𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

We say the race enters the mountains – they are really just big hills, given we are in the Massif and not in the Pyreenees or the Alps. But however you slice it, there are 4,450m of elevation gain to be surmounted today, the toughest day of the race so far, featuring a whopping eight categorised climbs: seven cat-twos and only one cat-three, all packed into 165km of racing.

“I think for sure there will be GC action on a very, very hard day,” said Jonas Vingegaard after stage 9. “It’s a really hard course, up and down the whole day.”

He teammate Matteo Jorgensen agreed. “The first mountains we’ve seen in the Tour de France, which is always a big explosion. And we’ll see big, big time gaps.”

The last is a summit finish at le Mont-Dore, Puy de Sancy, a 3.3km climb averaging 8%, a biting finish to a really punchy day in the saddle. Can the French riders seal a memorable Bastille Day victory? They’ll have to get past the GC men first…

Saturday and Sunday saw the sprinters take the spotlight, with Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier winning stages 8 and 9. Despite plenty of nerves and tension in the peloton, there were no shifts in the top 10 of the GC standings, although Tadej Pogacar suffered a blow in the form his talented teammate Joao Almeida abandoning the race after sustaining a broken rib in a late crash on stage 7.

The first mountain joust of this year’s race falls, fittingly, on Bastille Day, with the necessity of racing on the French national holiday ensuring that the Tour’s first rest day – almost always on the second Monday – has been pushed back to Tuesday. That means there will be some extra-tired legs in the bunch at the start line in Ennezat; the question is, which of the riders will suffer, and who will rise to the top?

Hello and welcome along to live coverage of what promises to be a huge day in the 2025 Tour de France – as this year’s race finally reaches the mountains.