July 24, 2026
While not technically the Queen Stage, today is a very important day for those wanting to write their names in the annuls of cycling lure. A short 127 km stage awaits the riders as they set out from Gap, a host town that has seen many famous stages come and go through its city limits. Straight out of the gate is the 4.7 km, 7.2% Col Bayard followed by the 7 km, 8% Col du Noyer all within the first 25 km of the stage. A long 27 km descent will bring the race passed the Lac du Sautet and the town of Corps going in the opposite direction from yesterday's stage. The route then plays with the valley's as it weaves through Valbonnais and Entraigues on the way to the intermediate sprint in Le Périer with 38 km to go. 3 km later comes the penultimate climb of the day, the 5.5 km, 6.3% Col d'Ornon. One final descent brings the race into Le Bourg-d'Oisans and the Alpe d'Huez. The final climb of the day is famous for enormous crowds and its 21 hairpin bends across the 13.8 km Alpine ascent. A break stands almost no chance on such a stage so we should see a battle royale among the top tier of the general classification.
Race Summary
Perfect conditions were presented for the riders at the start with clear skies and seasonably warm temperatures. Climbing started right from KM0 and riders were immediately dropped from the peloton. 2 km from the top, the peloton split with around 40 riders in the front including best placed rider Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious who started the day seventh in GC at 12 minutes 50 seconds. Richard Carapaz of EF-Education EasyPost was in the group and wanted the KOM points but also there was Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep. Carapaz went early and tried to get the jump but Paret-Peintre was quick to respond. The Frenchman got into the slip stream and slingshot passed to take maximum points and the virtual out-right lead in the competition.
EF-Education EasyPost was well represented along with Visma-Lease a Bike and Lidl-Trek, including Green jersey Mads Pedersen, so they kept the group rolling quickly to the base of the Col du Noyer with a gap back to the peloton of nearly 90 seconds. 3 km from the top, the tree cover gave way to open views of distant valleys, high mountain peaks, and awe inspiring vistas. In the last kilometer, EF-Education EasyPost rode really hard which split the group. Paret-Peintre launched for the line with 250 meter still to climb but he kept it going the whole way to take maximum points ahead of Carapaz. Their acceleration was so hard that they went over the top with 20 seconds on the rest of the group and almost 4 minutes on the UAE-XRG led peloton.
UAE-XRG had been hit with illness over previous days with Brandon McNulty abandoning and Tim Wellens sick and dropped. With fewer resources for the chase, the gap was going out so Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe decided to help by putting a man to work. The extra legs had the break at 3 minutes 20 seconds as they crossed over the top of the Barrage du Sautet with 74 km to go. Visma-Lease a Bike had at least four riders in the break and they responded by committing Bruno Armirail and Matteo Jorgenson to pull the group as far out as possible. 8 km from the intermediate sprint, the gap was back out to over 4 minutes.
1 km out from the intermediate sprint in Le Périer, Lidl-Trek moved Pedersen forward and the Dane took 25 points in an uncontested sprint to give him a 57 point buffer on Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Premier Tech. The road started to rise out of the sprint and riders were quickly dropping from the break. They arrived at the base of the Col d'Ornon at 34 km to go with a gap of 4 minutes 20 seconds to the peloton. Armirail was full of fight and put on a very hard pace up the climb. The group went from 40 riders to less than 15 by the top as Carapaz led them over without having to battle Paret-Peintre after the Frenchman was dropped earlier in the climb. They managed to hold 3 minutes 50 seconds to the GC group which was down to only 11 riders after a lightning quick ascent under pressure from Felix Großschartner of UAE-XRG.
Armirail buried himself through the valley and onto the bottom slopes of Alpe d'Huez, bringing the lead group of 14 riders to the base with a 3 minute 25 second advantage. After 1 km, Armirail pulled off and the only riders left in the group were Carapaz and Sean Quinn of EF-Education EasyPost, Tobias Foss and Thymen Arensman of Netcompany-Ineos, Sepp Kuss of Visma-Lease a Bike, Javier Romo and Einer Rubio of Movistar, Quinn Simmons of Lidl-Trek, Matthew Riccitello of Decathlon CMA CGM, Harold Tejada of XDS-Astana, Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious, and Tobias Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility.
The first acceleration came from Arensman who was followed by Martinez, Kuss, and Carapaz. Romo and Riccitello made their way back to the front in effort of resilience but the action was coming from behind.
In the GC group, Tom Pidcock of Pinarello Q36.5 was the first one dropped as Maxim Van Gils of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe was emptying his tank for Remco Evenepoel. Juan Ayuso of Lidl-Trek was the next to go backwards just 1 km into the climb and it wasn't long before the rest of the group exploded. Race leader Tadej Pogačar of UAE-XRG attacked with over 12.5 km to go with no response from the others. Nicolas Prodhomme of Decathlon CMA CGM set the pace for the rest of the GC group for his teammate Paul Seixas with Evenepoel, Isaac del Toro of UAE-XRG, and Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek in the wheels.
Up ahead, Carapaz, Kuss, and Martinez came forward and they knew they needed to push on if they had any hope of staying clear of Pogačar. With 10 km to go, they had 2 minutes 30 seconds on Pogačar who was aided Simon Yates for a few hundred meters after he was dropped from the break. Carapaz was getting frustrated with Martinez who was skipping turns. The Ecuadorian tried to take Martinez off the back which didn't work so he went full with an attack at 8.8 km to go to shake the Frenchman. Kuss was distanced but Martinez stuck on Carapaz like glue. Kuss came back 500 meters later but Pogačar had closed 40 seconds in this time with all of the games being played.
The crowds were relatively large in the first few kilometers but once the race arrived at 7 km to go, hoards of people were standing on the road waiting for the riders. Barriers were placed around Dutch corner at 6 km to go but the fans just seemed to move up the mountain a few steps because out of the barriers, the crowd formed a tunnel only wide enough for a single rider to pass through at once. Pogačar was within 1 minute of Carapaz, Kuss, and Martinez at 5.5 km to go and the catch felt inevitable. Carapaz put in another full sprint attack but again, Martinez clawed his way back on and Carapaz slowed way down. Kuss came back and the trio remained together until 3 km to go when Carapaz sent the hay maker which put real distance into Kuss and Martinez.
Pogačar passed Kuss and Martinez but not even he could shake off the man from Bahrain Victorious who was bound and determined to hold on. Pogačar and Martinez found the back wheel of Carapaz at 1,800 meters from the finish to make three at the front. Pogačar led the group into the final kilometer and hit the other two with a searing attack that neither could match. The finish area was absolutely packed with people who saw the Maillot Jaune power his way up the final few hundred meters to the finish line for an emphatic win, one that saw Marco Pantani's climbing record smashed by over 1 minute with a time of 35 minutes 26 seconds. Annoyingly for Carapaz, Martinez won the sprint for second, pushing him to third after a day where he gave it everything.
In the battle for the GC podium, Evenepoel created a gap to the rest of the contenders with around 3.5 km to go and managed to hold them all off until the finish. The Belgian came home 2 minutes 29 seconds after Pogačar but 13 seconds ahead of del Toro which provides a little more buffer for his second overall. Just 4 seconds behind del Toro was Skjelmose and Seixas who rode well to keep their losses quite small. Pogačar now leads the GC by over 7 minutes on Evenepoel with del Toro in third at 9 minutes 42 seconds and Seixas still within touching distance at 10 minutes 6 seconds.