𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

80km to go: Visma move up, clearly wanting to control things, and Politt responds by lifting the pace before swinging off for Soler and Sivakov – who hasn’t looked great today – to take things up.

Their psychological warfare continues… and Sivakov drops away. Pogacar seems to have decided he will dictate the pace, and he asks Soler to up the pace. But now Wout van Aert takes over with a significant stretch of this climb still to come.

Up ahead, the Roglic-Gall group comes back on to Arensman and Jorgenson. The American is having a much better day than he has on every mountain stage so far.

82km to go: The Martinez group has now been swept up by the peloton, 3’11” behind the leaders, and that’s a terrible day for him. Jordan Jegat’s group has been swept up too.

Martinez is now not going to pick up points on the Madeleine, and also might find himself in the UCI sin bin for a bad sticky bottle on the Col du Glandon. His DS appeared to attempt to hand over a bottle but failed to do so, instead giving Martinez a helpful push. He might get a yellow card for that – or a disqualification if he’s very unlucky.

Either way, his dream of polka dots is disintegrating, and Arensman is on the rampage up the front.

84km to go: This lead group has completely split up on the descent, with Jorgenson and Arensman soaring off the front. They have 35 seconds on a group containing Roglic, Gall, O’Connor and Wellens, with Armirail again coming to the front. Gall of course was the last winner on Col de la Loze, in 2023.

They’ve finished that 19km descent and are now onto the Col de la Madeleine: 19.2km at 7.9% on average.

The Martinez group has completely fallen off the back on that long descent and now sits 2’18” off the pace.

This is where the attention really is. Oscar Onley is unfortunate enough to be stuck in between two Red Bull riders, who both looked strong on Mont Ventoux – Roglic in particular.

“Won’t be buying Red Bulls anymore,” Onley wrote on his Strava upload for stage 16, when the pair ganged up on him. “Not funding those attacks.”

1. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-Hansgrohe) +9:03
2. Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) +11:04
3. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-Hansgrohe) +11:42

Tadej Pogacar leads the KOM standings on countback, having picked up one more cat-one climb KOM than Lenny Martinez, who wears the jersey in his stead today.

The Frenchman has his work cut out today to get back in front. He has just picked up 20 points on top of the Col du Glandon, with another 20 available on the Col de la Madeleine, but the Col de la Loze, as Souvenir Henri Desgrange, has 40 on offer.

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 60 pts
2. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) 60 pts
3. Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) 48 pts
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) 39 pts
5. Michael Woods (Israel-PremierTech) 38 pts

105km to go: The peloton roll over the top of the climb, still led by Nils Politt, and the big German will now guide Pogacar down this long descent.

Arensman picked up 15 KOM points at the summit and that takes him up to second in the standings, three points clear of Pogacar.

19km until the foot of the Col de la Madeleine.

109km to go: Wellens has a mechanical as they hit the final few hundred metres. ITV4 speculate whether he’ll sabotage Lenny Martinez’s drive for the KOM points for his teammate Pogacar, and he latches on just in time for them to go over the top…

Arensman launches and Martinez reacts instinctively, sprinting past the Dutchman to hoover up the maximum 20 points. Part one of his job done for today.

Jackets on, it’s time for the descent.

111km to go: It’s all Visma and UAE on the front. Pogacar is in eighth wheel or so, behind two of his teammates at the very front and with a couple more for immediate company, with a phalanx of black and yellow in front of him.

The peloton is 1’58” behind, with the Jegat group – now including Mike Woods and Luke Plapp – in the middle at 58”. Will Barta has been dropped from the front group, which is being towed up these very steep slopes by the phenomenal engine of Bruno Armirail.

ITV4 have a chat with the Picnic-PostNL duo of Matt Winston and Oscar Onley. “You never know what’s going to happen on the queen stage of the Tour,” sports director Matt Winston says. “It’s been successful whatever happens today.”

Asked whether he’s growing in confidence, Oscar Onley says, “I think so. I feel like I’ve found my place in this race, and I’m more excited for these kind of stages now because I know I’m in good shape.

“There’s nothing really to lose, Roglic is close behind but after that there’s quite a big gap. It’ll be exciting against the Bora guys today. Now it’s more focusing on Roglic, Lipowitz is two minutes ahead. With the steeper sections on the final it [will be decided] less on tactics and more on legs.”

Viewers scanning the Tour de France general classification will see a mix of wholly expected names and some comparative unknowns.

Tadej Pogacar leads the standings as his era-defining dominance continues; Jonas Vingegaard sits second behind his longtime rival. But accompanying the rider sitting fourth in the overall standings is a British flag: not former Tour de France winner and veteran Geraint Thomas, but the up-and-coming youngster Oscar Onley.

The 22-year-old has been enjoying a breakout season and is in action in just his second Tour de France. He and his team came in targeting a stage win but are on course for a top-five finish at the sport’s biggest race. With every passing stage he has surpassed both his own expectations and that of all observers.

So who is Onley, and what’s behind his meteoric rise?