62km to go: The irrepressible Julian Alaphilippe has been part of a split in this enormous leading group. Eenkhorn, Wright, Arensman, Mas, Velasco, Abrahamsen, and Alaphilippe’s teammate Trentin are all on the right side of this split, and the pair have two Tudor teammates in the group behind, some 18 seconds back now, who could help them stay away.
The gap to the peloton has gone out to more than four minutes, with Verstrynge and Rickaert still 30” off the front of the breakaway.
Flo Clifford22 July 2025 13:49
Retiring Geraint Thomas is going up Mont Ventoux for the final time today as his last-ever Tour de France nears its end. “I think he’s definitely glad this is his last Tour de France,” close friend Luke Rowe says on TNT Sports comms. He adds that the Welshman still wants something from this Tour; a stage win would be the perfect end to a fine career.
“What G brings is his charisma off the bike,” he adds. “He’s not the loudest guy on the bus, but when he talks, he talks a lot of sense. He’s a massive asset to that squad.”
(AFP via Getty Images)
Flo Clifford22 July 2025 13:42
75km to go: Some more attacking and counter-attacking later, this is a huge, huge, move, and the big news is that Jonathan Milan – who has been on the attack with Biniam Girmay again – has failed to get into it. You’d think that may be the end of his green jersey hopes, with somebody else going to pick up the 20 intermediate sprint points and Pogacar most likely to take 30 at the summit.
36 riders up the road with 30 seconds on the Alpecin-Deceuninck pair of Jonas Rickaert and Emiel Verstrynge, with the peloton three minutes and counting down the road.
Flo Clifford22 July 2025 13:35
Vingegaard on breaking Pogacar
“He hasn’t really shown any sign of weakness so far. Obviously it’s pretty hard to read something out of that but we just have to keep trying.
“We didn’t lose our hopes, we still believe it can be possible, and we’ll keep on trying.
“I’m feeling good. I had a good rest day, together with the team. We’ll see today, Hopefully the legs are good then we can maybe try something.”
Jonas Vingegaard has it all to do in the final week (AFP/Getty)
Lawrence Ostlere22 July 2025 13:34
Milan’s points jersey in danger
Jonathan Milan has had one threat to his green jersey lead removed in the form of Mathieu van der Poel leaving the race entirely. The Dutchman had been third in the standings at the start of the day.
But Pogacar is just 28 points off the pace as things stand and is likely to continue picking up points as he hoovers up stage wins. Today’s stage, bizarrely classified as a medium mountain despite featuring a HC summit finish, has 30 green jersey points on offer as well as 20 KOM points.
Pogacar winning today – as seems the most likely outcome – would also help him usurp Milan’s jersey, should the Italian pick up no points today (or one, or two).
There are 20 points on offer for first over the intermediate sprint at Chateauneuf-du-Pape, 112km into the stage, so Milan is in serious need of doing well in that sprint.
(AFP via Getty Images)
Flo Clifford22 July 2025 13:19
Original breakaway brought back
95km to go: The chaos continues as Visma keep jumping, with UAE continuing to try to shut moves down.
But it looks like, with the original trio shut down, UAE are fanning out to let the new breakaway up the road.
Milan has missed it and tries to jump again – but that gets snuffed out, and that’s bad news for Milan because this is a really big group. Some 24 names, including Sivakov, Soler, Benoot, Campenaerts, van Wilder, Healy, Powless, and the original trio of Meurisse, Haller and Hirschi are in there too.
Flo Clifford22 July 2025 13:11
Lipowitz leads fight for final podium place
German star Florian Lipowitz, only 24 and riding just his third Grand Tour, is in prime position to take third place on the podium in Paris.
The battle for third is also essentially the battle for the white jersey, with his closest challengers Oscar Onley and Kevin Vauquelin – but the German is well clear at the moment and has looked superior on the toughest climbs in the Pyrenees.
He’s a former biathlete, giving him something in common with Primoz Roglic, his Red Bull-Bora stablemate and another athlete who transitioned from a winter sport to cycling.
- Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) 54:28:37
- Oscar Onley (Team Picnic PostNL) +1:25
- Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +2:28
- Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) +10:33
- Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) +10:48
(AP)
Flo Clifford22 July 2025 13:04
Luke Rowe: ‘Cav should sleep with one eye open – Tadej Pogacar is coming for his Tour de France record’
The battle for the Tour de France’s yellow jersey lasted 12 days, but really it lasted about five minutes. That’s how long Tadej Pogacar waited before attacking Jonas Vingegaard on the Hautacam, the first hors-categorie mountain of the Tour, with an acceleration that made the Danish double champion look like a weekend rider who’d taken a wrong turn.
There is still a week’s racing to come in the Alps, featuring a couple of menacing stages including Tuesday’s summit finish atop Mont Ventoux. But Ventoux is more likely to be where Pogacar writes another piece of Tour history than where Vingegaard trims his four-and-a-half-minute deficit.
Lawrence Ostlere spoke to Luke Rowe about the marauding Slovenian – and how Vingegaard can get himself back in the race:
Flo Clifford22 July 2025 12:57
Echelons incoming? That would spice things up…
It looks like an ideal day for cycling, with sunshine and pleasant temperatures around 28ºC… The punishing factor will be the wind, which will pick up after the intermediate sprint at Châteauneuf-de-Pape (km 112.4) and blow from the side, with gusts of up to 45 km/h until the foot of Mont Ventoux. In the last six kilometres of the final climb, from Chalet Reynard onwards, it will blow against the cyclists, making the task of climbing the “bald mountain” even more difficult.
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Flo Clifford22 July 2025 12:50
‘You cannot hide’ on Mont Ventoux – Jonas Vingegaard
Matt Stephens of TNT Sports has a chat with Jonas Vingegaard, who also seems pretty chilled-out. Why is Mont Ventoux so significant? A lot of reasons, the Dane says: “It’s been in the Tour de France so many times, a lot of big fights have been battled there. It’s an iconic, very hard climb, almost 20k long, so you cannot hide there.
“I’m feeling good, I had a good rest day with the team, rested a lot obviously. We’ll see today, hopefully the legs are good and we can try something.”
On Pogacar and the fight for yellow, he says, “He hasn’t really showed any sign of weakness so far, obviously it’s pretty hard to read something out of that, but as I said before, we have to keep trying and we didn’t lose our hopes. We still believe it can be possible and we keep on trying.”
Asked if he gets nervous before a stage like this, he says, “Of course there’s a bit of nerves, in some kind of way you learn how to handle the nerves the older you get and the more experienced you get.”
(AFP via Getty Images)
Flo Clifford22 July 2025 12:43