Jambaz

Jul 12, 2022

LIVE Updated  First published on Tue 12 Jul 2022 06.41 EDT Key events: The pack of riders cycles during the 10th stage. Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images Supported by First published on Tue 12 Jul 2022 06.41 EDT Show key events only Live feed Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels) Philippe Gilbert (Lotto Soudal) Luis León Sánchez (Bahrain Victorious) We are not officially on the next climb, which is 6.7km long and summits with 78.9km to go on today’s stage. A legend of the game. Photograph: Shutterstock Updated at 09.02 EDT 91km to go: Looks like some other riders are trying to join the fun at the front of the race. The smart money would have been on a larger breakaway than four riders, given the stages to come in the following days, and the fact that it looked like it might be a nice easy day for the GC guys. Together with three other riders, he is currently a couple of seconds in front of the bunch as the attacks keep flying. pic.twitter.com/ogYbfD67Hs Updated at 08.54 EDT 97km to go: Crikey, this is a tough day. Marc Hirschi, who is clearly not himself, is off the back for UAE Team Emirates. UAE have already lost George Bennett to Covid today. The average speed so far is 44.9km/h, which is insanely fast given the amount of climbing the peloton have already done. Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels) now has a crack at the front. Dylan van Baarle (Ineos) is there too, as is Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma). Updated at 08.51 EDT 99km to go: After a long, sweeping descent off the Côte de Chevenoz, the road is heading uphill again. Gougeard is about to be caught, while in the peloton things are splitting up with the hot pace. The race is heading uphill towards the second categorised climb of the day, the Col de Jambaz. This is a painful day for anyone who is not feeling good, and struggling to stay in touch with the peloton. Those riders will be praying that a break goes away on this climb ... Updated at 08.45 EDT We're on the attack with Andrea Pasqualon & Georg Zimmermann! #TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/UVUZokXBFQ 101km to go: Gougeard has 19” up at the front. Mattia Cattaneo (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) is among the riders on the front of the bunch trying to close it down. Pidcock and Quinn Simmons (Trek–Segafredo), who has been very active at this race so far, are also up there. A couple of #TourSwimmingPools lurking there as the peloton rampages through Marin towards Lake Geneva. #TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/2h5G5LjmuW Dancing in the streets of Intermarché–Wanty–Gobert Matériaux tonight? Updated at 08.35 EDT 112km to go: “At some point this race has got to give,” Bradley Wiggins observes from the Eurosport motorbike. Gougeard powers on up front – and he has built a gap of 25”. Matej Mohoric, of Bahrain-Victorious, is the man leading the chase in the bunch, with Tom Pidcock (Team Ineos) up there too. Looks like a good old-fashioned attempt to get his sponsors (B&B Hotels) on telly from Gougeard, because there isn’t a chance in hell that he will be able to make this stick on his own unless the peloton sits up. Updated at 08.33 EDT Updated at 08.29 EDT 115km to go: “I thought we’d have a good break established by now,” says Kirby on Eurosport. “I thought we’d be talking about cheeses, and truffles, and insect life ... The pace is relentless, and this is very nervous.” Gougeard goes again off the front. He manages to forge a very significant gap. But surely he’s not going to hold off the peloton on a descent? Are we going to have a GC day if no break can get away? Updated at 08.27 EDT 118km to go: There is now a long descent down the valley before the riders gear up for the second climb, the Col de Jambaz, which is a category three. Pierre Latour took the KOM point atop the Côte de Chevenoz, by the way. Spectators wave a French flag as they line the race route. Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images Updated at 09.04 EDT 119km to go: It does seem a bit odd that the whole race was delayed for a rider such as Thomas, for such a long time, unless the powers that be had been told by Cofidis in advance that he was going for the break today? Updated at 08.38 EDT 123km to go: Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), the rider who held up the stage because he had an issue with his shoes, now attacks at the front. I think Alexis Gougeard (B&B Hotels) also had a go but was pulled back. The pace is hot, anyway, and it’s strung out at the front of the bunch. Updated at 08.14 EDT Updated at 08.13 EDT 127km to go: The riders are on the Côte de Chevenoz which is a category-four climb. Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën) and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-Easypost) are together, out front. But it looks like a big group are trying to bridge across and form a big breakaway. Behind, the peloton is splintering, and it looks like it’s going to be a tough day ... Kron (Lotto Soudal) is one of the guys trying to get in the break. Updated at 08.11 EDT 128km to go: Romain Bardet has said the first week was the hardest he’s ever done at the Tour de France . Via L’Equipe, via Andy McGrath on Twitter: Romain Bardet in L’Equipe: “It was the hardest first week of the Tour I’ve ever done.” The expected heatwave and harder stages tomorrow and Wednesday is going to whittle down contenders further 132km to go: Now we do have attackers off the front. Mathieu van der Poel is up there, and he is a big threat for the stage win if he has good legs, because the climbs aren’t that hard today. The pack of riders. Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images Updated at 08.09 EDT 135km to go: Maciej Bodnar (TotalEnergies) now has a crack, and gets a little gap. On Eurosport, Daniel Lloyd sagely observes that many riders aren’t trying to get in the break yet, because it’s all downhill to the first climb, so there is a risk of using a lot of energy for very little reward. That sounds plausible to me, anyway. At the back of the bunch it looks like Nils Pollitt (Bora–Hansgrohe) has a puncture. Bad timing. Updated at 08.02 EDT 137km to go: Benjamin Thomas of Cofidis had a problem with his shoe, which it appears is what held the whole race up to start with. Which seems a bit ludicrous, but there you go. Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) now tries to power away from the bunch ... but it’s still altogether. The peloton is currently on a downward course towards the foot of the first climb, which I guess is where we’re going to see some serious attacking. 141km to go: Ineos to have a crack? If he's had a good rest day, I'd fancy Dani Martinez for the stage today @LukeMcLaughlin . Or I would if Ineos were ever to come out of the wheels. Sending him up the road might also offer a bridge if Pidcock, Thomas and Yates can gang up on Pogacar - but... see above. Updated at 07.54 EDT Updated at 07.52 EDT We're racing on Stage 10! Finally, Prudhomme flutters his flag, and the race is on. A clutch of riders make a dash for it to begin with, but no one has got a gap yet ... presuming there is a protracted fight to get in the break, it’s going to be another lightning-fast day. Updated at 07.50 EDT TdF Stage 10. Photograph: Mark Roper. We’ve gone past the official starting point, but Prudhomme and co. aren’t happy, and have not dropped the flag yet. There seems to be some consternation in the bunch. Pierre Rolland is pictured shaking his head. Ah, on Eurosport Carlton Kirby points out he’s got bronchitis, so maybe that is why he looks so unhappy. Updated at 07.44 EDT Speaking of Pogacar’s team: George Bennett is out of the Tour, having tested positive for Covid: UAE Team Emirates confirms just now that George Bennett has tested positive to Covid-19 and is out of the #TDF2022 . Big blow to Tadej Pogacar, who is now down to five support riders. Good analysis, Mike, thanks. Important qualification at the end about the likelihood of Pogacar having an off day, too. It doesn’t really look on the cards, does it? And he seems perfectly happy to try and survive without his team (although that may of course be different in the high mountains). Take the cobbled stage as an example ... how many times do you see a lightweight GC guy riding away from classics specialists on a flattish cobbled stage like that? He is on another level. “Today would usually have ‘breakaway winner” written all over it,” emails Mike Waters. “Huge day tomorrow, with a finish not hard enough for race-changing gaps between leaders. But UAE are vulnerable, not because they are fundamentally a weak team as many claim, as Bennett, Majka and McNulty could all easily be leaders of a smaller team. “But with one abandoned and Hirschi looking off-colour it would make sense for Ineos, Jumbo-Visma and Movistar to send their second or third-best riders up the road to give UAE another hard day, hoping that will pay off as the race progresses into week three. All of this is of course subject to Pog himself having an off day sooner or later, which doesn’t seem to happen very often, and one of the rivals being able to take advantage.” William Fotheringham After a second rest day, a stage in the Alps that skirts the biggest climbs; with much more to come, the favourites are likely to mark each other, with a big battle for the stage win from an early break. The 19km drag to the finish is where it will all happen; that will favour the likes of France’s Warren Barguil or Mathieu Van der Poel. Today’s L’Equipe, wondering who will wipe the smile of Pog’s face in the mountains. A bit of a punchy angle from them. Via the Rouleur magazine editor, Edward Pickering, on Twitter. L’Equipe showing signs of Pogacar fatigue as they ask who will wipe the insolent smile off his face in the Alps. pic.twitter.com/E9WA7GxriB Updated at 07.13 EDT According to the renowned Italian cycling scribe, Ciro Scognamiglio, Mark Cavendish will be leaving Quick-Step after this season. The team boss Patrick Lefevere said: “I know that he wants to do two more years in the bunch ... but he’s not part of our project.” Info @Gazzetta_it - Today we speak with @PatLefevere about future of @MarkCavendish , if he can continue with @qst_alphavinyl (Soudal-Quick Step next year) in 2023 or not. "I know that he wants to do 2 more years in the bunch... but he's not part of our project". Mark Cavendish: heading for the exit at Quick-Step? Photograph: Marco Alpozzi/AP Updated at 07.09 EDT There was no rest day for Jeremy Whittle: he spoke to Geraint Thomas, Team Ineos’s leader, who currently sits third in the general classification, 1’17” behind the leader Tadej Pogacar. “A lot of people have been praised in the past and said: ‘This guy will go on to win X,’ but I can’t see how Pogacar won’t continue to be the biggest favourite in the next five or six years.” Thomas said. “I think he’s just a level above. Vincenzo Nibali and Alberto Contador were great climbers and Contador improved his time trialling a lot. Froomey [Chris Froome] could do both really well, but Pogacar, he’s got everything else.” Three riders packed it in before stage nine on Sunday: Kasper Asgreen (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), and Ruben Guerreiro (EF Education - Easypost). You can keep up to speed with withdrawals, stage by stage, on letour.fr’s “Withdrawals” page , which does exactly what it says on the tin. Kasper Asgreen withdrew from the race on Sunday. Photograph: Shutterstock Updated at 08.07 EDT Preamble As the world’s greatest bike race hits the Alps, four categorised climbs await the riders on today’s stage: the category-four Côte de Chevenoz, category-three Col de Jambaz, the Côte de Châtillon-sur-Cluses (category four), and finally a summit finish at the category-two Montée d l’altiport de Megève, topping out at 1,460m above sea level. The 148.1km route might be thought of as merely an entrée before some far more demanding mountain tests in the coming days, with a breakaway of stage hunters likely to succeed in battling it out at the front, while the GC contenders declare a temporary truce behind. But this is the Tour de France , where drama is never far away, so should we expect the unexpected and hope for fireworks in the battle for the yellow jersey in the next few hours? The riders can never be sure how their bodies will react immediately after a rest day, which will add a potential layer of intrigue this afternoon as the race heads in the direction of Mont Blanc, and the Swiss border. Whatever happens it’s going to be beautiful, as all mountain stages are, and there is sure to be some sort of excitement along the winding road to Megève. Stage start time: 12.40 BST