Stage 10

The road

At the start

Back to Le Lioran, where he lost

The rest day is behind them and Pogačar still leads Vingegaard by 2:42, Del Toro and Evenepoel around three and a half minutes down. Matteo Trentin does not start. The Massif Central offers a sawtooth 167 kilometres to Le Lioran — the same finish where, two years ago, Pogačar attacked in yellow, ran out of fuel and was beaten to the line by Vingegaard. UAE have been calling it extra motivation.

How it was won

1. 199 km to go

   Romo goes hunting points

   On the sawtooth road into the Cantal, Javier Romo forges clear alone, and over the Côte de Pailherols he begins mopping up the mountain points nobody in yellow is contesting.

2. 263 km to go

   Nine points and a lonely road

   Prat de Bouc gives Romo another summit and takes his haul to nine mountain points, but behind him the day's other escapees are already being reeled back in by UAE.

3. 331 km to go

   Carapaz jumps on the Pas de Peyrol

   The Puy Mary ends Romo's adventure and starts Carapaz's: the Ecuadorian leaps from the peloton, and the pace of UAE and Decathlon shreds the group behind to around twenty. He tips over the summit with 23 seconds — a slim lead, a long way out.

4. 424 km to go

   Carnage on the descent

   Carapaz picks his own lines with nobody to worry about; the chasers are not so lucky. Pidcock, his teammate Chris Harper and Vingegaard's lieutenant Matteo Jorgenson all hit the deck, and the survivors err on the side of caution.

5. 515 km to go

   Yellow erases a minute in a kilometre

   Carapaz starts the Col de Pertus 1:15 clear, Piganzoli lifts the tempo, and then Pogačar launches just over a kilometre from the top. Nobody reacts, nobody can. The blur of yellow crosses a 48-second gap, catches the Ecuadorian and is past him before the summit.

6. 63 km to go

   Forty seconds at Font de Cère

   Vingegaard leads the chase 16 seconds down at the foot of the last drag; over the top it is forty. Carapaz is caught and dropped, Evenepoel comes out the back with him, and the stage is settled before the final descent.

7. 7At the line

   Le Lioran, and a third stage win

   Pogačar drops down to Le Lioran alone for his third victory of the race, Evenepoel finding a second wind to sprint past Seixas and leapfrog Del Toro on GC.

The result