the pace making on the climb but the entire group worked well and only lost 10 seconds by the top. The roads over the next 15 km suited a group rolling through and off and the break got the advantage back up to 1 minute 15 seconds. The landscape through this stretch was beautiful. The riders would come out of a grove of trees along low ridge lines and into an open area through meadows in a region of France that seemed almost entirely uninhabited.
With 41 km to go, Netcompany-Ineos took over the chase from UAE-XRG for two reasons. One, to protect Egan Bernal's GC place from Johannessen and two, to go for a possible stage win with Ganna. The fresh legs in the chase had an effect on the time gap and the morale of the break seemed to wane for the first time. The final categorized climb of Monte Bessou was more of a ramp, only 900 meters long but steep with a section at 11%. When the break arrived at the base with 25 km to go, the gap was down to 30 seconds and van der Poel went into Spring Classics mode and attacked, sprinting up the hill. Johannessen was able to hang on over the top and Pidcock clawed his way to Johannessen's back wheel to make three at the front. In order to keep riders available in the chase, Netcompany-Ineos rode more conservatively and had drifted to over 50 seconds when they reached the summit of Monte Bessou.
On the descent, Baudin joined the front just as Pidcock was panicking. His gears suddenly stopped working and was completly spun out on the downhill. He made the turn off the descent onto a wide main road and was fortunately able to shift to the big ring. He sprinted back to the group and sat in the wheels for a minute to bring the heart rate back down. 17 km from the line, both Gee and Simmons were caught by the peloton and the tactics changed. Pedersen was present in the group and Lidl-Trek shifted to work for another Pedersen win. The gap was out to 55 seconds however and they would need to bury themselves to close it before the finish. Other fast men in the group were Alex Aranburu of Cofidis and Michael Matthews of Jayco AlUla who were hoping to profit from the extra chasing firepower.
8 km from the line, the gap was still 45 seconds and looking good for either Pidcock, Baudin, van der Poel, or Johannessen to take the stage win. There was no playing around among the leaders and they arrived at the final kilometer with 22 seconds. Van der Poel started the final rise in first position with Pidcock, Johannessen, and Baudin following in that order. The road went up right in front of them, straight as an arrow. Van der Poel sat on the front, cool as ever with the peloton emerging through the haze in the background. The speed slowed way down until van der Poel hit the gas with 200 meters to go. Pidcock's legs left him wanting and Johannessen was able to come around but the Norwegian climber didn't have the raw watts required to also get around van der Poel. The eight-time Monument winner powered across the line with arms wide in celebration of his third stage win in the Tour de France. Johannessen came across in a reasonably close second place with Pidcock in third and Baudin in fourth. The peloton was led home by Ganna just 6 seconds after van der Poel crossed the line.
There were no meaningful changes in the GC as the whole peloton now have a rest day to try and recover from the brutal heat for a demanding second week.