Tour de France stage 10 preview: Route map, profile and start time as GC contenders set for battle on Bastille Day
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.
Advertisement
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?
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.
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...
Route map and profile
Tour de France 2025 – stage 10 map (letour)
Tour de France 2025 – stage 10 profile (letour)
Start time
Stage 10 starts at 1.10pm local time (12.10pm BST) with an expected finish time of 5.25pm local time (4.25pm BST).
Advertisement
Prediction
In years gone by this would have been an ideal breakaway stage, packed full of climbing but not quite difficult enough for the general classification contenders to be tempted... but that's without reckoning with the marauding Tadej Pogacar.
With it being Bastille Day, the likes of Aurelien Paret-Peintre (brother Valentin is on support duty for Remco Evenepoel, which rules him out) and Valentin Madouas might be set loose in a bid for a rare French victory; the terrain is probably not tough enough for Lenny Martinez, but he might have a dig too. Kevin Vauquelin is the most in-form of the French climbers but is likely too close on GC to be allowed up the road.
Could this be one for French veteran, breakaway stalwart and fan favourite Julian Alaphilippe? Or even his fellow elder statesman Warren Barguil? One can only hope...
Advertisement
Hedging my bets here, but if it comes down to a GC battle, Oscar Onley has a fourth place and a third place to his name already on the punchier stages and is a real climber. It may yet be the young Scot who breaks French hearts - if it isn't Pogacar himself.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Vollering to keep racing at Tour de France after crash
SAUMUR, France (AP) — Former champion Demi Vollering will continue racing at the women's Tour de France despite a heavy crash that left her bruised. Her FDJ-Suez team said on Tuesday that Vollering underwent medical tests that have excluded a risk of a concussion after she hit the ground during Monday's Stage 3. Her team said Vollering, who lagged 19 seconds behind race leader Marianne Vos in the general classification, is 'determined to take the start' of Tuesday's stage from Saumur to Poitiers. Vollering fell less than four kilometers from the finish line in Angers in a crash that involved several riders. Examinations carried out by the team doctor revealed that she had suffered multiple contusions but she did not go to hospital 'given the non-urgent nature of her condition,' FDJ-Suez said. Vollering is one of the most decorated cyclists of her generation. She won the Tour de France in 2023. The nine-stage race ends Aug. 3. ___ AP sports: The Associated Press
Fox Sports
4 hours ago
- Fox Sports
Vollering to keep racing at Tour de France after crash
Associated Press SAUMUR, France (AP) — Former champion Demi Vollering will continue racing at the women's Tour de France despite a heavy crash that left her bruised. Her FDJ-Suez team said on Tuesday that Vollering underwent medical tests that have excluded a risk of a concussion after she hit the ground during Monday's Stage 3. Her team said Vollering, who lagged 19 seconds behind race leader Marianne Vos in the general classification, is 'determined to take the start' of Tuesday's stage from Saumur to Poitiers. Vollering fell less than four kilometers from the finish line in Angers in a crash that involved several riders. Examinations carried out by the team doctor revealed that she had suffered multiple contusions but she did not go to hospital 'given the non-urgent nature of her condition,' FDJ-Suez said. Vollering is one of the most decorated cyclists of her generation. She won the Tour de France in 2023. The nine-stage race ends Aug. 3. ___ AP sports: in this topic
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
He's the 'Clark Kent of pommel horse': Stephen Nedoroscik on Rubik's Cube, math videos and his nightly 700-calorie ice cream bowls
'I love a challenge.' The glasses. The contemplative breaks with his eyes closed. The one-armed spins. There's a reason why U.S. gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik emerged from the 2024 Paris Olympics with two bronze medals and a new nickname: 'Clark Kent of pommel horse.' Nedoroscik parlayed his popularity into a stint competing on Dancing With the Stars, in which he placed fourth. Touring with the show hasn't given his body much of a break, he says during our conversation for Yahoo's OT Diaries. 'As gymnasts, we always say that if you take a week off, it's going to take a month to get back in shape,' Nedoroscik tells me. 'So, taking nine months off was quite a hurdle for me. I was scared of taking that time off.' This, after all, is a guy who likes to keep his body and brain busy — the latter with math videos and Rubik's Cubes. But as he gears up for gymnastics competitions again, the bespectacled breakout star of Paris is feeling pretty good. Here's what he says about dancing, keeping his mind sharp and using ice cream to keep his weight up. What a whirlwind of a year it's been for you! After getting bronze in the Olympics, you finished fourth on . Why was that show something you wanted to pursue? It was a sort of victory lap for my success at the Olympics. So I thought to myself, I've earned this time off to dance and travel the country. One of the things that Dancing With the Stars did for me was show me that I can be confident and comfortable in environments that are not meant to be comfortable. Being able to dance in front of millions of people, a sport that I have never done before, really raised my confidence level. Not only from a viewership standpoint of people watching me while I'm working on this craft, but also from the standpoint of competition: being in the zone, staying present and being able to execute certain things that are hard for me. So I do think that it has definitely increased my confidence, and I'm hoping to be able to show that off [in gymnastics] on the world stage soon. The training is notoriously pretty rigorous. What impact would you say it had on your body? Dancing With the Stars demands a lot out of your body, and we were dancing every day for a minimum of four hours. Toward the end, we were doing eight-hour days of dance, so throughout the whole process, I stayed in shape. Not only was I working cardio, but with the lifts that we were doing, I actually gained muscle mass in my arms and legs, which was amazing to me. One of the best things about dancing was that I didn't have to support too much on my elbows or wrists. On the pommel horse, that's where we get injured. So being able to let those body parts relax a little bit was awesome. After dancing for nine months, my wrists are feeling great, and my elbows are feeling a little bit better. Were you keeping up any other fitness routines during that time? I don't usually do a whole lot of running or weightlifting or anything like that. In fact, the only thing that I really did during the Dancing With the Stars tour to stay in gymnastic shape was during our stretching sessions. I would do a few flairs, hit a couple of planches, do my minute hold of a handstand … just making sure that I was hitting those gymnastics basic conditioning elements. So that way, when I came back to the sport, I'd be feeling pretty good. I've returned to [gymnastics] training as of [May], and now that I'm back to the sport, I'm realizing that maybe the stigma around taking time off isn't true. Maybe we can take a little more time off for our bodies. Honestly, my body's feeling a lot better than it was a year ago. I'm training five days a week, slowly getting back all the skills that I was training a year ago. In fact, I'm actually pretty far ahead of where I estimated myself to be. I'll be competing this summer in August at the U.S. Championships. Gymnastics also seems to be a very mental sport. Did the time away from it feel like a reset for your mind? A year ago, I was struggling in the gym as I was chasing that Olympic dream. So over these last nine months, I've just processed a lot of feelings that I've had regarding the Olympics and the whole process leading up to it. I'm reframing it in my head and trying to keep a positive mentality, so that I can gear up for the competition this summer and hopefully the world championships in the fall. As if that wasn't enough, you've also been competing in chess and Rubik's Cube… I'm kind of like a mouse running around on that thing that spins. I feel like I can't stop. So even when I'm not doing gymnastics, I move on to my other hobbies, like Rubik's Cube or chess or video games. I always have hobbies and things that take a really long time to get better at. That's kind of what I love. Pommel horse is the same way. Chasing those marginal gains and taking years to see the progress. That's just the type of guy I am; I love a challenge. They all take a lot of focus, right? In all my hobbies, there's this aspect of staying focused and locked in to what you're doing. It's one of those skills that's transferable in almost everything, and it's gotten me a lot throughout my life. Do you have a specific approach to fueling your body or resting that allows you to stay on top of all of these physical and mental challenges? For the most part, I'm very relaxed when it comes to nutrition. … I need to make sure to get enough calories, but I never really concern myself with where those calories come from. It's kind of well-known that I eat a lot of ice cream, because I struggle to get enough in me throughout the day to not lose weight. So every night I have a 700-calorie bowl of ice cream. Sleep is another thing that I struggle with. Like I said, I keep spinning, I keep moving, and that is a problem for me when I'm trying to settle down for bed — especially when I wake up at 7 a.m. every morning for my workout. After the tour, I had to do a whole readjustment to what my schedule looked like so that I could sleep on time. I would say right now I'm averaging around seven hours of sleep a night, which isn't where I want to be. But I'm slowly chipping away at getting to bed closer and closer to the time that I'm projected to. Is there ever a time when you're doing nothing? What does an actual day off from training, dancing or cubing look like for you? I'm a pretty calm, laid-back dude. I love to just stay at home, whether that's watching a TV show or playing a video game with [my girlfriend] Tess or one of my best friends. It's kind of the day that I take for myself to sort of just charge back up for this next upcoming week. That's good to hear! Let's wrap up with a round of rapid-fire questions … Who is your No. 1 call when you have good news? That's always going to be my mom. Every time. What is your comfort watch? I love The Office. What is your guilty pleasure? It's not a guilty pleasure; it's a proud pleasure of mine: my big bowl of ice cream every night. What gives you the ick? Honestly, not a lot of things give me the ick. Actually, nothing comes to mind. Even if something is weird, I always think, Oh, that was different and kind of cool, I guess. What is something that you eat or drink every day? If I could eat a food for the rest of my life and guarantee my survival, it's going to be mint chocolate chip ice cream. One thing apart from ice cream that I always have is a lot of water. I drink, minimally, a gallon of water a day. What is your internet rabbit hole? Math videos on YouTube. It's my favorite thing ever. People will upload hour-and-a-half-long videos, and I can't wait to get home and watch the whole thing. I'll rewind it so I understand it, so sometimes it takes me three hours to get through. What is one go-to item that never leaves your bag? My inhaler because I have asthma. It's the one thing I will always triple-check I have. What song or album is your personal soundtrack right now? I've been rotating the Beatles a lot recently. What is a wellness trend that you swear by? I don't know any wellness trends. But I do snore, so maybe I should try mouth taping. Gymnastics aside, what are you best at? Cubing. I actually just broke my record last week, 7.86 seconds. What is a skill or hobby that you're trying to get good at? One of the video games I play, Rocket League. I have a lot of hours and experience and years in it. I want to get better at it, and overall, I just want to rank higher. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Solve the daily Crossword
