Today, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease-a-Bike) has his dream Tour de France scenario. It still ended in failure and a demoralizing loss of 52 more seconds to Tadej Pogǎcar (UAE Team Emirates).

On the Col de Haag, Vingegaard must have thought “At last! Good fortune is smiling on me. The Cycling Gods are throwing me a nice, juicy bone.”

Pogacar was alone, all by himself, isolated, no team in sight. No Brandon McNulty, no Adam Yates, No Isaac Del Toro. It was almost a bizarre sight.

Vingegaard’s mind was probably spinning — “Maybe, just maybe I can get some time back. Even it it’s just 30 seconds, give me some hope, some reason to remain optimistic.”

When the GC group had shrunk to six elite climbers, Vingegaard still had Sepp Kuss leading him up the mountain. A golden opportunity. The maillot jaune is out-numbered.

Well, no, that’s not what happened.

In the end, Tadej Pogǎcar didn’t need his backup band. He went solo with two kilometers to the summit. Initially, Vingegaard held the gap between 10 and 20 seconds but then it stretched to 30 seconds. And once Pogacar hit the short descent and the roll to the finish, he took another chuck of seconds.

At the finish line, the damage was 43 seconds plus a 10 second time bonus. Four mountain stages, four victories for the super-star Pogacar, zero for the Dane. The GC deficit is now a whopping 4:30.

In a post-stage interview, Visma’s Sepp Kuss said “We did a super job, not more that we could do. It’s such a steep final climb —it just comes down to the legs. You just have to go head to head with the strongest guy which is Pogǎcar.” Tough to win when you do a “super job” and still drop 53 seconds.

Adding insult to injury, Del Toro recovered enough to catch back and sit on Vingegaard’s wheel, then steal the bonus seconds for second place. Another one-two finish for UAE.

Then there’s the looming challenge of French wonderkid Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA-CGM). He out-sprinted Vingegaard for third and moves up to 5th on GC. He’s only 15 seconds from Evenepoel in 3rd and the Belgian will struggle in the long, grinding Alps climbs. Seixas is 50 seconds from Vineggard so what happens if the Visma captain has a jour sans?

Perhaps worse, what if Pogǎcar, confident in his total dominance and overwhelming team strength, gave Yates and McNulty a day off? He knew he didn’t need them to win and preferred to keep them fresh for the Alps.

In a word, yikes.

Today on stage 14 to Le Markstein-Fellering, Vingegaard had the perfect scenario to mount a challenge to Pogacar and generate positive momentum heading into the Alps.

That’s the thing about dreams. You wake up and suddenly they’re gone.

The race needs his panache, his wisecracks, his desire to race with aggression and have a damn good time doing it.

The stage from Dole to Belfort was written up in ALL CAPS as a breakaway stage. A super-sized group of riders got the message and went up the road.

You don’t see a 40 rider break that often.

And what British climber for Pinarello - Q36.5 Pro Cycling was in that jailbreak? Tom Pidcock. He had two secret plans for the day: win the stage, and hopefully move up from 10th on the general classification, 11 minutes 49 seconds behind Tadej Pogačar.

That’s ambitious goal setting but that fits Pidcock’s personality. He goes bike, he attacks descents like a kamikaze and it’s afraid to take risks.

A jumbo break that size is filled with passengers, opportunists and riders from teams desperate for Tour success. There’s even Brandon McNulty and Tim Wellens from UAE Emirates, who got get out of jail cards from Captain Pogǎcar.

Pidcock is tracking most of these rivals and it’s quite the workload. The two Jayco riders Mauro Schmidt and Luke Plapp launch attacks. Marc Hirshi and Ben Healy attack. Kévin Vauquelin then drives to the front. It’s a free-for-all. You can barely catch your breath.

Back in the peloton, they are way, way back, as in over eight minutes. Un jour de repos before the GC insanity tomorrow.

Pidock is marking like crazy and then makes his own bid to drop everyone on the climb of the Ballon d’Alsace. He can’t quite snap the elastic, which must be industrial grade.

But all those bullets firing is having an effect as the front group shrinks to ten men. Pidcock hits the summit first and they all fly down the backside, heading for Belfort.

Right now, ripping down the road, it’s a good news, not so good news scenarios. He’s bouncing between a virtual 3rd and 4th on GC, a jump of six places and he’s back in the hunt for a podium.

The not-so-good, rather challenging part is how to drop the other nine guys. And what are the two UAE guys McNulty and Wellens planning? Are they going to attack or just trying to get first showers in the team bus?

Pidcock is still running his calculations when Mauro Schmid attacks with Harold Tejada. Well, that settles that. They punch out a gap of 20 seconds with 6.5k to go and the chase lack velocity. Nothing Pidcock can do nothing at this point, running on empty.

Finally, McNulty makes a belated solo effort at 2k but his timing was late. Schmid and Tejada play games in the final 500 meters with Pidcock and company closing fast now. Schmid saves Jayco AlUla’s Tour de France with a big victory.

Pidcock consoles himself with third on the stage but if there’s any consolation in just missing a Tour stage win, it’s his rocket launch up the GC standings. He’s now fourth at 4:15, just nine seconds from Remco Evenepoel’s podium spot in third.

Tom Pidcock is at the Tour de France to race. We’re so glad he’s here.

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) is riding his ass off, trying to win every intermediate sprint. He’s a points vacuum. The pure sprinters might scoff — “We will not demean ourselves with squabbling for coins like a beggar.”

Pedersen isn’t a pure sprinter but he knows how to beat them his own way. By tenacity, tactics, consistency and deploying his team to tire out the true fast men whenever there’s a climb to punish them

Today on stage 12 from Nevers to Chalon-sur-Saône, he did everything possible to score points — and more importantly, to prevent guys like Jasper Philipsen, Minima Girmay and Tim Merlier from taking points.

First, he went full-gas to take second in the intermediate sprint. Put twenty points in my green bag. Job done, box checked.

Then on the hillier terrain in the last 40 kilometers, he put his team up front in an attempt to wear out the pure sprinters before — or better yet, drop them if possible.

He had American Quinn Simmons attacking constantly. Mads is like Mad Max, the Road Warrior. He’s not going to let these fast-twitch guys take his green jersey!

Philipsen, Girmay, Merlier, Kooij and Max Kanter, they hate Pedersen right now. Mads is trying to hurt them all over the race course. Why can’t they have a gentleman’s agreement to just settle this in the proper, time-honored fashion — at the finish line?

Why — because Pedersen isn’t playing a game he can’t win. He’s very fast but not explosively, insanely fast. He doesn’t have a dedicated train like Philipsen or Girmay.

No, this is the only way he wins green — by punching these guys as many times as possible before they wind it up for the final sprint. He’s doing damage control by doing as much damage as possible.

That strategy includes bluffing his competition as he did this morning. He made it sound like, yeah, not going to be super aggressive and smash these guys all day.

“It wouldn’t make sense to tell a plan on TV,” said Pedersen past-stage. “Sometimes we have to bluff.” Trickery, subterfuge, black magic — Pedersen brings it all to the fight.

In the end, as the entire peloton barreled into Chalon-sur-Saône, Pedersen did not succeed in slowing down Tim Merlier, who blasted past everyone. But he still managed to score 20 points for finishing 9th. His haul for the day: 40 total points. “I scored the maximum points I could. I’m super proud of the team,” said Pedersen

Mads is working, people. He’s the hardest working man in green jersey showbiz.

Mads Pedersen 357 points

Binian Girmay 317 points

Jasper Philipsen 311 points

Tim Merlier 307 points

That means training plans, sleep protocols, altitude camps, team roster composition, high-level strategy — basically every detail in existence. That’s what it takes to dethrone the greatest cyclist of all time.

That deep dive has resulted in a critical review of Visma’s “encouragement” script that is delivered from the team car during the stages of Le Tour.

Anyone who has watched the Tour in recent years or viewed the Netflix series Unchained knows the script: “Come on Jonas, come on, come on, come on.”

Powerful words that helped Vingegaard win two editions of the Tour de France. However, as Tadej Pogǎcar’s star has continued to ascend, Visma is taking a critical look at those words of encouragement.

“It is clear this phrase has become stale, has lost some of its motivational force,” said director sportive Marc Beach. “You can only repeat certain sequences of words for so long before they lose their juice. We have come to the conclusion that ‘Come on, come on, come on’ is no longer strong enough to counteract Pogacar.”

Visma has been working overtime with a team of motivational coaches, energy manifesters, and psychologists to create a new series of “motivational activators.”

On the drawing board are phrases like “Faster, goddamn it, faster, win this goddamn race,” and the more evocative “Smash Pogacar like a bug, grind him into the road.”

Those are just early prototypes the team is continuing to iterate on. It appears all options and creative solutions are on the table. The Visma team management held a late-night meeting on the first rest day to push towards selecting finalists.

“The first round of development was good, solid, in the strike zone, but we need to push harder,” said team boss Richard Chugg. According to several sources, the squad spared no expense, flying in several hip-hop and hardcore rappers to supercharge the new “encouragement” phrases.

“They came up with some strong stuff. Things that made us and the sponsors a little nervous. It was edgy stuff, perhaps over the line, violent, and confrontational,” said Marc Beach. “But we’re in a difficult spot with Jonas behind by over three minutes. We have to take risks — perhaps there are some motivational issues.”

In fact, the squad has apparently focused-grouped several of the more edgy phrases and did a disaster check with Vingegaard to see if he is comfortable with them.

It was not an easy conversation. “On the bike, Jonas is not a shy, restrained personality. He’s a killer, but being Danish, he’s not happy with some of the bolder affirmations,” said Beach. “For example, we loved the rap vibe of ‘Whup his whack ass, whup him’ but he was uncomfortable with that. The same goes for ‘Put a cap in Pogǎcar’s head,’ which we liked for its kinetic energy, but again, Jonas said, ‘No, no, no, freaking way.’ He’s a classy guy.”

For now, the new front-runner “motivational mantra” is the more conservative “Just please ride a little faster, Jonas.” “It’s baby steps with Jonas; this is new territory for him,” said Beach. “But I can tell you, if he’s still losing time in week three, we’re going to verbally escalate.” “

“We are prepared to break new verbal ground, new levels of manifestation. I cannot promise we will not use “Punch him in the face and light his bike on fire,” said Richard Chugg. “We’d prefer not to, but it’s the Tour de France. We have to go to the maximum.”

We’ll see how the new “encouragement” strategy plays out on stage 14 with three Category 1 mountain climbs. Vingegaard is going to need every bit of motivation.

Everyone expected the sprint stage from Vichy to Nevers would end in victory for Tim Merlier (Soudal Quickstep), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin Premier Tech) or Simian Girmay (NSN Cycling) Maybe you picked young gun Olav Kooij to get his second win or the aggressive Kanter (Astana - >>) to finally break through.

No, this is the “surprise.” The unpredictable, strange, wacky stage where everyone is wrong. It’s upside down day, where underdogs triumph and off-the radar riders take their biggest victory.

So, no for Philipsen, Merlier, Girmay and Kooij. Cycling Gods have other plans in mind.

Once the long, long breakaway of Anthon Charming (Uno-X Mobility), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) and Mathis Le Berre (TotalEnergies) had their fun, the peloton took over with 5.5 kilomters to ride.

At this point the road became appreciably narrower and that changed the dynamics for the sprint teams. Harder to get to the front, harder to get organized, harder to control. Some riders were not impressed with the route into Nevers and called it “dangerous.”

In the final mad dash, several top sprinters were boxed in, blocked out and simply too far back. Merlier never had a chance to launch. Max Kanter wasn’t in the mix.

To everyone’s surprise, who should find a gap along the right-side barriers? The hero of the day, Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility). He went early and had enough speed to hold off a desperate charge by Kooij and Philipsen, who took second and third.

Didn’t see that one coming, did ya?

A number of days ago, some media type suggested to sprinter Binian Girmay that watching Tour sprint stages was boring. Girmay responded with this shiny gem: “I find it boring to watch someone riding alone for 40km on a mountain stage. I prefer watching sprint stages because you never know who is going to win.”

Well said, Girmay. Today on the stage from Vichy to Never, everyone thought they knew who would win. Yet even the winner was surprised. “It’s incredible to take this win. I just need to let it sink in, and then I will probably be more happy than I look now,” said Wærenskjold. It’s a big surprise for myself.”

At the end of the day, he’d lost another 44 seconds on Tadej Pogǎcar (UAE Team Emirates - XRG), who’s now crushing him by 3:36.

Yet, somehow it feels like a victory for the Dane. After all, he didn’t lose three and a half minutes like he did on the Tourmalet climb. By that math, yeah, could have been worse.

Despite the smackdown, the ever-optimistic, manifesting-like-mad Vingegaard summed up events as “not a bad day.”

Fact is, Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) has wonderful memories of this same Le Lioran stage from back in the 2024 Tour. That was when Pogǎcar attacked from far out but the Dane protected his yellow jersey, fighting back and winning the two-man sprint.

Not today, however. No warm, fuzzy memories were made.

On the category Col de Pertus, after pretending to perhaps be on a off day, Pogǎcar fired his trademark missile shot. Everyone behind waves goodbye as Vingegaard does damage control. It’s another “Oh, shit” moment.

It takes just over a kilometer for the Slovenian to catch and blow by a valiant Richard Carapaz (EF Education EasyPost) who just moments before had a lead of 48 seconds.

Meanwhile, Vingegaard settles into his familiar role as the Second Best Grand Tour Rider of this generation. He holds the gap between 20 and 30 seconds but he’s on the limit, maxed out.

Fortunately for him, a chase group of Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), and Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) joins the Dane. A reinforcement in firepower that stops the deficit from exploding. Remco Evenepoel had been dropped but would somehow recover and also catch back on.

Nevertheless, on the final category 3 Col de Font de Cère, Pogǎcar takes another ten seconds, crossing the line with his 25th Tour stage victory.

It doesn’t even seem to matter that his hotel the previous night had no functioning air conditioners or that UAE’s new race radios malfunctioned late in the stage. No misfortune seems to rattle him. He sleeps deeper, recovers faster and climbs like nobody ever had.

A gassed Vingegaard can’t even manage a sprint and finishes 7th, as Evenepoel takes second and French wonderkid Paul Seixas races to third. End result for Jonas Vingegaard: another 44 seconds behind.

This is the strange Tour de France world Tadej Pogacar has created with his singular dominance. The finest climbers in the world count it as “not a bad day” when they lose another good-sized block of time.

Vingegaard remains relentlessly optimistic, insisting once again that his “legs are getting better and better.” He better tell his legs to hurry up because a “not bad day” is not good enought to win le Tour.

You’ll get his thoughts on the extreme heat, Vingegaard’s chances against Pogǎcar, life in the Grupetto and how he plans to win the Lanterne Rouge.

Stage nine of the Tour to France pitted the powerful Dutchman against a chasing peloton of around 38 riders.

Now, Van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) is incredibly strong. He has the strength of several men. I mean this is a guy with a big engine — like the twin turbo V8 in his Lamborghini Urus. But was he capable of holding off this many angry people?

Ok, he did have some help. When the race hit the steepest grades of the Suc au May (3.8 km at 7.7%) Van Der Poel closed the gap on the break. Now it was a deluxe group of eight riders, most notably Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Alex Baudin (EF Education), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Intermarché) and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling).

Then it was showtime for VDP. He attacked on Mont Bressou, whittling the group down to just Johannessen, Baudin (EF) and Pidcock. The sight of the slight frame of Pidcock tucked behind the big Van der Poel was almost comedic.

The peloton was in no mood to just hand the stage honors to the Dutchman. The gap is about a minute and now they’re going after him. Van der Poel does most of the driving, with Pidcock and Baudin occasionally chipping in with a short pull. Johannessen mostly sits in the back, happy to watch the show and save his watts.

In the peloton, it’s practically the entire Lidl-Trek squad up front chasing for Mads Pedersen. The man in the green jersey wants more points! But as the kilometers tick down, the gap isn’t getting much shorter. At 15k, Mads’ boys have cut only five seconds; at 10k they’ve trimmed another 10 but the catch doesn’t look promising.

Head down, motoring hard, Van der Poel is almost single-handedly holding them all off. With 3k to go to the finish, he’s still got 37 seconds and now even Johannessen throws in a few pulls.

Under the red kite, Van der Poel is confident enough in his legs that he doesn’t care if he has to sprint from the front. Even a final bit of slow-pedal, playing around, and a charging peloton just behind them doesn't change the outcome.

Van der Poel first, Johannessen second, Pidcock in third. Another way to score the stage: VDP 1, Peloton Zero. Not to mention, he got a nice, long kiss from his girlfriend Roxanne Bertels. A good day, all around.

He was combative almost right from the drop of the flag. A whopping 174 kilometers from the finish, he attacked along with Thibault Guernalec (TotalEnergies) and Jakub Otruba (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA).

That’s a bold move from a long way out on the third hottest day in Tour history. It was 102 degrees out on the course. Baking on the road to Bergerac.

The peloton let them go and then settled into the immediate task at hand: avoiding heat stroke. The kilometers ticked by as the trio up front worked together. The gap never got much over two minutes because this was a sprint stage and sprinters hate to miss an opportunity.

Then things got a little spicy — and even more combative. With 40 kilometers to ride, Slock attacked on the category 4 Côte du Buisson-de-Cadouin. He used that four percent grade to drop Guernalec and Otruba.

Then he really got down to work. This was more than just a bid for camera time and team sponsor love. He began picking up speed, a man on a mission.

Once he hit the 20k to go banner, he still had a gap of 1:20 and showed no sign of slowing down.

It was time for the peloton to wake up but they were discovering Slock was not going to go down without a fight. Alpecin-Premier Tech and Soudal Quickstep had to burn some riders early to cut the deficit.

Ten kilometers from Bergerac and still the gap hovers at one minute. The stage is balanced on a knife edge. The catch is going to be tricky.

SLock takes two red water bottles from a neutral service moto and dumps the water over his head, then gulps the rest. He knows the bastards are coming fast now.

The pedals are still turning but he’s dying — the gap is 30 seconds at 5k, then 15 seconds at 3k.

Millions watching on their phones, laptops and TV’s try to will Slock to victory.

Sadly, at 1.4 kilometers, the peloton shoots past him without a glance. Alpecin cues up Jasper Philipsen, Biniam Girmay of NSN Cycling and Olav Kooij of Decathlon CMA CGM shoot forward.

Then an absolute blast of wind.

From at least eight riders back, Tim Merlier simply rockets past everyone for his second win in two days. It was like watching Tadej Pogacar dominate on the Tourmalet.

As for the brave, heart-broken and frustrated Liam Slock? Well, congratulations, you just won the Combatively Award.

The sharp elbows were out, lots of argy-bargy and shoulder pushes. The wild sprint into Bordeaux was, shall we say, a spirited affair.

“I’m like in a casino, bouncing everywhere,” said the Belgian Tim Merlier. Or something to that effect — tough to hear on the interview. But yes, a lot of balls on the same roulette wheel.

The sprint train of Alpecin Premier Tech left the station early and by the 500 meter mark, their sprint Jasper Philipsen had to go ahead of schedule. A timing error that wrecked his chances for victory.

Netcompany INEOS worked hard for Dorian Godon, who was well-placed but almost too desperate for a win. He nearly took out Max Kanter (Astana) as he veered left of his line, then leaning hard into Kanter. I suspect race officials will hand out a penalty for that kamikaze maneuver.

“It was a mess to be in position but I make it,” said Tim Merlier, the fast man at Soudal Quickstep. “I talk to myself, you gotta fight for the finish.”

His timing and bike handling and a terrific lead out from Jasper Stuyven made all the difference. He crossed the finish-line with open space behind him.

Merlier did a victory gesture, lightly brushing off the top of his shoulders with his hands. It was a “that was easy” move, a little understated swagger.

Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) and Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling) took the second and third spots. Max Kanter (XDS Astana) and Philipsen rounded out the top 5. Philipsen is already thinking about tomorrow’s sprint stage.

Merlier now has four Tour de France stage wins. “I’m happy — it’s not another team who win,” said the Belgian. Today he showed off this blazing speed and his boxing skills.

Four-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) dominated the climb up and the descent down the iconic Tourmalet.

Attacking five kilometers from the summit, after a lead-out by Isaac del Toro, Pogačar shot forward and left everyone except Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease-a-Bike) in his wake. By the top, he had thirty seconds on the only possible rival in this race.

Then on the backside he took another thirty seconds with an audacious descent that was terrifying to watch. A skillful descender himself, Vingegaard still lost major time.

And the time gaps just kept ballooning out. Inevitable, relentless, brutal. Tack on another minute, why don’t ya!

An elite chase group containing Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) and Lenny (Martinez Bahrain Victorious) did damage control. There was plenty of damage that needed attention. Their deficit was almost 3 minutes and growing.

“We were going like crazy and if we explode, we explode,” said Pogačar. “In my mind, I left everything to coincidence. I wasn’t calculating minutes and seconds.” Well, needless to say, he banked a lot of time advantage.

The yellow jersey of Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility) had almost eight minutes on Pogačar at today’s start. However, once on the Tourmalet, the Slovenian easily wiped out that deficit. Then disaster for Træen as he clipped the rear wheel of his teammate Anders Halland Johannessen on the descent and crashed hard. After a long, tense examination by the race doctor, he managed to remount.

It was an 18 kilometer mountain climb that has probably decided this Tour de France, barring an unforeseen disaster. The greatest pro cyclist in the history of the sport simply does what he wants.

The final scoreboard: Pogačar leads Vingegaard by 2:42 and his teammate Del Toro by 3:27 with Remco Evenepoel another 3 seconds behind. 19 year old Paul Seixas, the future of French cycling, took 5th place today which puts him 6th overall, at 3:55. Pas mal, mon pôte!

Another mountain, another win. “Really incredible victory. Sweet for sure,” said Pogačar. “Very big hype already talking about this stage. This morning my mind was going crazy. I was really excited for today.”

Vingegaard, on the other hand was clearly not thrilled by the outcome. Post-stage, he was open and honest about what happened. “It was a very tough day. Not the day I wanted. He put a big attack on Tourmalet and I couldn’t follow,” said the Dane. “That’s how it is. I’m disappointed. Sometimes that’s life. I still believe in myself — my legs will get better.”

Let’s hope so, otherwise the GC battle will largely be about the scramble for the last step on the podium in Paris.

This is the drawback of dominance for those watching the Tour de France. We can be astonished by the talents of Pogačar and still feel a bit bored by the predictability.

So, here we go, while our minds and legs are still fresh. Here’s what AI generated and what I re-worked in my own inimitable style. Cause Chat is predictable and bland and has zero sense of humor …

1. Goat track bound for glory

“Before the Tour de France arrived, the Col du Tourmalet was a rough shepherds’ path used to move livestock between valleys in the High Pyrenees.” This means, little mountain goats, not the emaciated, high wattage climber goats. Apparently race organizers convinced local authorities to invest money ( a measly 3,000 francs) to convert this rocky trail into a Tour-worthy road. Goat track transforms into iconic climb. That’s MONEY!

2. Alphonse Steines’ near‑death recon

“To convince Henri Desgrange to use the Tourmalet, journalist Alphonse Steines went to scout the climb himself in winter conditions and nearly died trying. He got lost in deep snow and had to be rescued, but still sent a famously understated telegram back to Paris: Crossed Tourmalet stop. Very good road stop. Perfectly feasible.” That was all Chat and by golly, you can’t top that crazy shit. Let’s see how many riders agree it’s a “good road” today. Probably zero except for Pogacar and Vingegaard.

3. 1910: Octave Lapize, “Assassins!”

I’ve hear this story before and it’s a good one. “The Tourmalet’s first appearance in 1910 marked the Tour de France’s entry into true high‑mountain racing, sending riders above 2,000 meters for the first time. On that legendary stage, Octave Lapize crested the Tourmalet first, but he was so enraged by the brutality of the route that he shouted “Vous êtes des assassins!” (“You are murderers!”) Well, again, can’t beat the algorithm. But man, what horrifying pain because it’s the math that kills you: Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet, and Aubisque, in this case. And no carbon frames or ice cubes.

4. Eugène Christophe & the blacksmith’s forge

Who doesn’t love a blacksmith story? We speak of Eugène Christophe’s broken fork incident in 1913. “He was struck by a vehicle and snapped his fork—no neutral service cars and no spare bikes in that era. Christophe carried his damaged bike down to a forge in the nearby town and, using his skills as a blacksmith, repaired the fork himself.” I would add he probably downed a few free glasses of local red wine because, Jesus, that’s a lot of work. He lost his chance at victory but did win a place in top ten Tourmalet anecdotes.

5. Ghosts on the mountain

Who does not appreciate aTour ghost story? “Near the summit you’ll find a statue of Octave Lapize, frozen mid‑effort, a reminder of that 1910 “assassins” stage and of the riders who first dragged road racing into the high mountains. There is also the Souvenir Jacques Goddet, a prize and memorial honoring the long‑time Tour director whose era solidified the race’s modern identity.” We always need history to remind us that the Tour de France has always been a nasty bitch. But also beautiful and willing to bestow gifts to the worthy.

6. French cultural symbol

I’m sure that all the top Tour climbers are going to be musing on this halfway up the Tourmalet. That is, when they’re not saying, “Oh Fuck.” “French climbers in particular seem to treat it as sacred ground, and victories there, like Thibaut Pinot’s emotional win in 2019, carry extra weight because they’re seen as reclaiming a national monument in front of home crowds.” Hey, really hope Decathlon’s new hero Paul Seixas is reading this. Somebody send him a link!!!

7. The most climbed pass in Tour history

Well doesn’t this sound exhausting? Chat, talk to me. “The Tourmalet has been included more often than any other mountain pass in the Tour’s history, from its 1910 debut through countless modern editions. Both its eastern and western approaches are long, averaging around seven percent for roughly 17–19 km, but it’s the accumulation over many Tours that matters: more yellow jerseys have been attacked, defended, or lost on its slopes than anywhere else in the Pyrenees."

All that to say, we have a bad ass, monster day in the Pyrenees today. We hope for a spirited battle between Pogacar and Vingegaard — and whoever else isn’t afraid of the Tourmalet stories.

ASO and the UCI have done almost nothing except the usual platitudes about safety, prioritizing rider health and the difficulties of changes stage start times. They did allow water feeds at every feed station. To which the riders said “Whoo-Hoo!

Will it really, shortly turn into a battle on every stage of the race? With riders battling for the last ice cube in hopes of simply surviving for another day? After all, Tom Pidcock called the situation “a war zone.”

Dylan van Baarle got right to the point: “We have a heat protocol, but I think it’s tucked away in some far corner. Is this still responsible? That’s a good question… I don’t think so,”

Then there’s wise old vet Matteo Trentin, who told Wielerflits: “It’s really time for all of us to sit down together and discuss how we’re going to handle this in the future. This is unhealthy. I don’t know if it’s unsafe, but in any case, it’s not healthy.”

What’s the final answer. Earlier start times, shorter stages, reverse the effects of global warming. Let’s hope cooler heads will prevail.

Today on the Tour stage from Lannemezan to Pau, we witnessed what happens when no one team is able to assert dominance and control. It was a sprint train-free event.

The last ten kilometers were a grab-bag of teams all coming to the front early: Uno-X Mobility and the perennially under-achieving French squad Cofidis took the lead. Netcompany INEOS, Tudor, and Groupama-FDJ United all made a guest appearances. Everybody was dreaming big and praying hard.

Meanwhile, the well-drilled squads like Alpecin-Premier Tech had unforeseen issues — like a crash just outside five kilometers that held up some of their riders. Their star sprinter Jasper Philipsen couldn’t have been happy about that.

Instead, this was a day for freelancers, underdogs and dice-rollers. For example, two riders from Astana took their chances with aggressive moves. If you had great legs, you had to put them to work.

In the end, victory went to the sprinter with patience, calm and good fortune. Olav Kooij, in his first Tour de France, stayed in good position, found a promising wheel and broke for daylight.

“The first sprint of the Tour, everyone is still really eager,” said Kooij. “I just managed to find my way a bit on my own in the end, but I found the right wheel. When I saw the line I just went as hard as I could.” Which is generally what sprinters do — It’s kind of a fast-twitch behavior.

He out-accelerated Max Kanter (XDS Astana Team) and Tim Merlier(Soudal Quickstep) for the podium positions. Meanwhile, the guys with the fancy trains like Philipsen and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) had to settle for fifth and seventh.

This was not only a massive thrill for Decathlon CMA CGM — it also takes a ton of pressure off the shoulders of young Paul Seixas. The Future of French Cycling can now relax a bit knowing the team already has their Tour win.

On messy, disorganized sprint stages like this, pure wattage doesn’t guarantee the big victory. It’s a day where good fortune and opportunism play a big role. On a sunny afternoon in Pau, the Cycling Gods looked down from the sky and said, “Him, the Decathlon guy, Kooij, that’s who is winning.”

No, I mean red hot, sizzling, scorched, on fire …

He’s hot because he just won his third Tour de France stage and hot because, well, it’s 104 degrees Fahrenheit. For reference, Dubai was 103 and Riyadh a 107 today. Il fait tres chaud!

The stage from Carcassonne to Foix was cooking, the hottest stage in Tour de France history. Most of the ice cubes in France were going down the jerseys of the riders. TV Commentator Christian Vande Velde, following the action by moto, said it was 107 degrees.

Which makes you wonder — where was Didi the Tour Devil? If anyone should enjoy this global warming treat, it’s a guy who spends most of his time in Hell.

Mads Pedersen was the big favorite on a guaranteed breakaway stage. In fact, every rider in the 30 man escape thought they had a chance to win. Tadej Pogacar and his arch rival Jonas Vingegaard had decided to chill — I use the term with some irony — in the peloton about 12 minutes back.

Once Mads made it over the Col de Montségur (6.9 km at 6.6%), he was pretty much golden. The break had shrunk to ten riders and he had both Mathias Vacek and Quinn Simmons to chase down attacks and keep the pace high.

And remember, this is a guy who has the most unique indoor training bike workout. He dresses in warm clothing and doesn’t use a fan to keep himself cool. He describes it as “terrible but terribly effective.”

So if anyone could deal with extreme heat, it was Pedersen. He probably thought today was just “warm-ish",” mildly “toasty.”

Sure, he had to deal with some stress. The Movistar duo of Raúl García Pierna and Pablo Castrillo Zapater attacked repeatedly but were always brought back. There was also the threat of Sean Quinn (EF Education-Easy Post).

And let’s not forget young Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility) who began the stage with a GC deficit of five minutes. Once that gap went over 10 minutes, he was taking the yellow jersey. Could he also ruin Pedersen’s sure thing?

Sidebar: Think about that bizarre occurrence: a guy from cold weather Norway grabbing the maillot jaune on the hottest Tour day ever. That’s just bonkers.

But back to Pedersen. Once he opened his sprint, it was game over. The other guys were so fried that Mads’ teammate Quinn Simmons was able to steal second place.

Chapeau and a big bag of ice, Mads.

The Slovenian crossed the finish line just two second ahead of the maillot jaune but it was just enough to take over the jersey.

As Vingegaard would be the first to admit, those explosive efforts aren’t his forte. Pogačar simply has a fast-twitch sprint up a mountain that nobody can match.

It does naturally raise the question of whether Vingegaard was feeling a bit of his recent Giro d’Italia victory in the legs. Coming into last year’s Tour de France, Visma detailed that he’d been working on his explosiveness in hopes of matching Pogačar’s accelerations. And to a point, he did seem to gain a new burst.

However, Visma and their sports science people went with a new strategy for this edition of the Tour. One that centered around Vingegaard building his form in the Giro. Their belief is that with a Giro in the legs, he’d actually be stronger in Le Tour.

So, no speedy snap in the legs, more diesel power to slowly grind down Pogačar in the Pyrenees and Alps. That’s the plan anyway, as much as any plan really works against the four-time Tour champion.

What appears concerning after today’s stage to Les Angeles, is not only Pogačar’s incredible speed but the overall team strength comparative to Visma. In the final few kilometers, he had Isaac Del Toro, Adam Yates and Brandon McNulty all hammering the pace.

While Vingegaard’s super climber Sepp Kuss put in a short appearance at the front, once warp speed was reached, the Dane was on his own. And in the end, he hung tough but UAE is a juggernaut and the Tour is only three days old. Scary stuff.

UAE Team Emirates XRG and Tadej Pogačar treated the 160 kilometer ride from Granollers up to Les Angeles like it was smash-mouth football, an MMA grudge match, a barroom brawl on wheels. They dictated the pace, shredded the peloton and put Visma under constant stress.

Last year it was Visma attempting to wear down UAE. This time around, it’s Pogačar and company doing the damage. Oh, and it’s really, really hot outside.

The strange occurrence was watching four-time Tour winner Tadej Pogačar doing everything possible not to win the stage. Think about how odd that is …

Pogačar is widely seen as the new Eddy Merckx, a Cannibal for a new generation. A man who wins at an astonishing rate on every kind of terrain and in every possible disciple.

Yet there he was, on the third and final climb up the short but steep Cat 3 Côte du Château de Montjuïc. He had American Brandon McNulty driving the pace and dropping half the peloton. Then Adam Yates took over and stretched things out even further.

We were all waiting for inevitable — the vicious acceleration from Pogačar that nobody — not even the yellow jersey of Jonas Vingegaard — could follow. Order would be restored after the Dane had bested him in the opening time trial by 12 seconds.

Instead, Tadej worked hard to avoid his victory. He responded to the attacks from the likes of Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl–Trek) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education–EasyPost). He held everyone in check, the patron who sets the rules.

Then when it was finally his moment to strike, he and his teammate Issac Del Toro jumped forward. It looked like a wonderful one-two victory for UAE Emirates. And yes, that’s what happened, only at the last second, Pogačar eased up and allowed the thrilled and grateful Del Toro to take his first Tour de France stage win.

It was proof that not only does Tadej Pogačar know how to win any kind of race. He also knows how to give one away to a friend. That’s a true chapeau.

Dude be fast. His Ineos Netcompany squad set the bar high in the 19.6 km test against the clock. They were smooth and coordinated along the flat half of the course before hitting the two short climbs on Montjuïc. The finish was highlighted by an 800 meter section at around 7%. Ganna would power away solo, marking a time of 21:55.

On a hot day in Barcelona, that was a scorching time. Now, all he had to do was chill and hydrate and hope Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar were just a tad off. Like maybe they’d be in a giving mood?

Wishful thinking, Filippo. Critics may have questioned the relative strength of Visma-Lease-A-Bike relative to Pogačar’s UAE Emirates powerhouse. Especially after they were forced to leave Wout van Aert off the Tour roster.

However, today, they were flying. After a final boost from Matteo Jorgenson, Vingegaard attacked the final climb with a vengeance. He crossed the line with a new best time of 21:47. That was 8 seconds faster than Ganna’s Netcompany INEOS time.

Ahh, but Pogačar was still out on the course. “The one man who can destroy dreams,” said famed cycling commentator Phil Liggett, as he watched the UAE squad chasing Visma’s time.

UAE was indeed fast but once Pogačar went solo on Montjuïc, there was too much time to make up. He almost pulled off his typical magic but could just manage 3rd place, 11 seconds back. That said, he was still smiling at the finish — because what’s a 11 second deficit in the Alps and Pyrenees? Absolutely nothing.

As for the rest of the story, let’s start with Remco Evenepoel and his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe squad. He was just off the pace but a concerted solo effort on Montjuïc gave him the third best time, 18 seconds back. He also dropped co-leader Florian Lipowitz in the process — a little pecking order display.

Then there’s the matter of 19 year old French darling Paul Seixas of Decathlon CMA CGM. He seems to be impervious to all the extra pressure on his shoulders from the French media. Carrying extra weight is a bad thing in a race and French expectations are tres-tres elevé. He was more than solid but finished in sixth place, 38 seconds behind. Not a big chapeau, but nice looking.

Jonas Vingegaard takes the first maillot jaune of the 2026 Tour de France. And he lands what the experts like to call a psychological blow on Pogačar. But really, does 11 seconds count as a blow? Maybe a gentle tap?

It didn’t work. Pogačar still won his 4th Tour by a margin of 4 minutes, 23 seconds. A commanding victory that never really seemed in doubt — at least from the outside.

So, the Visma question for this Tour is Now What? How does Vingegaard take his 3rd overall victory against a rival that has consistently beaten him, even when the Dane claimed his power numbers were never better.

We’re sure that Visma management and sports directors have been scheming since the day after the race ended in Paris. What strategy might they possibly try this time around?

But here’s the thing: was their strategy in the 2025 Tour really wrong? Might it be worth it to hammer Pogacar again, from the opening stage in Barcelona?

You could build a strong case for that. And it’s worth revisiting all the quotes from Pogačar at the conclusion of the Tour. Here’s a few gems worth pondering.

1 “This Tour was one of the hardest I’ve ridden, as anyone fighting for the general classification would confirm… You can’t expect me to be smiling through all 21 stages.”

2 “I ask myself why I’m still here – it’s so long these three weeks. You count the kilometres to Paris and yes, I can’t wait for it to be over.”

3 “My increasing fatigue may have been my biggest challenge this year.”

4 “I’ve started counting the years until retirement.”

5 “I’ve gone through that difficult final week of the Tour where the physical and mental drain were clear… This Tour was one of the hardest I’ve ridden.”

6 “Oh, I’m obviously tired… it’s not been [an] easy Tour. People [were] attacking me from left, right, and from day one to the end.”

From these admissions, we see that the Visma All Out War, Scorched Earth, Cage Match strategy worked. Physically and mentally, they had Pogačar on the ropes. He was perilously close to the dreaded Jour Sans. Visma just couldn’t quite crack him — but by the end of the Tour the Slovenian was entertaining the idea of early retirement.

Visma took Pogačar to his absolute limits — he was exhausted, mentally fried; he’d lost his typical joie de vivre and one of his knees was in bad shape. He probably just dodged a cold, too.

So there’s a strong argument that Visma doesn’t need to invent some new plan of attack. Then add in the one big change they did make — Vingegaard riding — and winning — the Giro D’Italia. If they’re convinced that the Italian grand tour will make him stronger — not weaker — then he’s ready to hammer on stage 1.

The counter argument to this constant aggression is that while it did wear down Pogacar — it also exhausted Vingegaard and his entire team. Everbody was on their knees in week three. And this strategy would seem even tougher to execute this year because the UAE Team Emirates XRG squad is generally seen as the strongest in the race.

Once upon a Tour, Vingegaard had Primoz Roglic to take turns working over Pogačar in the mountains. While Sepp Kuss is a powerful climber, he’s not a plan B. Meanwhile UAE has the services of an on-form Isaac Del Toro. The Mexican rider has a strong shot at the podium and will happy force Vingegaard to chase him up the Pyrenees and Alps.

So, what’s the magic strategy for Visma and Vingegaard? I have no idea. Buy every lucky charm you can find. But it’s not out of the realm of possibility, that Visma goes full gas right from the gun because that plan did work. They almost broke Pogačar and it’s worth trying again.

Careful doesn’t win this Tour de France for the Dane.