July 19, 2026
The second rest day is right around the corner but the riders can't start thinking about that yet because there is one more mountainous day to survive first. After a pretty long transfer over night, the riders will set off from Champagnole in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and head due South for 92 km until they reach Valserhône, an aptly named place at the confluence of the Valserine and Rhône rivers. Along the way is the intermediate sprint in Saint Laurent en Grandvaux after just 17 km and the category three Côte des Rousses but the roads are difficult and a strong break will likely form. After Valserhône, the route cuts East, skirting South of Geneva and will arrive at the category one Col de la Croisette in Le Salève. The climb is just 4.6 km but is brutally steep at 11% and is immediately followed by the 2 km, 8% Côte du Mont. 26 km of downhill and flat bring the riders to a climb they should know well from the final stage of this year's Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes, the Plateau de Solaison. Once in the industrial suburbs of Bonneville, the road tips up for 11 km at 9% to the finish after 184 km and over 4,000 meters of elevation gain. The parcours lends itself to two races in one, the break going for the stage while the GC guys play out their own private battle behind.
Race Summary
Right from the the neutral, Alpecin-Premier Tech lined up at the front and, through KM0, they started riding to control for the Green jersey sprint points. 1 km from the sprint, Lidl-Trek moved up with three teammates in front of Mads Pedersen and pushed Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Premier Tech backwards. The sprint got a little messy but the outcome was just the same as yesterday with Philipsen out-sprinting Pedersen, Max Kanter of XDS-Astana, and Biniam Girmay of NSN Cycling.
The attacking started after the sprint but the road was wide and tipped down for a lightning quick descent through Morez towards the base of the Côte des Rousses. Julian Alaphilippe of Tudor Pro Cycling, John Degenkolb of Picnic-PostNL, Joris Delbove of TotalEnergies, and Matej Mohorič of Bahrain Victorious chipped off the front and started the climb with a gap 10 seconds but the attacks were coming behind. Richard Carapaz of EF-Education EasyPost was very active and caught the leaders but into the last 500 meters of the climb, Xabier Azparren of Pinarello Q36.5 was leading with Javier Romo of Movistar and Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep. Carapaz came up to contest for the KOM points but it was Paret-Peintre who nabbed the 2 points leaving just 1 for Carapaz.
The road continued to rise over the next 7 km which was perfect for attacking. Thymen Arensman of Netcompany-Ineos found himself off the front with Azparren while more riders were trying to come across. With 129 km to go, Arensman and Azparren were joined by Mauro Schmid and Michael Matthews of Jayco AlUla, Anders Skaarseth and Tobias Johannessen of Uno X Mobility, Tim van Dijke of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Ion Izagirre of Cofidis, and Nelson Oliveira and Raúl García Pierna of Movistar. EF-Education EasyPost missed the move and chased for 10 km before trying to send Ben Healy up the road. The speed was so quick that one rider didn't have the ability to get any distance from the bunch so EF-Education EasyPost kept the pressure on with the whole team.
They managed to catch the lead group and reset the race with 106 km to go but the next 6 km were all downhill and only Nicolas Vinokurov of XDS-Astana was able to break free. Through Confort, the road flattened and groups started to form off the front. A group of around 25 riders arrived in Valserhône, across the milky blue waters of the Rhône, 30 seconds ahead of the peloton. The bunch shut down and the lead group was allowed to start building their advantage. Once again, Tom Pidcock of Pinarello Q36.5 was best placed in the GC at 8 minutes with Ilan Van Wilder of Soudal Quickstep, Egan Bernal of Netcompany-Ineos, and Yannis Voisard of Tudor Pro Cycling also in the group and in the GC top 20.
Visma-Lease a Bike set up the chase in the peloton and they kept it close at 2 minutes 30 seconds. No one in the front group wanted to work with Pidcock and the cohesion was quickly breaking down. Pidcock had Brent Van Moer in the break with him and, to keep the group moving as fast as possible, the Belgian buried himself to the base of the Col de la Croisette.
Van Moer pulled off after a job well done, having brought the break to the Col de la Croisette with a lead of 2 minutes 40 seconds. The heavier riders in the group were dropped immediately under the pressure of Pidcock who carried his momentum through the first few hundred meters. After just 1 km, the group was down to Pidcock, Van Wilder, Voisard, Quinn Simmons of Lidl-Trek, Mauro Schmid of Jayco AlUla, Adam Yates of UAE-XRG, Einer Rubio of Movistar, and Ewen Costiou of Groupama-FDJ United.1,800 meters from the top, Simmons put in an acceleration that no one could follow. Just like yesterday in Le Markstein, the crowds were huge in the last kilometer. They formed a tunnel for Simmons climb through, up the 12% gradients to the top where the US Champion took maximum KOM points just ahead of Pidcock, Voisard, Rubio, and Yates. They started the twisting descent with 2 minutes 55 seconds on the peloton that was still being led by Visma-Lease a Bike.
Like a ski ramp, the break reached the bottom of the descent and were straight into the base of the Col du Mont. Costiou and Schmid did a great ride to rejoin the leaders at the top of the Col du Mont with 38 km to go and still with 2 minutes 45 seconds. Schmid rolled off the front on the descent and hung around 15 seconds from the rest of the break through La Roche-sur-Foron and the semi-suburban streets.
In the peloton Visma-Lease a Bike had the entire team drilling it on the front but their plans went completely wrong with 22 km to go. Lots of traffic furniture filled the road and through a corner with a central reservation, they had to shave off speed for a tight right bend but Jonas Vingegaard's front wheel went from underneath him before he could straighten up. He slid into the curb and we knew immediately that his right collarbone was broken; the Dane abandoned the Tour. Also in the crash was Felix Großschartner and Isaac del Toro of UAE-XRG but they both were able to remount and join the peloton. It took a while for teams to reset but Pidcock was still up the road so there was little time to deliberate. Bahrain Victorious took it upon themselves to start riding in defense of Lenny Martinez's GC position when the gap went out to 3 minutes.
Schmid arrived at the base of Plateau de Solaison with 11 km to go and 25 seconds on the chase group of Simmons, Pidcock, Yates, Costiou, Voisard, and Rubio, and 2 minutes 40 seconds on the peloton. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe led the bunch into the climb and were making progress on the gap. 2 km in, Schmid was still leading but Simmons had separated himself from the rest of the chasers and was 15 seconds behind the Swiss. 8 km from the top, Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe had closed to within 1 minute 40 seconds on Simmons who caught and passed Schmid on the steepest gradients. Simmons had 25 seconds on a chase consisting of Voisard, Yates, and Pidcock but no Schmid as he had blown up and drifted backwards.
At around the same time in the favorites group, Maillot Jaune, Tadej Pogačar of UAE-XRG, took over from Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and started to ride. The acceleration split the GC group down to just del Toro, Paul Seixas and Matthew Riccitello of Decathlon CMA CGM, Juan Ayuso of Lidl-Trek, and the seemingly inseperable duo of Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe. Pogačar squeezed more watts out of his body, dropping everyone but del Toro and Evenepoel and with 7 km to go, the gap to Simmons was down to 50 seconds. Simmons was caught and dropped with 4.7 km to go by the Pogačar group who was led by Yates who started to ride after Pidcock and Voisard were caught.
4 km from the top, Yates peeled off to allow Pogačar to continue pulling del Toro closer towards the White jersey. Evenepoel was looking as good as he has in the entire Tour. He was making a bit of space in the GC as well as with Lipowitz and Seixas at 35 seconds back and Ayuso another 15 seconds behind and being paced by Simmons. Pogačar pulled del Toro to 1 km to go when the Mexican jumped in search of time and a stage win. Evenepoel was onto the wheel straight away and del Toro backed off. Pogačar went back to the front until 500 meters to go when del Toro tried again. Evenepoel had the match and opened his sprint with 200 meters to go. The Belgian flew passed del Toro but Pogačar wasn't going to let him sail into the sunset without a challenge. Pogačar pushed Evenepoel the whole way to the line but he didn't come around and the win went to Evenepoel who was beaming with delight. Del Toro came home 6 seconds later for third with Seixas and Lipowitz in fourth and fifth respectively at 58 seconds and another full minute to Lenny Martinez, Mattias Skjelmose, and Juan Ayuso.
The GC looks a little different tonight and not all for good reasons. Now that Jonas Vingegaard is out of the race, Evenepoel is the closest challenger at 5 minutes even. Del Toro moved to third at 5 minutes 58 seconds with Seixas holding strongly to fourth at 6 minutes 23 seconds and Lipowitz still in the podium hunt at 6 minutes 48 seconds.