Another win-win
Pogačar said before the stage that he wasn’t looking for revenge for losing at Le Lioran last year, when he made a fuelling mistake, and Jonas Vingegaard beat him in a sprint. “It’s just a nice stage to win,” the yellow jersey holder said. But it was also revenge: Like an elephant, Pogačar never forgets. He attacked on the Col du Pertus (4.5 km @ 8.3%), 15.5 km from the finish, and as usual, nobody could follow. In the end, including the winner’s bonus, he gained another 54 seconds on Vingegaard and now leads the race by 3:36.
Unfortunately, the Great One heard boos from spectators near the finish, which didn’t faze him one bit. “I have haters and haters gonna hate,” Pogacar said afterwards. “To all the booers who are there, they just give more boost to my teammates. They put wood on the fire.”
What can these people be thinking? Imagine booing da Vinci or Shakespeare because they were such superior artists. Winners win, losers boo.
What’s wrong with Vingegaard?
Perhaps it’s the heat. Or maybe he hasn’t recovered from his Giro d’Italia victory. Or this is his best level. Whatever it is, it’s serious and could get worse. He finished seventh in the stage, fading badly near the finish, and now leads Remco Evenepoel by only 30 seconds. His Visma–Lease a Bike team is not doing much better, with Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss unable to stay with the peloton on the serious climbs.
Only Davide Piganzoli had the legs to attack on the Col du Pertus, apparently in the hope of generating an attack by his leader. Instead, it was Pogačar who used his lead-out as an attack platform, while Vingegaard stayed behind. This race has destroyed the illusion created by the Giro d’Italia that Vingegaard is again strong enough to challenge the soon-to-be five-time Tour champion.
Shockingly, Vingegaard did not seem concerned. “I think in the end it was not too bad of a day,” he said. “Shorter climbs like this are not what suits me the best, so obviously I had to fight today. To come away with a smaller loss like this is something I can be happy with.”
That doesn’t at all sound like somebody who still believes he can win the race. The question now is: Can he stay on the podium?
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Evenepoel clings to his illusion
Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) snatched second place out of the jaws of embarrassment by riding an excellent descent off the last categorised climb of the stage, catching the other GC riders on the slight rise to the finish and then outsprinting them to the line. This doesn’t alter the fact that he was dropped on that modest final climb (3.1 km @ 5.8%), whereas his team co-leader, Florian Lipowitz, wasn’t dropped, making it the second climb – after the Col du Tourmalet – on which his teammate has out-climbed him.
However, with Isaac del Toro having a bad day and finishing eighth, 1:31 behind his team leader, Evenepoel now finds himself on the GC podium, with Vingegaard and second place not far away. But he may be in denial over his climbing shortcomings.
“I’m just happy with how it went,” he said after the stage. “It’s good to take some time back, especially with what the weekend is bringing. It’s going to be very important to stay calm over the next few days, survive well. From Friday on, but especially Saturday and Sunday, it will be a big fight for the GC. We’ll see how it goes. But yeah, I feel that I’m getting better every day.”
Maybe, but with those big mountain stages still to come, Lipowitz may be forced to take over team leadership – unless he decides to work for Remco, as Remco has already furiously demanded. The two had words after stage 6, with Evenepoel saying that he was “angry, and rightly so,” because he had asked Lipowitz for a lead-out on the Tourmalet and didn’t get one. “I asked him to do one kilometre of work at the front, and that wasn’t possible,” he fumed. “That made me angry.” I think what made him angry was seeing that the German is the better climber.
Lipowitz knows it. His job for the team is to get the best possible result in the race, not to be Evenepoel’s domestique if that keeps them both off the podium. The German currently sits in sixth place in the GC, 4:44 behind Pogačar and 38 seconds behind Evenepoel. He won’t catch the Slovenian, but the gap to his teammate should melt away on the weekend’s two serious mountain stages.
No fairy tale, but…
Stage 10 was run on Bastille Day, so it would have been a fairy tale if Paul Seixas had won. He didn’t, but he finished an excellent third, 34 seconds adrift, on a course that didn’t really suit him. He now sits fifth in the GC, only 29 seconds off the podium and only 13 seconds behind Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) in the race for the young rider’s white jersey. That’s truly impressive for a 19-year-old riding his first Tour. But big tests lie ahead. I hope that his conservative ride in the Tour so far was him trying to save his legs for the big climbs to come.
Stage 11: Wærenskjold wins fastest Tour stage ever
Søren Wærenskjold powered to a surprise sprint win on Wednesday’s stage 11, which was the fastest Tour de France stage in history. His average speed for the 161.3 km course from Vichy to Nevers was 50.91 km/h, beating the previous mark of 50.36 km/h, set in 1999.
The 26-year-old Uno-X Mobility rider was the first sprinter to kick into high gear when Cees Bol (Decathlon CMA CGM) opened a gap some 300 meters from the finish, intending to lead out Olav Kooij. But it was too far for Kooij, who waited; and he and the other sprinters continued to wait when Wærenskjold took off in pursuit of Bol.
Alpecin–Premier Tech’s Jasper Philipsen was the first to react, then Kooij went, but by that time Wærenskjold had already passed Bol and was motoring. They were gaining on him with every stroke of the pedal, but they had waited too long. The Norwegian crossed the finish line half a bike length ahead of Kooij, with Philipsen coming third.
“I thought I was too far back, but it opened up on the right side, which it usually doesn’t do,”Wærenskjold explained afterwards. “It was the same feeling as my first big win at Omloop Het Niewsblad, like I was too far back and suddenly at the front,” said the delighted winner, who won the Omloop last year. “It’s unbelievable.”
It has been a terrific Tour so far for his newly promoted team, with Torstein Træen wearing the yellow jersey for two stages before crashing out. It was Wærenskjold’s first Tour stage victory and the team’s second. “It means everything, it’s my biggest win so far,” he said.
There was a bit of post-stage confusion when the race jury first relegated Philipsen for dangerous riding and then reinstated him to the podium after a protest by the team’s principals. That was reportedly the first time a race jury had changed its decision, and it left him with a tiny chance of winning the green jersey. But after Thursday’s stage 12, there will be almost no more stages suitable for a bunch sprint finish.
And speaking of Thursday’s stage 12…
Chaos, a crash and Merlier
Thursday’s Stage 12 was marked by a series of chaotic attacks in the last 24 km, as various teams tried to tire the legs of the sprinters and their lead-outs. In vain, it turned out, and the usual sprint suspects were all at the front of the peloton as it hit the final kilometres.
The first team to go was Philipsen’s Alpecin–Premier Tech, which shot to the front a little less than 1 kmfrom the finish. Sprinters were lining up behind them when, with about 350 metres to ride, a big crash cut the peloton in half, with most of the major sprinters unaffected. Mathieu van der Poel again left Philipsen in a good position, but first Tim Merlier and then Kooij surged past him, with the Soudal Quick-Step rider taking his third stage win of this Tour.
“Today, I found some space, just a little bit,” Merlier said. “I had to calm down, and then I launched again. It was the kind of finish that suits me.”
Lidl-Trek’s Mads Pedersen finished ninth but picked up 20 points at an intermediate sprint and now leads the green jersey race with 357 points, to 317 for Biniam Girmay (NSN Racing), who finished fourth, 311 for Philipsen, and 307 for Merlier.
Results 2026 Tour de France 2026 stage 10: Aurillac to Le Lorian (166.6 km)
1. Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates–XRG 3:58:08
2. Remco Evenepoel, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +0:32
3. Paul Seixas, Decathlon CMA CGM +0:34
4. Florian Lipowitz, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe ”
5. Juan Ayuso, Lidl-Trek +0:38
6. Mattias Skjelmose, Lidl-Trek ”
7. Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike +0:44
8. Isaac del Toro, UAE Team Emirates–XRG +1:31
9. Tom Pidcock, Pinarello Q36.5 +1:59
10. Lenny Martinez, Bahrain Victorious +2:03
Tour de France 2026 General Classification After Stage 12
1. Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates–XRG 43:04:01
2. Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike +3:36
3. Remco Evenepoel, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +4:06
4. Juan Ayuso, Lidl-Trek +4:22
5. Paul Seixas, Decathlon CMA CGM +4:35
6. Florian Lipowitz, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +4:44
7. Isaac del Toro, UAE Team Emirates–XRG +5:08
8. Mattias Skjelmose, Lidl-Trek +5:45
9. Lenny Martinez, Bahrain Victorious +6:34
10. Tom Pidcock, Pinarello Q36.5 +11:49
